GitComics

Every repo has a story.

Turn any GitHub repository into an 8-panel comic strip. Shareable PNG. Interactive HTML. Grounded in real source code, not vibes.

Example

envoyproxy/envoy — "The Filter Chain Never Skips a Step." Every claim in this comic traces back to a real file: conn_manager_impl.cc, filter_manager.cc, and the HTTP connection manager proto.

Each example ships as three files:

File	What it's for
examples/envoy_comic.png	The shareable image — post it on X, Reddit, Slack, or embed it anywhere a normal image works.
examples/envoy_comic.html	The interactive version — view it live, no download needed. Includes a clickable Powers table that links straight to the real source lines on GitHub.
examples/envoy_comic.svg	The canonical vector source both the PNG and HTML are generated from — edit this if you want to tweak colors, text, or panel layout by hand.

How to use

Requires a tool that can actually browse/fetch the repository. GitComics' entire pipeline is Repository → Evidence → Story → SVG — step one is reading real files from GitHub. If the model or agent you paste SKILL.md into has no web/browsing tool enabled, it cannot gather real evidence, and it will silently fabricate plausible-sounding filenames and architecture instead — even while labeling them "Evidence: ..." or 🟢. This is not a hypothetical: it's a common failure mode we've seen firsthand when running the skill in tools without browsing enabled.

Before trusting any output, confirm the tool actually fetched the repo. If unsure, ask it directly: "Did you fetch [repo URL], or write this from the name alone? Do you have a tool that can browse GitHub?" If it says no — don't trust the comic. Every filename and technical claim in it is likely invented, regardless of confidence labels shown.

Confirmed to work: claude.ai (web search enabled by default), Claude Code (reads the actual local/cloned repo), any agent with a GitHub API/MCP connector. Not confirmed / known to fail silently: chat surfaces with no browsing tool enabled (e.g. some Gemini modes).

Quickstart (claude.ai)

1. Copy SKILL.md
2. Open claude.ai
3. Paste SKILL.md as your first message
4. Say: comic strip for github.com/[owner]/[repo]
5. Claude generates your comic

Claude Project (recommended for teams)

1. Create a new Project in claude.ai
2. Paste SKILL.md into Project Instructions
3. Every conversation in that project can generate comics
4. Share the project with your team

Claude Code

cp SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/gitcomics/SKILL.md

Then in any Claude Code session:

/gitcomics github.com/[owner]/[repo]

API

{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
  "system": "[contents of SKILL.md]",
  "messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "github.com/expressjs/express" }]
}

Returns SVG + HTML. Rasterize to PNG with Playwright/Chromium.

What you get

• An 8-panel comic strip specific to your repo — not a generic architecture diagram
• Noir visual style, consistent GitComics branding
• Anti-slop guarantee: every comic must contain repo-specific details that break if you swap the filenames for another project's
• A Powers manifest at the bottom of every comic — every technical claim links back to a real function, class, endpoint, or config in the source
• Confidence scoring per claim (direct source evidence vs. inferred vs. docs-only)
• PNG for sharing (X, Reddit, GitHub)
• HTML for interactive viewing (click through to evidence)

The pipeline

Repository → Evidence → Story → SVG → HTML + PNG

The SVG is the single canonical artifact. HTML wraps it. PNG rasterizes it. Neither HTML nor PNG independently redraws the comic — this keeps every output format honest to the same source of truth.

Rules baked into the skill

Evidence overrides story. If the most entertaining version of a panel conflicts with what the source code actually does, the accurate version wins. A boring but true panel beats an exciting fictional one.

Anti-slop rule. Every comic must contain at least 2–3 repository-specific technical details. The test: swap all the filenames for another repo's. If the comic still makes sense, it's slop — rewrite it. If it breaks, it passes.

Powers rule. Every technical "power" shown in a panel must correspond to a real, identifiable artifact in the repo (a function, class, endpoint, command, or config value). If it can't be traced to source, it's marked conceptual — never presented as real.

Powers manifest stays at the bottom. Branding and the panel grid never compete with the powers table — it lives outside the 8-panel story grid, always last.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.