0004 · Artwork is painted by Ideogram, in the library's own style
Date: 2026-09-05 · Status: accepted
Context
Every product in the app carries a painted tile, and one locked prompt is why 794 paintings look like one library. A house uploads its own catalogue, most of it already painted; the rest has to be painted on the spot and still belong.
Decision
Ideogram paints, and the library's own prompt is the style. A product arrives — typed, imported, or read off a sheet — and the library is asked by name: a tile that exists is served; a tile that does not is generated through the API with that same locked prompt, stored, and served from then on. The subject clause is written by a model: Claude Opus writes it in the library's clause grammar («a single raw red prawn, a deep scarlet shell with long fine antennae and a curled tail») from the product's name, sort and form; the locked prompt wraps it, and Ideogram paints.
Consequences
The style holds by construction: the prompt is locked and the clause follows a grammar, so nobody
writes a per-image description. Each new painting joins the central index, so the library grows with
every house that arrives. IDEOGRAM_API_KEY is the credit it spends, ARTWORK_SHARED_SECRET the
house saying who may spend it; with either absent, health answers «awaiting key».
Source
docs/FEED-IA.md (historical reference outside this export) §202.1, §202.8 (2026-09-05 morning), §208.10 · THE-OUTPUTS-SPEC (historical reference outside this export) · mock-api/deploy/env-names.txt (historical reference outside this export).