Pixel Path skill

---
name: pixel-path
description: Pixel Path turns any two places (optionally via waypoints) into a pixel-art fly-through of the real road. It routes the trip, bakes the real buildings, land cover, landmarks, hills and horizon from OpenStreetMap and elevation data, generates scenery art with RetroDiffusion at a chosen level of detail (sparse, moderate or detailed; estimated up front, quoted exactly for free, budget-capped; free placeholder art also works), builds a page where you zoom along the route and scroll to go faster or slower, and runs a self-check that screenshots the result. Use when someone asks for a "pixel path", a "pixel road trip", to "drive" or "fly" from X to Y in pixel art, or a retro first-person view along a real route.
---

# Pixel Path

Builds a folder you can open or host: `index.html` with `road.js` and `layout.js` (the fly-through), `data/` (the
baked route) and `art/` (the pictures). Plain Node 18+, no npm installs (the self-check uses Playwright if present).
Scripts are in `${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/`; run them as `node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/<name>.mjs ...`.
Call the trip folder TRIP (e.g. `trips/bath-bristol`). Every step can be rerun and resumes where it stopped.

The result is a first-person camera moving along the real road: the real buildings on their footprints, the real
landmarks at their places, real land cover, hills and horizon. No interface beyond a small credits line. Scroll (or
drag on a touch screen) to speed up, slow down or reverse.

## Before you start, tell the user
- **Only the art costs money**, paid to RetroDiffusion from the user's own account. Routing, map data and the viewer are
  free. Step 1 prints an estimate for their route at each level: **show it to them and let them pick a level (or free
  placeholders) before you bake or generate anything.**
- **No account?** Send them to https://www.retrodiffusion.ai?ref=YBQJM823 and say that **it is an affiliate link**
  (the author of this skill gets a referral). They create an API key and set it in their own terminal:
  `export RETRODIFFUSION_API_KEY=...` (on a Mac they can store it in the Keychain instead:
  `security add-generic-password -s pixel-path -a retrodiffusion -w`). **Never ask for the key in the chat, never
  print it, echo it or write it to a file.**
- **Attribution is required.** The credits line (OpenStreetMap, OSRM, Terrain Tiles, Wikidata, RetroDiffusion) must stay
  visible wherever the fly-through is shown.
- **Time.** Baking takes about 20 to 60 seconds per 10 km. Run long bakes in the background.

## The levels
Per region (a region is one look, e.g. "Georgian Bath"); $0.18 a picture at RetroDiffusion `rd_pro__default`
(October 2026). The levels are nested: moving up a level only pays for the new pictures.

| level | per region | 1 region / 2 regions | what you get |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| placeholders | 0 | $0 / $0 | code-drawn stand-ins for every picture |
| `sparse` | 4 | 4 / 8 pictures, $0.72 / $1.44 | 3 kinds of building and a tree; every lot still filled, mirrored and tinted copies stretch the few pictures |
| `moderate` | about 14 + 4 landmarks | 18 / 32 pictures, $3.24 / $5.76 | about 10 buildings over the main kinds, 2 trees, a shrub, a street prop, the 4 best-known landmarks |
| `detailed` | about 26 + 10 landmarks | 36 / 62 pictures, $6.48 / $11.16 | up to 6 variants of each kind of building (up to 9 kinds), 3 trees, 2 shrubs, 3 street props, 10 landmarks |

## Steps

### 1. Route and estimate (free, seconds)
```
node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/route.mjs --out TRIP --from "Bath, England" --to "Bristol, England" [--via "Keynsham"]