Web-Ready (orchestrator)

One-shot pipeline: ingest anything → strip EXIF → resize → encode to web formats → optimise. The "make this folder uploadable" skill.

When to use

• Photos coming off a phone (HEIC) destined for a blog.
• Camera RAW exports being prepped for an online gallery.
• A mixed folder of screenshots/photos that needs to ship to the web.
• Pre-step before image upload to any CMS, S3 bucket, or Cloudflare R2.

Do not use this skill when:

• The user wants archival output → keep originals; use the targeted skills (convert-to-jxl, optimize-png).
• The user wants pixel-perfect originals on the web (rare, e.g. art prints) → use optimize-png/optimize-jpeg only, no resize.
• Single-file conversion → call the underlying skill directly.

Inputs

1. Input directory — required.
2. Profile — preset bundle. One of:
   • blog (default): max-side 2000px, AVIF q60 + WebP q80 + JPEG q82 fallback, EXIF stripped.
   • gallery: max-side 3000px, AVIF q70 + WebP q85, EXIF stripped.
   • thumbnail: max-side 800px, AVIF q55 + WebP q75, EXIF stripped.
   • archival-web: max-side 4000px, AVIF q80 + WebP q90, EXIF preserved.
3. Custom overrides — any of --max-side N, --avif-q N, --webp-q N, --jpeg-q N, --keep-exif, --no-jpeg-fallback.
4. Output dir — default: <input>/web/. Inside: web/avif/, web/webp/, web/jpg/ parallel trees so the user can pick which set to upload.
5. Recursive — --recursive. Mirrors subdirectory layout.

Procedure

1. Pre-flight: verify install-deps shows green for: magick/convert, exiftool, vipsthumbnail, avifenc, cwebp (already present for existing convert-to-webp), cjpeg-mozjpeg or cjpeg (for JPEG fallback), oxipng, jpegoptim. Missing optional tools are skipped (and the corresponding output format is dropped from the pipeline with a one-line note).
2. Stage 1: Decode/normalise inputs. Walk the input tree; classify each file:
   • JPEG/PNG/WebP/TIFF → pass through.
   • HEIC → decode to PNG via heif-convert (or via vipsthumbnail if libvips has libheif). Fail loud if neither is available.
   • RAW (CR2, ARW, NEF, DNG, ORF, RAF) → decode via darktable-cli "<input>" "<staged>.tiff" if installed, else vips copy (libvips has rudimentary RAW). If neither path works, skip the file with a flagged warning.
   • Anything else (BMP, GIF, etc.) → pass through.

3. Stage 2: Strip EXIF. Unless --keep-exif set:

   exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile @ -Orientation -ColorSpace -overwrite_original "<staged>"

   Preserve Orientation and ColorSpace (rotation handling and colour fidelity) even in strip mode.

4. Stage 3: Resize. Per file, fit within <max-side> box preserving aspect:

   vipsthumbnail "<staged>" --size "<max-side>x<max-side>" --output "<resized>.png[Q=100]"

   Use lossless intermediate to avoid double-compression. Skip if the source's longest side is already ≤ max-side.

5. Stage 4: Encode. For each survivor, produce up to three outputs:

   • AVIF: avifenc -q <avif-q> -s 6 "<resized>.png" "<out>/avif/<basename>.avif"
   • WebP: cwebp -q <webp-q> "<resized>.png" -o "<out>/webp/<basename>.webp"
   • JPEG fallback (unless --no-jpeg-fallback): cjpeg-mozjpeg -quality <jpeg-q> -progressive -optimize (or stock cjpeg if mozjpeg missing) → <out>/jpg/<basename>.jpg

   Run encodes in parallel — they're independent.

6. Stage 5: Optimise (final squeeze).
   • JPEGs: jpegoptim --strip-all --all-progressive in-place on web/jpg/.
   • PNGs (only if any survived as PNG, e.g. with --no-jpeg-fallback): oxipng -o 4 --strip safe.
   • AVIF / WebP: avifenc and cwebp already produce near-optimal output; no second pass.
7. Cleanup: delete <staged> intermediates. Write a manifest at <output>/manifest.json mapping <original-path> → {avif, webp, jpg} plus per-file size deltas.

Output

• Three parallel trees under <output-dir>: avif/, webp/, jpg/.
• manifest.json with the mapping and size table.
• Summary report:
  • Files processed / skipped / failed (with reasons).
  • Total bytes per format. Typical: <orig> → AVIF <X>%, WebP <Y>%, JPEG <Z>%.
  • Recommendation line: which format to upload (AVIF if all targets support it; WebP otherwise; JPEG as universal fallback).

Notes

• Defaults are tuned for the blog profile. gallery and archival-web raise quality for slower-but-better output.
• The orchestrator never modifies originals. The output tree is fully separate.
• For very large input trees (>10k files), the stage-by-stage design is intentional — early failure of one stage doesn't waste the others' work; intermediates persist until cleanup.
• Companion skill: convert-to-webp (single-format), convert-to-avif (single-format), optimize-png, optimize-jpeg. This orchestrator composes them; the user is welcome to use the components directly when they want finer control.