Pixel-art operations, under control

Fire once.
Ship every sprite
with receipts.

PixelKiln turns generative pixel art into a deterministic build pipeline. It tracks planned costs, human review, exact hashes, resilient recovery, and engine-ready output.

Read the quickstart View on GitHub

Offline planningHard budgetsExact provenance

pixelkiln planoffline

$pixelkiln plan --style base

PROJECTforge-kit

EST. COST2 generations

✓base/anvilcurrent

↻base/hammerrecoverable · free

+base/tongsmissing · 1 gen

△base/cruciblestale · 1 gen

PROVENANCE LOCKEDsha256 · 98f1…c42a

✓

05purpose-fit generators

22composable commands

00LLM calls in the loop

The judgment stays human.
The mechanics stay deterministic.

One source of truth, four deliberate moves

From intent to engine.
Keep the thread.

Declare

Describe assets, styles, dimensions, palettes, references, and output paths in one committed manifest.

pixelkiln.manifest.json

Plan

Diff intent against lock state and disk. See exactly what is missing, stale, recoverable, and billable.

pixelkiln plan

Review

Keep selection human with a fast local candidate sheet. Nothing is silently chosen by another model.

pixelkiln pick

Ship

Fetch verified pixels, restore paid work, and build deterministic atlases or engine-native tilesets.

pixelkiln pack

Human review stays local

Choose the image.
Keep the receipts.

PixelLab and Retro Diffusion use the same review, lockfile, and recovery flow. PixelKiln records every candidate, then leaves the visual decision to you.

PixelLab · production Retro Diffusion · experimental FakeProvider · tests

PixelLab is production-ready. Retro Diffusion is experimental: paid RD Fast and RD Plus stills pass end to end, while advanced live smoke tests remain.

Compare PixelLab and Retro Diffusion →See the environment benchmark →PixelLab MCP ↗

PixelKiln's local candidate review interface showing generated forge emblems — Actual local review UI · generated brand sprites · no model selects for you

Provider showcase

Same briefs.
Different pixels.

These are untouched 256×256 outputs from the committed A/B benchmark. Two providers received the same briefs and seed numbers. Each kept its native route and style.

Production

PixelLab

Generations

PixelLab result for an alpine valley background at dusk — Scenic background · Pixflux

Stronger prompt coverage and the better scenic background in this sample. The map object was opaque, so check alpha before a larger run.

Benchmark cost: 1 generation each
Best fit: Prompt fidelity and account recovery

Set up PixelLab →Visit PixelLab ↗

Experimental

Retro Diffusion

USD

Retro Diffusion result for an alpine valley background at dusk — Scenic background · RD Plus

Cleaner transparent cutouts with fewer colors, plus more cinematic scene framing. Complex building details were easier for the model to lose.

Benchmark cost: $0.058 each
Best fit: Ready-to-place cutouts and native animation

Set up Retro Diffusion →Visit Retro Diffusion ↗

Review all 12 benchmark images →Compare provider capabilities →

The provenance layer generation tools forget

Paid work shouldn’t disappear into vibes.

Every provider object, prompt identity, output role, path, and byte hash survives in project state. A failed download remains recoverable work, not a reason to pay twice.

✓ Remote identity saved before polling
✓ Content-addressed local recovery cache
✓ Manual-edit and overwrite protection
✓ Transactional atlas and export writes

Explore recovery guarantees →

pixelkiln.lock.json

{
  "base/anvil": {
    "status": "downloaded",
    "provider": "pixellab",
    "specHash": "61c9…a071",
    "cost": { "value": 1,
              "unit": "generations" },
    "outputs": [{
      "path": "art/base/anvil.png",
      "sha256": "98f1…c42a"
    }]
  }
}

01 paid-work identity

02 exact output bytes

A complete asset operations layer

More than generation.

PixelKiln handles the unglamorous mechanics between a good prompt and a game-ready asset library.

01 / PLAN

Know the bill before the fire starts.

Offline diffs distinguish new spend from zero-cost recovery. Copy the estimate into a hard budget ceiling.

Selected work80 / 120

02 / RECOVER

Restore before you regenerate.

Rebuild missing output from trusted cache bytes or a provider URL without new generation cost.

recoverable · 0 gen

03 / AUDIT

Make visual consistency measurable.

Gate palette distance, transparency, color count, outliers, and cache integrity locally or in CI.

04 / PACKAGE

Turn source pixels into durable game assets.

Pack sheets, mount stable cells, and export lossless generic, Tiled, or Godot terrain metadata with provenance.

PNGJSONTILEDGODOT 4

Purpose-fit routing

Use the capability you need.
Pay only for that.

Measured PixelLab costs vary by up to 40×. Retro Diffusion uses USD pricing. PixelKiln makes generator choice explicit and never combines unlike cost units.

mapStandalone props and icons 1 gen

pixfluxExact closed palettes 1 gen

1dirReferences and candidate variety 20–40 gen

tilesGround and structural sets 20–40 gen

Compare generator capabilities →Compare providers →

Official agent skill · one command

Give your agent the operating manual.

Install the provider-neutral PixelKiln skill for safe planning, hard budgets, human review, recovery-first decisions, and correct artifacts.

Agent setup →Library quickstart →

Fire once.Ship every spritewith receipts.

From intent to engine.Keep the thread.