image-router

Image Router

Read this skill first and alone for every image creation or revision request. Return a locked route before reading any other ImageStudio skill; do not batch this read with craft, canvas, production, or review skills.

For a clear zero-input poster or social graphic, routine canvas and export choices are low-risk defaults: choose them without asking and state the chosen defaults in the delivery. Ask only when a missing choice changes subject, required copy, brand fidelity, reference intent, paid budget, or final format.

Before routing any request with a supplied image, classify the user's relationship to that image. An explicit user requirement always wins. Only when the user did not specify the relationship may ImageStudio infer a default:

• reproduce: make the result match the declared composition/content/style attributes of the reference.
• edit: treat one required edit_source as the original and change only the requested attributes or regions.
• guide: use only the declared roles as guidance while allowing the stated changes. This is the safe default for an otherwise unspecified reference.

Record this as reference_intent:{mode,basis:"user|inferred",instructions,minimum_score}. Use basis:"user" when the mode or constraint comes from the user's words and basis:"inferred" only for a fallback. A requested source edit implies edit; an explicit match/recreate/restore request implies reproduce; an otherwise unspecified reference defaults to guide. If instructions combine editing with strong preservation, keep mode edit and place the user's exact preservation requirements in the protected boundary. The intent is about the requested outcome, never about which app or technique produced the reference.

Route selection

• Choose COMPOSE when typography, diagrams, charts, abstract geometry, cards, covers, posters, social graphics, simple illustrations, or brand layouts can be expressed faithfully with HTML/CSS/SVG. This route uses zero image-generation calls.
• Choose HYBRID when one photographic, painterly, character, or textured raster asset is needed but exact copy, layout, logo placement, or labels should remain deterministic in HTML/SVG. The normal budget is one generated raster asset per user turn.
• Choose GENERATE when the desired output is primarily photographic, cinematic, painterly, character-led, or otherwise depends on synthesized pixels. The normal budget per user turn is one call. Allow a second billable call only when the user explicitly requests iterative refinement or authorizes another attempt; a visual finding by itself is not authorization.
• Choose EDIT when the user supplied a raster image and requested a semantic pixel change that HTML overlays cannot accomplish. The manifest must use reference_intent.mode:"edit", name a required edit_source, list the exact instructions, and preserve every unaffected region.
• Distinguish HYBRID from EDIT by the final artifact contract, not merely by the presence of a supplied photo. A poster or layout that keeps a supplied product/subject image as an immutable foreground layer, generates a separate background asset, and places exact copy/logo deterministically is HYBRID. Use EDIT only when the final raster remains the supplied source canvas and pixels inside that source must be semantically reconstructed, such as replacing a portrait background in place.
• A reproduce request does not force EDIT: choose COMPOSE, HYBRID, or GENERATE according to the visual material required to reproduce the declared attributes.