Pixelbolt v0.9.1

0.9.1

A browser playground and recipes you can share, renders that check themselves against what was asked for, thicker and livelier fluids, moving scene lights, and an MCP server that stops a runaway call instead of hanging on it.

• Playground: try Pixelbolt in the browser with nothing installed. A share link carries the recipe inside the link, and every PNG the playground exports carries its recipe, so it reopens. pixelbolt share, --embed-recipe and MCP share and embedRecipe do the same from the command line and the server.
• Renders check themselves: pixel_render and pixelbolt render report each frame's size, the frames and loops, colours and transparency. Given expect, they name every file that misses what was asked for, with the call that fixes it.
• GIFs at the size you drew: GIFs keep the frames' own size; a 32×32 animation used to come out 256×256. Pass scale to enlarge one for posting.
• Fluids: thick liquids and gases (viscosity, yield, adhesion, apic), smooth obstacles that liquids slide down, obstacles and liquid settings that change on cue (keys), bursts in mid-air, thrown dust, decorations the fluid ignores, per-frame figures, and warnings for setups that make nothing. createLiveFluid runs an effect a frame at a time for interactive pages. Seven new presets: honey, slime, snow off a roof, dam break, dust wave, bursting slime and honey let-go.
• Particle effects: ring and line spawn shapes, sparks that face their direction of travel, colour stages over a life, child emitters (trails, and bursts where a particle ends or lands), eased timing, and cue points for game code.
• Scenes: lights that follow a placement or a point, flicker, and flash on cues; lit: false keeps fires and lamps in their own colours.
• Figures in motion: bone and mass parts, six motion templates, and motion review for foot slide, ground error and loop seams.
• Less for agents to read: the tool listing is about 20 KB instead of 133 KB, and pixel_help returns a 7 KB quick start, with the longer guides as topics.
• A sturdier MCP server: each tool call runs in a worker thread and is stopped after 50 seconds (--time-limit changes this) or when it runs out of memory, with an error that says so, and the server keeps serving. A video sequence from one call may come to at most 512 MB.
• Fixes: a scene placement's repeat draws every copy again; --force re-exports remove an earlier export's leftover frames and never write over their own recipe; nothing passes through thin fluid obstacles; GIF holes stay clear in Pillow and ffmpeg; H.264 exports keep every colour.
• Claude Code plugin: claude plugin install pixelbolt --marketplace skulitom/Pixelbolt installs the MCP server and the pixel art skill.

The full list of changes is in CHANGELOG.md.

The bundle keeps its 0.8.0 name, pixelbolt.mcpb (checksum pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256). The pixelforge command still works as an alias.

pixelbolt.mcpb contains the local Node.js MCP server, its eight tools, schemas and authoring help. The server makes no network requests.

Download pixelbolt.mcpb and open it in Claude Desktop, or use Settings -> Extensions -> install from file. Choose a workspace for recipes and generated artwork, then ask the agent to call pixel_help. The bundle uses the client's Node.js runtime (20 or newer); it does not include Node.js.

Download pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256 beside the bundle to check its SHA-256:

sha256sum --check pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256
gh attestation verify pixelbolt.mcpb --repo skulitom/Pixelbolt --signer-workflow skulitom/Pixelbolt/.github/workflows/release.yml

On PowerShell, (Get-FileHash pixelbolt.mcpb -Algorithm SHA256).Hash should match the hash in the checksum file.

The GitHub release makes the bundle available immediately. MCP Registry publication is a separate, manually dispatched step after testing; see Publishing.

What's Changed

• [compass] Live fluids: createLiveFluid steps a fluid effect a frame at a time by @skulitom in #20
• [compass] Remove dead code: unread values in the fluid compiler and its lab by @skulitom in #21
• [compass] Every product installs as a Claude Code plugin: Pixelbolt's plugin, eval suite, tool titles and when-to-use instructions by @skulitom in #22
• [compass] Security: report vulnerabilities privately through GitHub by @skulitom in #23
• [compass] Directory listing: .cmd launchers stored as CRLF (-text), and the plugin icon by @skulitom in #24
• [compass] Skill: quick effects first (compile a fluid preset, render, then tune) by @skulitom in #25
• [compass] Dockerfile: run the MCP server in a container (Docker MCP Catalog) by @skulitom in #26
• [compass] Docs: link the dated Pixel FX Designer alternatives comparison by @skulitom in #27
• [compass] Every product installs as a Claude Code plugin: the Pixelbolt eval mock matches the real formats by @skulitom in #28
• [compass] Pixelbolt Studio: leave AGENTS.md and llms.txt out of the portable build by @skulitom in #29
• [compass] Clean up tests: eight fewer CLI and MCP processes per run by @skulitom in #31
• [compass] Remove dead code: unread values in the figure, fx and GIF code by @skulitom in #32
• [compass] Fix: GIFs came out enlarged by default, so a 32x32 GIF request got 256x256 frames by @skulitom in #33
• [compass] Feature: Release publishes to npm with trusted publishing, no token or OTP by @skulitom in #35
• [compass] Clean up tests: hero compile and render budgets as warmed medians (P-006) by @skulitom in #36
• [compass] A browser playground: live render, exports, share links and PNGs that reopen (+ P-003) by @skulitom in #37
• [compass] Opt-in share links and recipes inside PNGs from the CLI and MCP server by @skulitom in #38
• [compass] Feature: renders check themselves against what the user asked for by @skulitom in #34
• [compass] Pixelbolt's playground live: a README "Try it" link by @skulitom in #40

Full Changelog: v0.9.0...v0.9.1

Pixelbolt v0.9.0

0.9.0

Fluid effects. A new source format, pixelforge-fluid, runs a small fluid simulation and bakes every frame into palette pixels: smoke, fire, steam, explosions, magic swirls, splashes, waterfalls, drips and a bubbling potion. The result is an ordinary editable recipe, so it inspects, patches and exports like any other, and it never uses a colour outside the palette. Loops are seamless, and the same source gives the same pixels on every machine and in the browser.

• Liquids can throw spray and foam off the water by their own motion (whitewater), and an emitter can fade toward its rim (falloff) or orbit in an ellipse.
• Ten presets in examples/*.fluid.json, polished after an art review; each compiles in well under a second.
• pixelbolt compile, preview and sequence accept fluid sources; MCP pixel_compile compiles them, and pixel_help with topic: "fluid" returns the schema.
• The studio's Fluid lab (/fluid.html) tunes a preset in the browser and downloads the GIF, sprite sheet, recipe or source.
• The guide is the "Fluid effects" section of docs/art-workflow.md; the full list of changes is in CHANGELOG.md.

The bundle keeps its 0.8.0 name, pixelbolt.mcpb (checksum pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256). The pixelforge command still works as an alias.

pixelbolt.mcpb contains the local Node.js MCP server, its eight tools, schemas and authoring help. The server makes no network requests.

Download pixelbolt.mcpb and open it in Claude Desktop, or use Settings -> Extensions -> install from file. Choose a workspace for recipes and generated artwork, then ask the agent to call pixel_help. The bundle uses the client's Node.js runtime (20 or newer); it does not include Node.js.

Download pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256 beside the bundle to check its SHA-256:

sha256sum --check pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256
gh attestation verify pixelbolt.mcpb --repo skulitom/Pixelbolt --signer-workflow skulitom/Pixelbolt/.github/workflows/release.yml

On PowerShell, (Get-FileHash pixelbolt.mcpb -Algorithm SHA256).Hash should match the hash in the checksum file.

The GitHub release makes the bundle available immediately. MCP Registry publication is a separate, manually dispatched step after testing; see Publishing.

What's Changed

• [compass] Remove dead code: unreachable definitions in the poses, autotile and fx schemas by @skulitom in #14
• [compass] Every product easy to find and understand on GitHub: Pixelbolt's top block, translations, llms.txt and tool descriptions by @skulitom in #15
• [compass] Docs: link the dated pixel art and sprite MCP server comparison by @skulitom in #16
• [compass] Clean up tests: cheaper pixel comparisons in the GIF and scene shot tests by @skulitom in #17
• [compass] Pixelbolt 0.9.0: fluid effects released everywhere Pixelbolt is listed by @skulitom in #18
• [compass] Pixelbolt 0.9.0: fluid effects released everywhere Pixelbolt is listed (re-cut) by @skulitom in #19

Full Changelog: v0.8.0...v0.9.0

Pixelbolt v0.8.0

Early release. This is Pixelbolt's first GitHub release, and its first under this name (it was called PixelForge until 0.8.0). The README describes what it does today.

0.8.0

Renamed from PixelForge to Pixelbolt. The pixelforge command, the pixelforge-* recipe formats and the MCP tool names are unchanged.

The bundle is now pixelbolt.mcpb (checksum pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256), and portable Studio builds are named PixelboltStudio-<version>-<target>. The pixelforge alias stays for at least two releases.

Pixelbolt turns editable JSON recipes into pixel art and sprite animation. pixelbolt.mcpb contains the local Node.js MCP server, its eight tools, schemas and authoring help. The server makes no network requests.

Download pixelbolt.mcpb and open it in Claude Desktop, or use Settings -> Extensions -> install from file. Choose a workspace for recipes and generated artwork, then ask the agent to call pixel_help. The bundle uses the client's Node.js runtime (20 or newer); it does not include Node.js.

Download pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256 beside the bundle to check its SHA-256:

sha256sum --check pixelbolt.mcpb.sha256
gh attestation verify pixelbolt.mcpb --repo skulitom/Pixelbolt --signer-workflow skulitom/Pixelbolt/.github/workflows/release.yml

On PowerShell, (Get-FileHash pixelbolt.mcpb -Algorithm SHA256).Hash should match the hash in the checksum file.

The GitHub release makes the bundle available immediately. MCP Registry publication is a separate, manually dispatched step after testing; see Publishing.

What's Changed

• [compass] PixelForge Studio: release checks and 0.7.1 fixes for the portable Windows build by @skulitom in #1
• [compass] Remove dead code: leftover imports and helpers in scripts and showcase tools by @skulitom in #2
• [compass] Clean up tests: outline counts in craft.test.js by @skulitom in #3
• [compass] Remove dead code: unused CSS custom properties in the studio and demo by @skulitom in #4
• [compass] PixelForge's studio walk: wait for the recompile instead of fixed sleeps (a CI flake) by @skulitom in #5
• [compass] Clean up tests: stop the release check's launchers together by @skulitom in #6
• [compass] Remove dead code: writeGIF's unused area constant by @skulitom in #7
• [compass] PixelForge where agents look: the official MCP Registry by @skulitom in #8
• [compass] PixelForge where agents look: version 0.7.2 and glama.json by @skulitom in #9
• [compass] PixelForge release workflows: publish leftover drafts, refuse draft registry entries, start manual runs from the tag by @skulitom in #10
• [compass] GIF export at ffmpeg's size: keep unchanged pixels, clear only where needed (6.7 MB → 1.08 MB on the asset team's scene) by @skulitom in #11
• [compass] Clean up tests: run the Studio build tests beside the release check (16.2 s → 13.6 s) by @skulitom in #12
• [compass] PixelForge becomes Pixelbolt, before its first registry entry by @skulitom in #13

New Contributors

• @skulitom made their first contribution in #1

Full Changelog: v0.1.0...v0.8.0