Layer Quality

Layer Quality Review

Overview

Generation is not delivery. A batch comes back, and something has to decide which of it is usable, against the brief and against whatever standards the studio has already set. Layer records those standards as output scoring rules, and exposes three tools:

Generation mechanics are in the layer skill. If a sibling skill named here is missing from your available skills, ask the user to install it (npx skills add layerai/skills --skill <name>); unattended, proceed from tool schemas and flag the gap.

Check for rules before inventing standards

Call list_output_scoring_rules before judging anything by eye. Each rule is a standard the studio has written down, and a delivery that contradicts one is wrong however good it looks. Rules can be scoped to a project as well as a workspace, so pass the project when the work belongs to one.

When rules exist, score_files queues the batch and get_file_scores reads the verdicts back.

Three things about that contract are easy to get wrong and expensive to get wrong:

• score_files is asynchronous. It returns as soon as the run is queued, not with results. Poll get_file_scores afterwards; a large request takes a few minutes.
• An empty scores list means not judged yet, not a zero. Treating the queue acknowledgement as a verdict, or an empty list as a failing score, is the defect this contract invites.
• It is billed, and there is no estimate tool for it. Every file and rule pair is a vision-model call that spends Creative Units, and none of the estimate_* tools price it. Scoring the same file again is allowed and appends a fresh verdict rather than replacing the old one, so a re-score because the first call "returned nothing" is a real double spend. Read get_file_scores first.

When no rules exist, say so rather than implying the output passed a gate it never met, then review against the brief.

Review against the brief, not against taste

The question is never "is this good". It is "does this do what was asked". Work back through the brief item by item:

• The stated constraints: aspect ratio, pixel size, transparent background, palette, poly budget, clip length. These are pass or fail, and they are the ones most often silently missed because the image looks fine.
• The intended use: an icon judged at its target size, a texture judged tiled at 3x3, a loop judged across its seam, a background judged with a character on it. Judging an asset out of its context is how defects reach delivery.
• The set, not the item. For anything that belongs to a group, lay the candidates out together. Drift between siblings is invisible one at a time and obvious side by side.

Choosing from a batch

batch_size returns variations, and the temptation is to pick the most striking one. Pick the one closest to the brief instead, because the striking one is usually striking for a reason that will not repeat across the rest of the set.

When no candidate is close, the fix is the prompt, not another batch. Two identical rerolls in a row mean the prompt is underspecified: go back to what the prompt failed to name (framing, lighting, background treatment) rather than spending again on the same string.

Report honestly

Say what is wrong with what you deliver. A run that produced three usable assets and one with a mangled hand is reported as exactly that, not as four assets. Where a reference set was degraded, name it (layer-reference-sets). Where a constraint was missed, name the constraint.

Creative Units were spent either way, so a quiet pass costs the user a second discovery later, on work already built on the flawed asset.

Worked example

"Are these eight icons ready to ship?"

1. list_output_scoring_rules for the workspace and the project. Two rules exist: transparent background, and a minimum legibility standard.
2. get_file_scores on the eight file_id values first, in case an earlier session already judged them. For the ones with no scores, score_files to queue a run, telling the user it spends Creative Units since no estimate tool prices scoring.
3. Poll get_file_scores until scores appear. An empty list means not yet judged, so keep polling rather than re-scoring.
4. Two fail the transparency rule. Those are not judgement calls, so they go back through background_removal (layer-image-editing).
5. View the remaining six together at their target size, not at full resolution, and check stroke weight and palette against the two icons approved earlier.
6. One has drifted heavier than the set. Reroll that one against the approved icons as references.
7. Deliver with the state named: six passing, one rerolled, two fixed for transparency.

Common mistakes

• Judging by eye without checking whether scoring rules exist.
• Reporting output as passing a gate when no rules were ever in force.
• Reading score_files as if it returned verdicts, when it only acknowledges the queued run.
• Reading an empty scores list as a zero rather than as not yet judged.
• Re-scoring because the first call "returned nothing", which spends again and appends a second verdict.
• Re-scoring files whose verdicts get_file_scores already holds.
• Judging an icon, texture, or loop outside the context it ships in.
• Reviewing set members one at a time, so drift goes unnoticed.
• Picking the most striking candidate rather than the one matching the brief.
• Rerolling an underspecified prompt a third time instead of fixing it.
• Delivering silently around a known defect.