@pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist 0.1.3 → 0.1.4

package/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,6 +4,34 @@ All notable changes to this project are documented here. Format follows
 [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/); versioning is
 [semver](https://semver.org/).
 
+## [0.1.4] — 2026-09-08
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **GIF export waited for a click nobody was there to give.** Aseprite warns
+  once per session that GIF cannot hold everything a sprite can, and no save API
+  declines it. From outside it did not look like a prompt at all: a modal pumps
+  events while it waits, so every other command kept answering and only the
+  export appeared to hang. It is now suppressed for the duration of the export
+  and handed straight back, so File ▸ Save As keeps whatever the user chose.
+- 0.1.3 tried to fix this with `SaveFileCopyAs{ui = false}`. That flag does not
+  govern this dialog. GIF export now converts a throwaway copy to indexed
+  instead of leaving the conversion to a prompt — and on a copy, because doing
+  it in place would silently change the colour mode of the document being
+  worked in.
+
+### Added
+
+- `export` op `gif` honours `scale`. A browser scaling a 128px GIF up smooths
+  it, and smoothed pixel art is ruined pixel art; exporting big keeps the pixels
+  square wherever the file is shown.
+
+### Known
+
+- The first GIF export in an Aseprite session costs 20-30 seconds — measured
+  20.6s, then 435ms for the identical export straight after. Something warms up
+  once. The 120s export budget from 0.1.3 covers it.
+
 ## [0.1.3] — 2026-09-08
 
 ### Fixed

package/README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 <div align="center">
 
+<img src="docs/media/hero.gif" alt="A pixel robot paints a mushroom house, stroke by stroke" width="512">
+
 # Aseprite AI Artist
 
 **Let a coding agent draw pixel art in your open Aseprite window** — not in a
@@ -9,6 +11,10 @@ copy, not on disk, in the document you are looking at.
 [![CI](https://github.com/with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/with-pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
 [![licence](https://img.shields.io/badge/licence-MIT-blue)](LICENSE)
 
+*Forty frames, one 16-colour palette, drawn by Codex through this server in a
+live Aseprite window — silhouette, flats, hue-shifted shading, then the lights
+come on. Nobody touched a pixel by hand.*
+
 </div>
 
 ---
@@ -110,8 +116,12 @@ that surprises people:
   32×32 grid is a spatial problem: the model has to hold a coordinate frame in
   its head, keep a silhouette readable at that size, and notice when a shape has
   gone wrong. Turn reasoning up before you blame the tool.
-- **Codex CLI on a high-reasoning setting is the best drawer we have used**,
-  working from a brief and the rulebook alone.
+- **Codex CLI on a high-reasoning setting is the best drawer we have used** — it
+  drew the animation at the top of this page and the mascot below, working from
+  a brief and the rulebook alone.
+
+  <img src="docs/media/mascot.png" alt="The mascot" width="96">
+
 - **Claude Code is the better planner and critic.** Palette construction, rig
   layout, animation timing and the review pass come out noticeably stronger;
   raw pixel placement at small canvas sizes is weaker.

package/extension/ai-artist.lua

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 local PROTOCOL_VERSION = 1
-local EXTENSION_VERSION = "0.1.3"
+local EXTENSION_VERSION = "0.1.4"
 
 -- Optional capabilities. The wire version stays 1 across builds; new command
 -- families are gated on these flags plus the loud unsupported_command reply,
@@ -2210,17 +2210,66 @@ H["export.run"] = function(args)
       out:close()
       files[#files + 1] = path
 
-    elseif op == "gif" or op == "aseprite" then
-      -- NOT Sprite:saveCopyAs. Writing an RGB sprite to GIF needs a colour
-      -- quantisation the UI asks about, and that dialog has no `ui` switch to
-      -- turn off from the sprite method — the call simply never returns. It
-      -- looks like a hang rather than a prompt, because the dialog pumps events
-      -- while it waits, so every other command keeps answering normally.
-      -- Headless tests never see it: `aseprite -b` has no dialogs at all.
-      preserving_site(function()
-        app.sprite = s
-        app.command.SaveFileCopyAs{ ui = false, filename = path }
+    elseif op == "aseprite" then
+      s:saveCopyAs(path)
+      files[#files + 1] = path
+
+    elseif op == "gif" then
+      -- GIF holds 256 indexed colours, so writing an RGB sprite to one needs a
+      -- quantisation — and Aseprite asks a human how to do it. Neither
+      -- Sprite:saveCopyAs nor SaveFileCopyAs{ui = false} declines that dialog;
+      -- the export simply waits, forever if nobody is watching the screen. It
+      -- does not even look like a prompt from the outside: a modal dialog pumps
+      -- events while it waits, so every other command keeps answering normally
+      -- and only the export appears stuck.
+      --
+      -- So do the conversion here, on a throwaway copy, and hand Aseprite a
+      -- sprite it has nothing left to ask about. The copy keeps the sprite's
+      -- own palette, which is the point of a palette-first tool: the colours
+      -- that come back are the colours the artist chose.
+      --
+      -- Headless tests cannot catch a regression here — `aseprite -b` has no
+      -- dialogs at all, so the broken version passed them.
+      -- `scale` matters more here than for a still: a browser scaling a 128px
+      -- GIF up smooths it, and smoothed pixel art is ruined pixel art. Exporting
+      -- big means the pixels stay square wherever the file is shown.
+      local scale = args.scale or 1
+
+      -- Aseprite warns, once per session, that GIF cannot hold everything a
+      -- sprite can — and waits for a click. Nothing in the save API declines
+      -- it, and from the outside it does not even look like a prompt: a modal
+      -- pumps events while it waits, so every other command keeps answering and
+      -- only the export appears to hang, forever, on a machine nobody is
+      -- watching. Silence it for the duration and hand it back, so the user's
+      -- own File > Save As keeps whatever they chose.
+      local restore_alert = nil
+      pcall(function()
+        restore_alert = app.preferences.gif.show_alert
+        app.preferences.gif.show_alert = false
       end)
+
+      local ok, err = pcall(function()
+        if s.colorMode == ColorMode.INDEXED and scale == 1 then
+          s:saveCopyAs(path)
+        else
+          preserving_site(function()
+            local copy = Sprite(s)
+            app.sprite = copy
+            if scale > 1 then copy:resize(s.width * scale, s.height * scale) end
+            if copy.colorMode ~= ColorMode.INDEXED then
+              app.command.ChangePixelFormat{ ui = false, format = "indexed" }
+            end
+            copy:saveCopyAs(path)
+            copy:close()
+          end)
+        end
+      end)
+
+      if restore_alert ~= nil then
+        pcall(function() app.preferences.gif.show_alert = restore_alert end)
+      end
+      if not ok then error(err, 0) end
+
       files[#files + 1] = path
 
     elseif op == "frames" then

package/extension/package.json

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   "name": "aseprite-ai-artist",
   "displayName": "Aseprite AI Artist",
   "description": "Lets a coding agent draw in this Aseprite session over a local WebSocket link. Connects to 127.0.0.1 only; nothing leaves the machine.",
-  "version": "0.1.3",
+  "version": "0.1.4",
   "author": "with-pebbly",
   "publisher": "with-pebbly",
   "license": "MIT",

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@pebbly/aseprite-ai-artist",
-  "version": "0.1.3",
+  "version": "0.1.4",
   "description": "Agent-native control layer for Aseprite. MCP server (2025-11-25 spec, designed forward to 2026-07-28) + cross-agent skills for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and Cursor.",
   "license": "MIT",
   "type": "module",