Nib
Anyone can make one good AI illustration. Making the 10th still look like you is the hard part.
Nib turns an idea — or a whole article — into hand-drawn editorial illustrations for your
blog post, newsletter, or docs. Every image is white-background, one-idea-per-image, and
stars one character you own (a mascot, a logo character, anything). The character
performs the idea — pushes it, sorts it, steers it — instead of just posing. And because
it's sent as the reference on every render, it stays on-model across the whole piece: the
2nd, 5th, and 10th image still look like the 1st.
Same character, three looks — and it didn't drift.
Three ideas in, three scenes out — building momentum, debugging, deep focus — the same character performing each.
Real plates straight from the app — a different character, any concept, still on-model.
nib.henryzh.dev · Free & open source · MIT
Install
Install the skill into your agent — one command, no app to download:
| Agent | Command |
|---|
| Claude Code | npx skills add caezium/nib --skill nib |
| Codex CLI | codex plugin add caezium/nib |
| Cursor | Add plugin: caezium/nib |
| Gemini CLI | gemini extensions install caezium/nib |
Then just ask:
Use nib to illustrate: "small habits compound into a big result"
Use nib to make a 5-image set in riso for this article: https://paulgraham.com/ds.html
Use nib: set my avatar to ./avatar.png, then illustrate "saying no protects focus" in woodcut
Two ways to pay: free, or pennies
- Free — use your ChatGPT / Codex subscription. If you're logged into the Codex CLI
(
codex login), Nib generates on your existing subscription. No API key, no per-image
charge.
- OpenRouter — a few cents an image. Set
OPENROUTER_API_KEY and Nib uses
google/gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview (or any image model via --model). Exact 16:9. A
whole blog post for under a dollar.
It picks automatically: your OpenRouter key if set, else a free Codex or Gemini CLI
lane (whichever you're signed into).
Bring a character — or grab one
Don't have a mascot? Use a bundled character:
Use nib with the "blip" character to illustrate "ship small, ship often"
The skills/nib/characters/ library ships ready-to-use
characters (and PRs adding your own are welcome — a character is just a folder with a
one-paragraph spec + a reference image). Or bring your own avatar image, and optionally
describe it in words (--avatar-spec) to lock its design even tighter.
How it works
- A character — your avatar image, a bundled pack, or a written description. It's the
reference on every render, so it stays recognizable.
- An idea or an article. A URL is fetched and reduced to clean text first. For an
article, Nib picks the load-bearing moments (a judgment, a flow, a before/after, a
trap, a loop) — 4–8 of them, not one image per paragraph.
- A fresh, concrete metaphor in which the character performs the idea — pushes it,
sorts it, steers it, builds it.
- Generate, reviewing each against the quality bar (white background, one idea, the
character performing the action, short labels only).
The methodology and the looks live in one place — skills/nib/references/ — read by
both the skill engine and the desktop app, so they never drift.
The thirteen looks
marker · riso · blueprint · woodcut · pixel · clay · gouache · chalk ·
diorama · enamel · felt · manila · phosphor — one per piece, so a set reads as a
series. See references/styles.md.
The engine
python3 skills/nib/scripts/generate.py \
--idea "trust is built one piece of evidence at a time" \
--style marker --avatar ./avatar.png --out out.png
Flags: --backend auto|openrouter|codex · --model <id> · --avatar-pack <name> ·
--avatar-spec "<text>" · --register explainer · --transparent · --doctor.
Dependency-free (python3 3.9+ only).
Transparent cutouts. Add --transparent to lift the art off its white ground into a
transparent PNG — for slides, stickers, or dark UI. It uses rembg
(pip install 'rembg[cpu]'), which isn't bundled, so the core stays dependency-free; without
it the opaque render is kept. Works standalone on any image too:
python3 skills/nib/scripts/cutout.py <image.png>.
The desktop app
A TypeScript + React desktop app (macOS) — avatar onboarding, a style picker, a generation
history grid, and a zoomable lightbox. Concept mode draws one idea at a time; Article
mode turns a post — or your own draft — into a shot list you shape: pick which moments
to draw, add your own, ask for more, then generate them in parallel.
Concept and Article modes · pick a starter character · free and keyed generation lanes.
Install (macOS, Apple Silicon):
brew install --cask caezium/tap/nib
This is a self-signed pre-1.0 build, so the cask clears the Gatekeeper quarantine flag on
install. If macOS still blocks it, right-click the app and choose Open. Or grab the
.dmg straight from Releases.
Run from source:
npm install && npm run gen # first time
npm run dev # real generation (OpenAI or OpenRouter key)
npm run dev:mock # placeholder images, no API calls
npm run build # package the app
Privacy & telemetry
The desktop app sends anonymous usage events (which mode/style, success/failure) and
crash reports — never your prompts, avatar, API keys, or images. Turn it off in
Settings → Telemetry. The skill sends no telemetry.
Credits
Nib's house methodology is adapted from xiaohei (小黑)
by helloianneo — the hand-drawn editorial-illustration
skill that inspired this project. Nib reimplements its approach in its own words and code.
License
MIT © 2026 Henry (caezium).
