Asset Strategy

---
name: asset-strategy
description: "Route any 'I need a [thing]' asset request to the right skill: 2D, 3D, audio, video, VFX or animation."
license: MIT
compatibility: [Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Codex]
category: asset-pipeline
user-invocable: false
allowed-tools: Read Grep Skill summer_assets_search summer_assets_get summer_import_asset_by_id summer_call
---

# Asset Strategy — Meta-Router for Asset Creation

Classify the user's request, ask at most one clarifying question, then dispatch to the right specialist via the `Skill` tool. Don't generate anything yourself — every media-type/asset-class combination has a dedicated specialist that owns the prompt patterns, polycount targets, gates, and fallbacks. Your job is the routing decision, not the work.

## Step 1 — Classify by media type

| Signal in user request | Continue at |
|---|---|
| image, art, concept, portrait, icon, sprite, texture, skybox, HUD | 2D table |
| model, mesh, 3D, prop, character, rigged, vehicle, tree, level kit | 3D table |
| sound, SFX, music, ambient, voice, VO | Audio table |
| cutscene, trailer, loop video, animated background | Video table |
| animation, idle, walk, attack, retarget, blend tree, IK, lipsync | Animation table |
| fire, muzzle flash, smoke, lightning, shake, hit-stop, particles | VFX table |

If the request spans rows ("a witch with idle and a fire spell"), classify the **first** asset and dispatch — the specialist hands off when it's done.

## Step 2 — Disambiguate (one question max)

Ask the **exact phrase** before dispatching. Skipping the question is the most common routing mistake.

| Ambiguity | Disambiguation question (verbatim) | Routes |
|---|---|---|
| Concept art vs character portrait | "Quick check — exploring the look (3-4 variants for art direction) or generating a final character portrait for dialogue UI?" | `concept-art` (exploring) / `character-portrait` (final) |
| Prop vs character model | "Static object (sword, chair, lantern) or rigged character that needs animation?" | `prop-model` / `character-model` |
| Tile vs sprite sheet | "One seamless tile that repeats, or a frame grid for an animated sprite?" | `tileable-texture` / `sprite-sheet` |
| SFX vs music | "One-shot effect or a longer track (loop, theme, ambient bed)?" | `sound-effect` / `music-track` (or `ambient-bed`) |
| Generate vs retarget motion | "Generate a new clip on this character, or apply an existing library to a new character?" | `generate-motion` / `retarget` |
| VFX recipe vs game-feel | "Particle/shader effect in the world or screen-feel (camera shake, hit-stop)?" | `vfx-<name>` / `game-feel` |

## Step 3 — Dispatch

Invoke the specialist via the `Skill` tool. Don't paraphrase — let it run. Pass the user's original phrasing through.

## Routing tables

### 2D assets

| Request | Skill |
|---|---|
| Concept / mood board / variants | `concept-art` |
| Polished portrait / NPC bust | `character-portrait` |
| Pixel sprite / retro icon | `pixel-art` |
| HUD / button / inventory frame | `ui-graphics` |
| Wall / floor / seamless ground | `tileable-texture` |
| Run cycle / spritesheet grid | `sprite-sheet` |
| 360 sky / panoramic background | `skybox-panorama` |

### 3D assets

| Request | Skill |
|---|---|
| Sword / chair / barrel / static object | `prop-model` |
| Player / NPC / enemy / boss / rigged humanoid | `character-model` (generated mesh + auto-rig) |
| Modular dungeon / building blocks | `environment-kit` |
| Car / spaceship / hard-surface vehicle | `vehicle-model` |
| Tree / rock / mushroom / foliage | `organic-model` |

Polycount targets (hero 8k–15k, grunt 3k–6k, mobile 1k–3k, cinematic 20k–40k) live in each specialist.

### Audio

| Request | Skill |
|---|---|
| Sword clash / footstep / UI click | `sound-effect` |
| Theme / level music / boss track | `music-track` |
| Forest ambience / cave drone | `ambient-bed` |
| NPC line / VO / spoken dialogue | `voice-line` |
| Music that reacts to combat | `adaptive-music` |
| What should this game sound like | `audio-direction` |

### Animation

| Request | Skill |
|---|---|
| Idle / walk / run / attack — new clip | `generate-motion` |
| Custom action or non-humanoid rig (flower, creature, prop) — clip from text | `text-to-motion` |
| Apply library to a different character | `retarget` |
| Blend tree / state machine | `animation-tree` |
| Look-at / IK / foot placement | `procedural-animation` |
| Lipsync / facial blendshapes | `facial-and-lipsync` |

### Video

| Request | Skill |
|---|---|
| Intro cutscene / story sequence | `cinematic-cutscene` |
| Steam trailer / marketing clip | `trailer-shot` |
| Animated menu background / loop | `animated-loop` |

### Visual effects

VFX is **code, not generative** — recipes are shader + GDScript + node setup, not image generation.

| Request | Skill |
|---|---|
| Fire / torch / campfire | `vfx-fire` |
| Muzzle flash / gunshot | `vfx-muzzle-flash` |
| Water ripple / splash | `vfx-water-ripple` |
| Lightning / electric arc | `vfx-lightning` |
| Dissolve / disintegrate | `vfx-dissolve` |
| Smoke / dust puff | `vfx-smoke` |
| Hit spark / impact flash | `vfx-hit-spark` |
| Magic glow / aura | `vfx-magic-glow` |
| Camera shake / hit-stop | `game-feel` |

## How the specialists call Summer

The specialists name Summer's asset work by operation. A call written `area.action({...})` is one operation: use the tool `summer_area_action` when your client lists it, else `summer_call({ op: "area.action", input: {...} })`. `summer_search` finds any operation and its exact input.

- **Find and read:** `assets.search({ query, scope })` (`scope`: `library` (default), `mine` for their own, `all`), then `assets.get({ assetId })` for the file, `downloadUrl` and `viewerUrl`. Reuse before generating.
- **Generate:** `assets.generate_image`, `assets.generate_3d`, `assets.generate_audio`, `assets.generate_video`, `assets.generate_motion`, `assets.generate_sfx_choices` (then `assets.choices` for the person's picks). They spend the person's credits; `dryRun: true` returns the estimate (`credits`, `balance`, `enough`) and makes nothing.
- **Wait:** 3D, video and animation answer at once with a job; `jobs.wait({ jobId, timeoutSeconds: 50 })` until `finished`, and the finished job's `result` holds the asset ids.
- **Save on this machine:** with the local Summer MCP or the CLI, `out` (a folder or a file path) on a generate call, `jobs.wait` or `assets.get` saves the file there, and the answer adds `localPath`.
- **Edit their assets:** `assets.remove_background`, `assets.slice_sheet`, `assets.update` (title, description, tags, private or team), `assets.make_public` (lists one for everyone in Summer's asset store), `assets.delete` (deletes for good; asks the person unless they let their agent delete, and then nothing is deleted until they confirm).
- **Permissions:** The person decides once what their agent may do: publishing (including `assets.make_public`), spending and building run at once by default, and deleting for good asks. An operation whose group they have not granted answers `needs_approval` with a link: give the link to the person, then `jobs.wait` on the `apr:` job.
- **Upload an image from disk:** `assets.upload_begin`, then `assets.upload_complete`.
- **One-shot makers:** `makers.<tool>` (for example `makers.npc_voice`, `makers.trailer_forge`); `summer_search` lists them.

## When NOT to use this skill

- The user already named the specific skill — go straight there.
- The user is debugging or running the game — route to `debug` or `play`.
- The asset is an existing Summer asset ID — call `assets.get({ assetId })`, then `summer_import_asset_by_id`.
- The asset is being imported from a non-Summer URL (`.glb` / `.wav` from Sketchfab, Quaternius, AmbientCG) — call `summer_import_from_url` directly.
- The user wants to plan the whole game's asset list — `brainstorm-game` first, then this router on each item.

## Anti-patterns

- **Generating yourself instead of dispatching.** This file holds zero prompt patterns by design. If you're writing an `assets.generate_image` call from here, stop and invoke the specialist.
- **Skipping the disambiguation question.** Sends users to the wrong specialist and burns a paid generation. The verbatim phrasing in Step 2 is required.
- **Routing concept-art to character-portrait** (or the reverse). Different goals: concept-art produces 4 divergent variants for art direction; character-portrait produces 1 polished bust for dialogue UI.
- **Inventing skill names.** Only dispatch to skills listed above. If nothing fits, ask the user to clarify.
- **Routing rigged-humanoid requests to `prop-model`.** Anything that needs animation always goes to `character-model`.

## Without Summer Engine

In a session without Summer Engine tools (the assets profile; the `summer-assets` skill has the whole loop), the routing tables still pick the skill. Leave out every step that imports (`summer_import_asset_by_id`, `summer_import_from_url`): deliver the file with `out` instead (the `summer-assets` skill says how).

## Fallback (no MCP)

The router still works without MCP — classification is text-only. It hands off to the specialist, which surfaces its own no-MCP fallback (typically: run the same generation in the Summer dashboard, then `summer_import_from_url` once MCP is back).

<!-- shell-commands: generated from the operation catalog by npm run generate:registry; do not edit by hand -->
## From a shell

No Summer MCP tools in this session? Run each one as a command; when `summer --version` is missing or below 4.0, use `npx -y summer-engine@4.3.0` in place of `summer`. Fields are flags in kebab-case (`--scene-path res://main.tscn`) or one `--input '<json>'`, and `summer ops describe <op>` prints the exact input. The `summer-cli` skill has the rest.

| In this skill | Command |
|---|---|
| `assets.choices` | `summer assets choices` |
| `assets.delete` | `summer assets delete` |
| `assets.generate_3d` | `summer assets generate-3d` |
| `assets.generate_audio` | `summer assets generate-audio` |
| `assets.generate_image` | `summer assets generate-image` |
| `assets.generate_motion` | `summer assets generate-motion` |
| `assets.generate_sfx_choices` | `summer assets generate-sfx-choices` |
| `assets.generate_video` | `summer assets generate-video` |
| `assets.get`, `summer_assets_get` | `summer assets get` |
| `assets.remove_background` | `summer assets remove-background` |
| `assets.search`, `summer_assets_search` | `summer assets search` |
| `assets.slice_sheet` | `summer assets slice-sheet` |
| `assets.update` | `summer assets update` |
| `assets.upload_begin` | `summer assets upload-begin` |
| `assets.upload_complete` | `summer assets upload-complete` |
| `summer_import_asset_by_id` | `summer engine import-asset-by-id` |
| `summer_import_from_url` | `summer engine import-from-url` |
| `jobs.wait` | `summer jobs wait` |
| `makers.npc_voice` | `summer makers npc-voice` |
| `makers.trailer_forge` | `summer makers trailer-forge` |
| `summer_search` | `summer ops search "<what you want>"` |
<!-- /shell-commands -->