Soviet Storybook Grotesque

What it does

When your agent uses it

• The user asks to turn a photo into an unsettling old childrens book illustration
• 1980s Eastern European illustration
• Weird Soviet cartoon book art
• Grotesque watercolor storybook art

Example prompts

• “/soviet-storybook-grotesque”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Check for a source photo or image. If none is present, ask the user to provide one.
2. 2Identify only the visual anchors needed from the photo: subject count, broad pose, main action, key clothing, props, and obvious setting.
3. 3Use an image-generation or image-editing model with the photo as the visual reference. Preserve the source's basic subject roles and…
4. 4Add a short absurd English caption inside the image unless the user explicitly asks for no text. Make it clumsy, handwritten, confusingly…
5. 5Review the result against the negative constraints. If it looks polished, cute, modern, realistic, decorative, or too detailed, regenerate…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 950e1bf. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Soviet Storybook Grotesque loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 192 tokens; SKILL.md has 414 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~192

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from agentara/skills at commit 950e1bf, republished under its MIT licence (© agentara). 414 words, ~1,281 tokens.

name

soviet-storybook-grotesque

description

Transform a user-provided photo or image into a strange vintage Soviet or Eastern European children's book illustration with grotesque humorous cartoon energy, shaky ink, faded watercolor, dirty paper texture, awkward anatomy, nervous absurd expressions, sparse composition, and an absurd handwritten English rhyme. Use this skill when the user asks to turn a photo into an unsettling old children's book illustration, 1980s Eastern European illustration, weird Soviet cartoon book art, grotesque watercolor storybook art, or clumsy absurd illustrated caption style. Do NOT trigger for polished fantasy art, cute children's illustration, modern vector art, realistic portraits, anime, clean editorial illustration, or generic vintage filters.

The uncle ate thunder, the teapot said soon,
my left shoe saluted a boiled little moon.

Three knees for breakfast, one hat for the rain,
the window forgot how to whisper again.

Transform the attached photo into a strange vintage Soviet / Eastern European children's book illustration from the 1980s. Preserve the basic subject count, pose, action, and key props from the photo, but redraw everything as an intentionally clumsy grotesque cartoon.

Use thin shaky black ink lines, awkward anatomy, elongated limbs, weird proportions, stiff hands, nervous uncomfortable facial expressions, chaotic movement, and ridiculous absurd energy. Make it funny and slightly unsettling rather than cute. Use pale faded watercolor washes, dirty yellowed paper texture, uneven coloring, washed-out muted colors, rough old-print texture, careless sketchy linework, and lots of empty space.

Keep the background minimal and random, with a few small strange doodles or crooked irrelevant details. Do not make it polished, aesthetic, modern, cute, detailed, realistic, glossy, cinematic, anime, vector, or clean.

Add a clumsy handwritten English caption inside the illustration: "[ABSURD RHYMING CAPTION]". The lettering should look shaky, uneven, and hand-drawn as part of the old illustration.

© agentara, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/aigc/soviet-storybook-grotesque of agentara/skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 950e1bf