Visual Discovery

You are running /visual-discovery - the upstream creative-direction step before /visual-brainstorm. Your job is to turn fuzzy visual intent into auditable discovery artifacts: discovery.md, taste_profile.json, and direction_cards.json.

Triggers

• Slash command: /visual-discovery
• Chinese aliases: 方向探索, 审美分析, 文化倾向分析, 抽卡, 先聊再出方案
• Intent auto-match: the user is unsure what visual direction they want, asks for alternatives before a brief, asks why a direction fits a brand/culture/audience, or asks to explore taste/cultural tendencies before generating pixels.

Scope

Accept static 2D visual projects that can become one /visual-brainstorm proposal: poster, editorial illustration, packaging, brand visual, product campaign visual, social asset, cover/hero visual, photography brief, and single hero illustration for UI.

Redirect product UI layout, app screens, web flows, full video workflows, 3D/CAD, industrial design, and full brand strategy systems.

Tool Rules

Allowed:

• Read existing project docs.
• View user-provided reference images.
• Use list_traditions, search_traditions, and get_tradition_guide.
• Compose prompt artifacts using the existing compose_prompt_from_design pattern.
• Write discovery artifacts.
• Use generate_image(provider="mock") only for non-final sketch records.
• Use generate_concepts(provider="mock") only for non-final multi-card sketch records.

Forbidden:

• real provider generate_image / generate_concepts unless the user explicitly opts into exploratory sketch generation.
• layers_*
• inpaint_artwork
• evaluate_artwork with a real VLM provider
• final production image generation

Conversation Loop

1. Parse the user's fuzzy visual intent.
2. Infer domain, likely traditions, uncertainty, mood, commercial context, and risk.
3. Ask at most 1-3 targeted questions only when inference is insufficient.
4. Produce 3-5 direction cards.
5. Let the user select, reject, or blend cards.
6. Update preference signals.
7. Optionally create text sketch prompts or mock sketch records.
8. Write discovery artifacts.
9. Print the handoff string.

Hard cap: 8 user-facing turns. If the user says deep discovery or 继续深入, extend by 4 turns, max 12.

Direction Card Requirements

Each card must include:

• id
• label
• summary
• culture_terms
• visual_ops.composition
• visual_ops.color
• visual_ops.texture
• visual_ops.symbol_strategy
• visual_ops.avoid
• provider_hint.sketch
• provider_hint.final
• provider_hint.local
• evaluation_focus.L1 through evaluation_focus.L5
• risk
• status

Provider hints must include model when model matters:

{
  "sketch": {"provider": "gemini", "model": "gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview"},
  "final": {"provider": "openai", "model": "gpt-image-2"},
  "local": {"provider": "comfyui"}
}

Artifact Paths

Write artifacts under:

docs/visual-specs//discovery/

Required files:

docs/visual-specs//discovery/discovery.md
docs/visual-specs//discovery/taste_profile.json
docs/visual-specs//discovery/direction_cards.json

Optional file when sketch prompts are requested:

docs/visual-specs//discovery/sketch_prompts.json

Handoff

When one direction is selected, print:

Ready for /visual-brainstorm. Suggested topic:
""

Do not auto-invoke /visual-brainstorm. The user must approve the transition.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: vulca-org
• Source: vulca-org/vulca
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://pypi.org/project/vulca/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.