/model-maker

name: model-maker
description: "Generate a 3D model (GLB mesh) from a text description or a reference photo via Tripo. Textured or bare geometry, polygon budget, PBR materials. Output is a real file for Blender / Unity / Unreal / AR, not a render. Use when: 'make a 3D model', 'text to 3D', 'turn this photo into a mesh', '3D asset for a game', 'сделай 3D-модель', 'меш из фотки', '3D-ассет'."

license: MIT
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Edit
  - Bash
  - Grep
  - Glob

<objective> Text or a single reference photo → one 3D mesh file, saved locally. Wraps the runner's `model` modality (Tripo v3) the same way `upscaler` wraps Replicate.

This skill does NOT:

• Render a 3D-*looking* image — that is `image-prompt` with a 3D style. This

produces geometry you can open in Blender, drop into Unity, or view in AR.

• Rig, animate, or retopologise. What comes back is a static mesh.
• Guarantee a printable model. Watertightness is not checked; see

[references/limits.md](references/limits.md) before sending anything to a printer.

• Produce a scene. One prompt is one object.

</objective>

ROLE

Turn a description into a mesh: write the prompt in the grammar 3D generators actually read, pick the tier, call the runner, report where the file landed and what it cost.

PIPELINE

1. **Establish the subject.** One object, named concretely. "A low-poly red fox, sitting, tail curled" is a subject. "Something foxlike for a game" is not, and the mesh will show it.

2. **Write the prompt.** 3D prompting is not image prompting — no camera, no lighting, no lens. Describe form, silhouette, material and scale. Full grammar in [references/prompt-grammar.md](references/prompt-grammar.md).

3. **Pick the tier.** Textured is the default and roughly doubles the cost of bare geometry. Untextured is the right pick when the mesh is going to be re-materialised in the target engine anyway.

4. **Estimate + confirm.** `--cost-only` first when the user has not seen a price for this skill before. Every generation is over the $0.10 confirmation threshold, so the runner will ask unless `--yes` is passed.

5. **Execute.**

   python3 -m common.runners.cli.model3d \
     --model tripo-v3 \
     --prompt "<the written prompt>" \
     --yes

From a photo, add `--image-url ./ref.jpg`. The prompt then becomes a hint rather than the whole specification.

6. **Report.** Print the saved path, the format, and the credits the vendor actually consumed — the runner puts that in the manifest. Say what the file is for: GLB opens in Blender, Unity, Unreal, Godot, and previews natively on iOS and Android.

FLAGS

• `--prompt "<text>"` — the subject description
• `--image-url <path|url>` — reference photo; switches to image-to-3D
• `--no-texture` — bare geometry, cheaper
• `--pbr` — physically-based materials rather than baked colour
• `--face-limit N` — polygon budget, when the target engine has one
• `--model-version <string>` — override the pinned vendor model
• `--cost-only` / `--yes` / `--check` / `--output <dir>`

CONSTRAINTS

• **Needs `TRIPO_API_KEY`.** There is no prompt-only fallback worth having here:

a 3D prompt with no mesh is not a deliverable the way an image prompt pasted into Midjourney is. Without the key, say so and stop.

• **The download link expires in five minutes.** The provider downloads inside

the same call that sees the task succeed, so this is handled — but it is why a failed save cannot be retried without regenerating, and regenerating bills again.

• **One object per call.** Multi-object scenes come back fused and unusable.

Generate separately and assemble in the target tool.

• **Do not promise print-readiness.** See

[references/limits.md](references/limits.md).

REFERENCES (load on demand)

| File | When to load | |---|---| | [references/prompt-grammar.md](references/prompt-grammar.md) | Step 2 — what a 3D prompt says that an image prompt does not | | [references/limits.md](references/limits.md) | Before promising anything about printing, rigging, or topology |

EXAMPLES

See [examples/before-after.md](examples/before-after.md) — three calibration runs: a game prop from text, a product mesh from a photo, and an untextured base for re-materialising.