Audit basis. Refreshed 2026-11-07 against tag v0.4.0, commit 16e9d21516434a63ac457f49ffd09005f649c02f — git rev-parse HEAD in the pinned checkout confirms. The installed bundle (see Sources & evidence) prints TextureCraft 0.4.0 (16e9d21 2026-11-06). This skill previously described v0.3.0 (8547514).

v0.3.0 → v0.4.0 delta. git diff --stat v0.3.0..HEAD shows 216 files changed, +14,040/−5,788 (the GitHub compare lists 86 commits). The engine registry moves 162 → 172 ids: camera.bookmark1…camera.bookmark9 (Ctrl+1…Ctrl+9), bake.tile.set, bake.cage.paint and bake.cage.reset are new; bake.autoRebake and bake.autoRebake.run are gone, so nothing re-bakes itself — call bake.run after changing bake settings, the mesh, high polys or the skew/cage paint. Bake settings were rebuilt into a nested per-map BakeSettings model (crates/core/src/bake/, crates/engine/src/bake/): bake.settings takes model, patch and preserveEnabled and targets ts (the active set by default, an index, an array, "all" or "selected"); bake.run accepts the same parameters and returns {baked, tracer}, and each texture set owns its settings plus per-tile bake flags. The baked-map set shrinks 12 → 10: ColorMap and WorldDirection are removed (crates/core/src/bake/baked_map.rs). Six smart masks (snow from top, moss from ground, rust in cavities, edge scratches, dirt streaks, occluded areas) take the shelf to 24; three new Views entries (Common Settings, Mesh Map Bakers, Mesh Map Settings) take menu parity to 58/58. Old .tcraft files whose bake settings or baked maps no longer parse are recovered field by field with defaults and a log warning (crates/formats/src/project_file/recovery.rs); file.reimportMesh now marks the project modified (crates/engine/src/file_cmds.rs); masks and content evaluate every neighbourhood filter in stack order instead of only the last (crates/compose/src/eval.rs); exports sample baked maps through the working tile layout (crates/formats/src/export/mod.rs). UI-side: mode buttons and view-layout/projection dropdowns in the top bar, a draggable 3D/2D divider, scrolling tool controls, smart-mask and shelf hover previews, and dropping a shelf material on the texture set under the cursor (crates/ui-egui/src/{toolbar,viewport,shelf}.rs).

v0.2.0 → v0.3.0 delta (historical). 168 files changed; the engine command extract grew 135 → 162 ids (+27: bake.autoRebake*, bake.skew.*, brush.preset.*, effect.copy/cut/duplicate/histogram/move, …), none removed then. Menu parity 55/55. The control channel hardened: owner-only token file, 10 s auth deadline, one attempt per connection, 16-connection cap, 600 s idle.

Verify against your installed version — the ArtCraft Launcher auto-updates, so a newer build may differ; every count quoted here was re-measured at this tag with the method recorded in evidence.md.

TextureCraft

Overview

TextureCraft is an open-source (MIT OR Apache-2.0), pure-Rust 3D texture-painting application — the ArtCraft suite's clean-room answer to Adobe Substance 3D Painter (the repo aims for 1:1 parity with that texturing workflow, with better performance, a smaller footprint and every feature drivable by agents — ROADMAP.md). Its own weighted estimate is ≈94% done across 11 areas (ROADMAP.md "Honest parity estimate (2026-11-04)"; baking was lowered to 90% pending reference-asset validation). It runs natively on macOS (universal, signed, notarized), Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and in the browser via WebAssembly/WebGPU-or-WebGL2 (README.md, ROADMAP.md Platforms). Source: GitHub storytold/texturecraft. The workspace is 11 crates (automation, bake, compose, core, engine, formats, geom, paint, render, texel, ui-egui) plus three apps (apps/texturecraft, apps/texturecraft-cli, apps/texturecraft-web).

The one governing idea: everything is an engine command with a stable id (layer.add.fill, bake.run, edit.undo, … — docs/control-protocol.md), and the UI, texturecraft-cli, the JSON control channel and the MCP server all run the same registry (172 unique command ids at v0.4.0; the generated menu doc counts 58 of 58 menu items live, docs/parity.md, regenerated by TC_UPDATE_PARITY=1 cargo test -p texturecraft-ui-egui parity). Programmatic calls never open dialogs; session.inspect reports every layer, mask, effect, fill source, per-tile bakeEnabled flag and painted tile count so an agent can verify work without screenshots.

Capabilities (verified)

Count status at v0.4.0 (every set re-measured at both tags; method in evidence.md). Changed: engine ids 172 (162), menu items 58/58 (55/55), smart masks 24 (18), baked maps 10 (12; ColorMap/WorldDirection removed), project format_version 2 (1). Unchanged at v0.4.0: CLI 10 subcommands, MCP 22 tools, serve 17 methods, control 13 methods, 31 filters, 21 channels, 32 blend modes, 72 procedural + 21 smart materials, 23 procedurals, 6 environments, 67 brush alphas, 18 brush presets, 10 export presets, 8 texture formats, 12 mesh import / 5 mesh export formats, 9 built-in meshes, 10 UI languages.

One command registry, four surfaces

• Engine registry: 172 unique command ids (every cmd!/query! registration with a string id across crates/engine/src, tests excluded; texturecraft-cli commands [--filter] prints the live set for the build in front of you). All 58/58 target menu items are wired (docs/parity.md).
• CLI texturecraft-cli — 10 subcommands (apps/texturecraft-cli/src/main.rs SUBCOMMANDS): info, commands [--filter], run <input> <command-id> [params-json] [-o out.tcraft], batch <script.json>, bake <input> [-o out] [--resolution px] [--maps id,id], export <input> <dir> [--preset --format --padding --size], render <input> <out.png> [--size WxH --view 3d|2d --camera name --yaw --pitch --samples --bounces] [--cpu], new <input> <out.tcraft> [--resolution] [--sample], mcp [--bridge --token --read-root --write-root --automation-read-root --automation-write-root], serve [--port --read-root --write-root --automation-read-root --automation-write-root]; plus --version/--help (hand-rolled parser, not clap).
• Control channel — texturecraft --control <port>, loopback TCP, one JSON object per line, 8 MiB request cap. Token-authenticated: the first request on every connection must be {"id":0,"method":"auth","params":{"token":"…"}}; the token is TEXTURECRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN (16–1024 printable ASCII characters) or a fresh random token the app writes to <temp>/texturecraft-control-<port>.token (owner-only) and prints to stderr. One auth attempt, 10 s deadline, 16 connections, 600 s idle (docs/control-protocol.md, crates/automation/src/security.rs). 13 methods: ping, command.run, command.list, session.inspect, ui.inspect, ui.menu.list, ui.menu.invoke, ui.set (layout/dock/prefs/keymap — prefs covers language, brightness (4 levels), accent (7 colours), system_title_bar), viewport.screenshot {view: 3d|2d}, ui.screenshot, ui.resize (640–7680 points), debug.paintTest {from,to,frames} (a real per-frame scripted stroke), debug.frames (frame timing breakdown). Scripted runs can set TEXTURECRAFT_NO_PREFS to start from defaults in a throwaway state.
• MCP server texturecraft-cli mcp — 22 tools (crates/automation/src/server.rs #[tool] entries): session_inspect, command_list, command_run, command_batch (stops at first error, ≤256 steps), project_new (9 built-in meshes: material_ball, sphere, cube, rounded_cube, cylinder, torus, plane, crate, udim_plane; templates), project_open, project_save, mesh_import (glTF/GLB, FBX binary+ASCII, COLLADA, USD usda/usdc/usdz, Alembic, OBJ, PLY, STL), mesh_reimport (preserveStrokes: true re-projects paint where UVs changed; it is off by default), mesh_export (obj, glb, usda, usdc, usdz), bake_mesh_add (high-poly + cage), resource_import, material_save/material_load (.tcmat smart materials; load also takes MaterialCraft .mcmat/.mcraft), textures_export (preset-driven), bake, paint_stroke (points in viewport pixels, sharing one space with viewport_render), viewport_render (headless PNG ≤2048 px, optional path-traced samples 1–4096 on GPU or CPU), bridge-only viewport_screenshot/ui_screenshot/ui_inspect/ui_menu_invoke. Path confinement: headless mode touches files only below --read-root/--write-root (forward-slash relative paths; .., absolute paths, drive letters, device names, symlink/junction escapes refused); through command_run, every file.* command is refused except file.close, file.removeUnused and file.reimportMesh without a path, and so is any command given a path/dir, in both modes — use the workspace tools. Replies capped at 8 MiB JSON / 5 MiB PNG / 256 batch steps.
• Headless JSON-lines server texturecraft-cli serve — 17 methods (crates/automation/src/rpc.rs METHODS): ping, methods, session.inspect, command.list, command.run, command.batch, project.open, project.save, mesh.import, mesh.reimport, mesh.export, bake.mesh.add, resource.import, material.save, material.load, textures.export, render.

Painting, layers and materials

• Paint on the 3D mesh or the 2D UV view: brush (size/flow/stroke-opacity/spacing/hardness/angle/follow-path, jitters, tangent or camera alignment, angle fade, backface culling, lazy mouse, X/Y/Z mirror + radial symmetry, pen pressure), eraser, projection with image stencils (hold S), polygon fill (triangle/UV-island/mesh), path and lasso fill, particle brush, smudge, clone (V + click sets source), colour picker, Shift+click straight lines, quick mask (Y), geometry decals and text (docs/features.md §Paint in 3D). 67 procedural brush alphas (31 generated shapes + 36 stencil glyphs, crates/paint/src/alphas.rs) plus any imported image; 18 brush presets in three groups, with user presets saved as .tcbrush (crates/paint/src/presets.rs, crates/engine/src/brush_preset_cmds.rs).
• Layer stack: paint, fill, folder and instance layers; 32 blend modes per channel with per-channel opacity; white/black/painted masks, mask with height, smart masks, generators; 31 library filters (crates/engine/src/filter_lib.rs FILTERS: adjustments, blur/sharpen/high-pass, bevel, glow, edge detect, warps, mosaic, baked lighting, four material finishes); geometry masks (a layer visible only on chosen mesh parts); anchor points; copy/paste across texture sets, flatten, save layers/folders as .tcmat smart materials. All 24 smart masks are procedural and expose their preset id: mask.smart.list to enumerate, mask.smart.apply {name, layer?} to replace a layer's mask; the six new ones are snow_top, moss_ground, rust_cavities, edge_scratches, dirt_streaks, occluded (crates/engine/src/smart_masks.rs).
• Bundled library: 72 procedural materials and 21 smart materials (93 shelf entries), 24 smart masks, 23 procedurals, 6 procedural environments plus imported HDR/EXR panoramas (crates/engine/src/materials.rs MATERIALS, crates/core/src/layer.rs ProceduralKind, crates/core/src/project.rs ENVIRONMENTS). A shelf material can be dropped on the texture set under the cursor, and hover shows a large preview (crates/ui-egui/src/shelf.rs). MaterialCraft materials: material.load accepts a .mcmat portable material or .mcraft package as a fill layer, re-cooked through MaterialCraft's command line with the set's baked mesh maps (docs/control-protocol.md §MaterialCraft materials, crates/engine/src/link_cmds.rs).
• Channels: 21 Channel variants per texture set — base color, metallic, roughness, height, normal, emissive, opacity, AO, specular level, specular, glossiness, clear coat weight/roughness/normal, sheen weight/colour/roughness, anisotropy level/angle, subsurface scattering weight, transmission (crates/core/src/channel.rs pub enum Channel). Texture sets 128–8192 px, UDIM/UV tiles with per-tile working resolution and $udim export.
• Viewport: PBR with IBL, ACES/linear tone mapping, depth of field, displacement, 4× MSAA + idle temporal accumulation, channel/mesh-map/mask/UV-checker views, saved cameras (also imported from glTF/FBX/COLLADA/USD) with Ctrl+1…9 bookmarks (camera.bookmark1…9), top-bar layout and perspective/orthographic dropdowns, a draggable 3D/2D divider, and Rendering mode (F10) — a progressive path tracer on GPU compute (the repo claims ~25× CPU) or CPU, with environment importance sampling and an edge-aware denoiser.

Bake and export

• Bake mesh maps — 10 baked maps: normal, world-space normal, ID, ambient occlusion, curvature (also from the normal map), position, thickness, height, bent normal, opacity (crates/core/src/bake/baked_map.rs BakedMap::ALL). v0.3.0 also had ColorMap and WorldDirection; both are gone at v0.4.0, so do not request colorMap/worldDirection any more. GPU ray tracing (the repo claims ~12× the CPU path) or all CPU cores; high-poly meshes with cage, frontal/rear distances, average normals, match by mesh name; 2D cage and skew paint (bake.cage.paint/bake.cage.reset, bake.skew.*); mesh maps can also be imported as images (textureSet.meshMap.set). Fresh settings default to 64 AO rays, cosine distribution, 180° spread and linear AO attenuation (crates/core/src/bake/ray_settings.rs, crates/core/src/bake/ambient_occlusion_attenuation.rs).
• Per-set bake settings: each texture set owns a nested BakeSettings (common resolution/antialiasing/dilation plus per-map parameters). bake.settings reads or edits it: model replaces the whole settings object, patch changes only the named fields (nested maps.ao.parameters.rays.rays, …; null clears optional fields), preserveEnabled keeps the set's Include-in-Bake flag, and flat parameters (resolution, antialiasing, dilation, ao, thickness, bentNormal, rays, maxDistance, curvatureMethod, positionMode, maps, enabled, …) apply last. It returns [{ts, settings, model}] per targeted set (crates/engine/src/bake/mesh_map_command.rs). bake.run takes the same parameters plus ts/cpu and returns {baked, tracer}; there is no auto-rebake at v0.4.0.
• Per-tile bake selection: bake.tile.set {ts?, tile: 1002, enabled: false} excludes one UV tile; session.inspect reports each tile's bakeEnabled; excluded tiles keep their previous baked pixels (crates/engine/src/bake/tile_command.rs).
• Export presets: Document channels + Normal + AO, glTF PBR Metal Roughness, Unreal Engine (Packed), Unity HDRP (Mask Map), Unity Standard (Metallic Smoothness), Blender (Principled BSDF), Godot 4 (ORM), OpenPBR (separate maps) (coat/fuzz/anisotropy/transmission/subsurface maps), Separate maps, Mesh maps — 10 built-ins plus user output templates (per-channel packing, converted maps, JSON shareable) (crates/formats/src/presets.rs). Texture formats: PNG, JPEG, TGA, TIFF, BMP, WEBP, EXR, HDR — depth is per format (PNG/TIFF 8 or 16, EXR 16 or 32 float, HDR 32, the rest 8), plus UV padding, size override, OpenGL/DirectX normals, colour-space conversion of colour maps and $udim tiles (crates/formats/src/export/mod.rs). Mesh export to OBJ (+MTL and maps), textured GLB (clear coat + sheen) and USD (clear coat), 5 formats (crates/engine/src/file_cmds.rs MESH_EXPORT_FORMATS).

Known limitations and not-implemented

At v0.4.0, do not assign these:

• No auto-rebake. The bake.autoRebake commands of v0.3.0 were removed. After changing bake.settings, the mesh, high polys or the skew/cage paint, run bake.run yourself; nothing bakes in the background.
• Old projects are recovered, not converted. v0.4.0 writes format_version: 2 (v0.3.0 wrote 1); older files load, newer files are refused (crates/core/src/project.rs FORMAT_VERSION, crates/formats/src/project_file/mod.rs). A .tcraft whose bake settings or baked map entries no longer deserialize opens with defaults for the unreadable fields (and drops unreadable maps, including the removed ColorMap/WorldDirection) under a log warning (crates/formats/src/project_file/recovery.rs); re-bake to restore those maps. Baked pixels of older UDIM projects keep their old layout — the app does not convert baked pixels.
• mesh_reimport does not preserve paint by default. Pass preserveStrokes: true (MCP/command) to re-project painted pixels where UVs changed; without it the mesh is replaced with no re-projection.
• The macOS app bundle contains only TextureCraft — no texturecraft-cli. Get the CLI from the release's separate macOS CLI zip (packaging/macos/package.sh), or build it. Contents/MacOS verified.
• Pen tilt is not exposed by the windowing layer (ROADMAP.md M2).
• HDF5 Alembic is unsupported (Ogawa only) and Alembic animation reads the first sample only (ROADMAP.md Project and files gaps).
• Sheen and anisotropy do not export through USD (UsdPreviewSurface has no such inputs; GLB and OpenPBR maps carry them) (ROADMAP.md Export gaps).
• The bundled asset library is smaller than the reference app's, and translations have had no native-speaker review (ROADMAP.md Materials/UI gaps).
• Hardware ray tracing is not used (compute shaders only) (ROADMAP.md Viewport gaps).
• The CLI/control/MCP surfaces run commands with defaults and never open dialogs; only ui.menu.invoke behaves like a click (docs/control-protocol.md). Bridge mode cannot touch files itself — the app does — so path tools are unavailable there and project_save without a path becomes File › Save.

How to operate

• Headless one-shot (positional order: input first; run takes the command id then optional JSON params, with -o last): texturecraft-cli new builtin:material_ball out.tcraft → texturecraft-cli bake out.tcraft --resolution 1024 --maps ambientOcclusion,curvature → texturecraft-cli export out.tcraft textures/ --preset "glTF PBR Metal Roughness" --format png → texturecraft-cli render out.tcraft preview.png --size 1024x1024 (apps/texturecraft-cli/src/main.rs; docs/features.md §Built for agents).
• Script a session: texturecraft-cli run project.tcraft layer.add.fill '{"color":"#336699","roughness":0.2}' -o result.tcraft — commands are the same ids commands --filter lists. A batch script is a step list or {"open", "steps", "save"} with paths relative to the current directory.
• Edit bake settings precisely: texturecraft-cli run out.tcraft bake.settings '{"ts":"all","patch":{"maps":{"ao":{"parameters":{"rays":{"rays":128}}}}}}'; bake with overrides via texturecraft-cli run out.tcraft bake.run '{"ts":"all","maps":["ambientOcclusion","curvature"],"resolution":2048}'. Exclude a tile with bake.tile.set {"tile":1002,"enabled":false}.
• Cameras: camera.add {"name":"Hero"} saves the current view; camera.bookmark1…9 (or camera.select {name}) jump to it; texturecraft-cli render scene.tcraft hero.png --camera Hero renders through it.
• Drive the live app: on macOS open -a TextureCraft --args --control 7878 (the bundle has no CLI; --args apply on a fresh launch, so quit a running copy first), or launch the texturecraft binary with --control 7878; read the token from stderr or <temp>/texturecraft-control-7878.token (or set TEXTURECRAFT_CONTROL_TOKEN), send the auth line, then command.run/session.inspect/viewport.screenshot.
• Agent flows: claude mcp add texturecraft -- texturecraft-cli mcp --read-root . --write-root . (or a .mcp.json); bridge to the running app with --bridge 7878. Typical run: project_new → command_run layer.add.fill → bake → command_run mask.add.black → command_run effect.add.generator {"generator":"edgeWear"} → session_inspect → viewport_render → project_save → textures_export (docs/control-protocol.md).
• Verify without screenshots: session.inspect / session_inspect return project, mesh, texture sets (including each tile's bakeEnabled), layer stack, tool, camera, display, history; bake.settings returns the effective settings per set; debug.frames reports frame timing after a scripted stroke.
• TEXTURECRAFT_NO_PREFS=1 isolates a scripted run from the user's saved layout/settings.

Working with an AI agent

• Register the MCP server per docs/control-protocol.md (headless with roots, or bridged). In bridge mode the app reads and writes its own files, so path tools are unavailable and project_save without a path performs File › Save.
• Every tool call maps to one control method; command_run accepts any engine command id except the refused file.* set and path-taking commands. command_list {filter} is the discovery contract.
• Painted strokes and renders share one pixel space: coordinates for paint_stroke can be read off a viewport_render image at the default 1280×800.
• Baking is GPU-first with cpu: true fallback; use bake.settings patch for one parameter instead of hand-building a whole model, and always pass ts when more than one texture set must change.
• For reusable material libraries use the .tcmat round trip (material_save, then material_load above the selection); material_load also ingests MaterialCraft .mcmat/.mcraft packages.
• Treat a recovered project as untrusted until re-baked: check the log for the recovery warning, run session.inspect, re-bake the affected sets, then re-export.
• Reimport a changed mesh with mesh_reimport {"path":"model.glb","preserveStrokes":true} and confirm session_inspect reports modified: true before saving.

Verification protocol

1. texturecraft-cli commands --filter <text> — the live registry for the build in front of you; never trust any static number in this skill over it.
2. session.inspect after each mutation — layer stack, mask targets, fill sources, tile bakeEnabled, baked maps, modified flag and painted tile counts.
3. Bake: bake.settings for the effective per-set model, bake.run for its {baked, tracer} result; session.inspect confirms the baked maps per texture set. Baked output is per-set and per-tile — check the tiles you meant to include.
4. Exports: textures_export returns the written files; check names, packing, per-format bit depth and UDIM tiles against the preset.
5. Frame-loop work (recordings, perf): debug.frames before/after; strokeEnd in its result names the frame a scripted stroke committed.
6. Re-derive counts at v0.4.0: engine registry 172, MCP tools/list 22, serve methods 17, control methods 13, CLI --help 10 subcommands, menu parity 58/58 (docs/parity.md).

Sources & evidence

• Repo: https://github.com/storytold/texturecraft — inspected at tag v0.4.0, commit 16e9d21516434a63ac457f49ffd09005f649c02f (2026-11-06), inspection date 2026-11-07, shallow checkout pinned to the tag; git rev-parse HEAD and git describe --tags both confirm v0.4.0. MIT OR Apache-2.0.
• Installed app: /Applications/TextureCraft.app — TextureCraft 0.4.0 (16e9d21 2026-11-06), bundle ai.storyteller.texturecraft, CFBundleShortVersionString 0.4.0; Contents/MacOS holds only TextureCraft (no CLI); GUI never launched (--version/--help only).
• Read: README.md, ROADMAP.md, AGENTS.md, Cargo.toml, docs/{control-protocol,features,parity,localization-parity}.md, apps/texturecraft-cli/src/main.rs, crates/automation/src/{server,rpc,workspace,security,budgets}.rs, crates/engine/src/{commands,filter_lib,smart_masks,camera_cmds,file_cmds}.rs, crates/engine/src/bake/{mesh_map_command,tile_command,paint_command,model_patch}.rs, crates/core/src/{channel,blend}.rs, crates/core/src/bake/, crates/formats/src/{presets.rs,export/mod.rs,mesh_import/mod.rs,project_file/recovery.rs}, crates/compose/src/eval.rs, crates/paint/src/{alphas,presets}.rs, crates/ui-egui/src/{control,i18n}.rs and crates/ui-egui/src/{toolbar,shelf,viewport}.rs, crates/geom/src/primitives.rs.
• Counts measured from code, not docs: 172 engine command ids (full cmd!/query! extract), 22 MCP #[tool] entries, 17 serve METHODS, 13 control methods (+auth), 10 CLI subcommands, 58/58 menu items (docs/parity.md, generated + test-enforced), 31 FILTERS defs, 24 SMART_MASKS, 72 m( + 21 sm( materials, 23 ProceduralKind, 6 ENVIRONMENTS, 67 alpha-library entries (31 shapes + 36 glyphs), 18 brush presets, 21 Channel variants, 32 BlendMode variants, 10 BakedMaps (12 at v0.3.0; ColorMap/WorldDirection removed), 10 built-in export presets, 9 built-in meshes, 10 UI languages.
• Where repo docs disagree, the code counts win and the drift is noted: ROADMAP.md says 63 procedural materials, 30 filters and 19 channels (code: 72 / 31 / 21); README.md's "8, 16 or 32 bits" shorthand is per-format (PNG/TIFF 8–16, EXR 16–32, HDR 32, others 8); docs/control-protocol.md's CLI --version sample still shows an old 0.1.0 string.
• Per-claim tiering: evidence.md next to this file. Interfaces: 10 languages — English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Arabic (crates/ui-egui/src/i18n.rs).