Naming decision · PixelKiln

The name is settled. The project ships as pixelkiln. package.json is no longer private.

The original blocker was a factual error

The prior version of this file claimed pixelkiln "is an established npm package (v3.5.1, the CSS spritesheet builder) and pixelsmith is its engine," and blocked the name on that basis. Re-verified directly against the npm registry (2026-08-18):

GET https://registry.npmjs.org/pixelkiln    → 404 "Not found"
GET https://registry.npmjs.org/spritesmith  → 200, latest 3.5.1, "Utility that
                                                takes images and creates a
                                                spritesheet with JSON sprite data"
GET https://registry.npmjs.org/pixelsmith   → 200, latest 2.6.0, "Node based
                                                engine for spritesmith"

pixelkiln was never published. The "v3.5.1 CSS spritesheet builder" is spritesmith, a real and long-established package. pixelsmith really is its engine, exactly as claimed, but neither of them is pixelkiln. The original research conflated the two real packages into a collision that didn't exist. (pixelsmith also appears, separately and correctly, in the rejected-candidates list below. It is a real name in a different, adjacent project, which should have been the tell.)

A GitHub search for pixelkiln returns nothing but this repository, and a general web search turns up no product, tool, or project by that name anywhere. Nothing else needs to change: bin/pixelkiln.js, package.json's name/bin, the README, scripts/gen-schema.ts's schema title, and heybud-admin's package.json badge scripts already all say pixelkiln. There is no rename to do, only the private: true flag to drop, which is done.

What the space already looks like

The "manifest-driven AI asset generation CLI" idea is not novel. Prior art found:

Project	Overlap	Backend
pickbitsai/sprite-generator	Closest. JSON manifest, `assets[]` with id/category/description, `defaultStyle`, `--dry-run`, `--category`, `--concurrency`	OpenAI `gpt-image-1`
mcp-tool-shop-org/sprite-foundry	SQLite lifecycle tracking, review/accept/reject, provenance, deterministic export with manifest + checksums	ComfyUI (local GPU)
lx-0/restyle-sprites	Restyle a whole pack from source + style reference	Gemini / OpenAI
trebeljahr/sprite-tools	Post-processing toolkit for atlas, collision, and palette	n/a
dt-pirate/openrender	Installs generated assets into engines, manifests, rollback	n/a
freema/pixelforge-mcp	MCP server for pixel art	Gemini
ralphy	`asset-manifest.json` slot pointers + `generations.jsonl` audit log	multi

Implication for naming: the sprite-* namespace is crowded. sprite-generator, sprite-foundry, sprite-tools, and restyle-sprites all exist. Avoid it.

What is actually differentiated here

Worth knowing, because the name should point at it:

PixelLab-native. Everything above wraps a general image model and downscales. PixelLab generates on a real pixel grid. Nothing found targets it.
Exploits the candidate economics. Cost is fixed per call while candidates returned scale inversely with canvas size. Nothing found treats "generate small, pick from 16" as the core loop.
adopt. Retroactively reconciling an existing account and repo by image hash. Not found anywhere.
A true lockfile. sprite-foundry uses SQLite, ralphy uses a pointer table plus a log. A committed, sorted, hash-on-both-sides lockfile in the npm sense was not found.

Shortlist (historical, kept for context)

All verified free on npm, zero GitHub repos by that name, no web presence (checked 2026-07-29 for the alternates; pixelkiln itself re-verified 2026-08-18 per the resolution above).

Candidate	Note
pixelkiln ✅ chosen	Firing/baking metaphor fits pixel art, avoids the crowded `sprite-*` space. The npm collision this was shelved for turned out not to exist. See Resolution.
pixelquarry	Extraction metaphor, since you quarry many candidates and keep the good ones. Still free, not needed.
pixelcrate	Packaging/inventory feel; leans toward the lockfile idea. Still free, not needed.
dithermill	Most pixel-art-native word available; "mill" carries batch production. Still free, not needed.
spriteledger	Points hardest at provenance, but inherits the crowded `sprite-` prefix. Still free, not needed.

Rejected after checking: pixelwright (three live businesses use it: an AI app builder, an iOS audit firm, and a UI developer's brand), spritefoundry (taken by a real project), pixelsmith (real package, spritesmith's engine, see Resolution), spritemill, pixelloom, bitforge, spritelab.