Auto Warz — AI Toolchain & Development Pipeline¶

Document Type: Reference / Toolchain Version: 1.0 Status: Living Document — update as tools evolve Last Updated: 2026-08-30 Vault destination: 05_Reference Parent Document: [01_Master GDD](<../01_Design Documents/01_Master GDD.md>) Referenced In: [03_Prompt Library](<../03_Art & Audio/03_Prompt Library.md>)

Overview¶

Auto Warz is developed solo with AI tools acting as force multipliers across every discipline. The developer retains full creative and architectural control — AI generates, the developer curates and decides.

Core Principle: AI assistance may effectively double productive output but does not replace human judgment on architecture, design, balancing, or quality control.

This document owns the tools. Art style is owned by [07_Art Direction Style Bible](<../03_Art & Audio/07_Art Direction Style Bible.md>), prompts by [03_Prompt Library](<../03_Art & Audio/03_Prompt Library.md>), and asset specifications by [05_Asset List & Delivery Specification](<../03_Art & Audio/05_Asset List & Delivery Specification.md>). Where this document and one of those disagree, the other wins — this one is about which software to open, not what to make with it.

Toolchain by Discipline¶

🧠 Programming & Systems¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Claude Code	System design, implementation, refactoring, debugging, review, and documentation	The coding environment. Works directly in the repository rather than suggesting into an editor
Claude (chat)	Design conversation, architecture reasoning, balancing discussion	For thinking before building. Decisions land in the vault, not in chat history

Workflow: 1. Design the system in plain language and record the decision in the vault 2. Implement with Claude Code, in the repository 3. Review, test, and debug — always the developer's responsibility 4. Update the design document and the open-items register in the same pass

⚠️ Never blindly accept AI-generated code. Always understand what it does before committing it.

Changed 2026-08-30. This section previously described a Claude.ai designs, GitHub Copilot implements split. That workflow is over: Claude Code does the implementation directly, and it rewrote the AI instruction baseline in AGENTS.md on 2026-08-26. The split survives nowhere in practice and is recorded here only so its absence is not read as an oversight.

🎨 Concept Art & Visual Development¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Recraft	Building concepts, terrain, resource nodes	Primary workhorse for building concept generation
Leonardo AI	Character art, alternates when Recraft misses	Better for Genesis and expressive character outputs
Vectorizer AI	Raster → SVG conversion	All UI icons and 2D flat elements go through this
Inkscape	SVG cleanup and colour adjustment	Free. Final polish step for all vector assets

Workflow: 1. Check the style in [07_Art Direction Style Bible](<../03_Art & Audio/07_Art Direction Style Bible.md>) first 2. Generate the concept in Recraft using the master style prompt from [03_Prompt Library](<../03_Art & Audio/03_Prompt Library.md>) 3. If Recraft misses → try Leonardo AI as alternate 4. Save approved prompts back to [03_Prompt Library](<../03_Art & Audio/03_Prompt Library.md>) — prompts are assets 5. Send the approved concept to the art designer as a Blender reference

⚠️ The master style prompt is not reproduced here. It lived in this document as a copy and went stale — it still specified the deleted cel-shader direction, thick dark outlines and flat untextured faces. [03_Prompt Library](<../03_Art & Audio/03_Prompt Library.md>) is its only home. Its replacement is OI-249 — [07_Art Direction Style Bible](<../03_Art & Audio/07_Art Direction Style Bible.md>) §4, the Concept Prompt Template, currently Pending. Applying it to the ~40 prompts already in the library is OI-045.

🧱 3D Modelling & Game Assets¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Blender	Low poly modelling, UV, export	The art designer builds all `.glb` assets here from AI concept references

Workflow: 1. Approve the concept in Recraft or Leonardo 2. Art designer builds the low poly .glb in Blender matching the concept 3. Import to Godot 4 4. Apply the standard PBR material with its emission mask 5. Add the separate emissive_mesh child that [05_Asset List & Delivery Specification](<../03_Art & Audio/05_Asset List & Delivery Specification.md>) requires 6. Pass the quality checklist in [05_Asset List & Delivery Specification](<../03_Art & Audio/05_Asset List & Delivery Specification.md>) 7. Commit to res://assets/buildings/bld_[id].glb

⚠️ No AI-to-3D tools in this pipeline. Meshy and CSM were evaluated and removed. Recraft and Leonardo generate concept references only — all 3D is hand-modelled in Blender.

Changed 2026-08-30. Two steps were removed rather than edited. "Apply cel-shader material" and the note calling the cel-shader "the single most important visual system — never skip it" both describe a direction that no longer exists: 00_Canonical Design Facts §6 is clean chamfered hard-surface, matte, standard PBR plus emission mask, no cel-shader and no outlines. The badge_mesh faction badge band step went the same way (OI-250).

🎵 Music & Soundtrack¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Suno	Full track generation from text prompts	Best for ambient, looping background music. Specify BPM, mood, instruments
Udio	Alternative full track generation	Use if Suno output does not fit — different training data, different strengths
Audacity	Loop-point editing, export	Free

Workflow: 1. Define music direction per game layer: - Planet = industrial / ambient - Space = expansive / ethereal - War = tense / driving 2. Generate 5–10 variations per track type 3. Select the best, export, loop-point edit in Audacity 4. Implement in engine with dynamic crossfade between states

Direction per layer:

Layer	Prompt Direction
Planet	Industrial ambient, mechanical rhythms, optimistic tone, loopable, ~90 BPM
Space	Expansive, ethereal, sparse synths, sense of wonder, loopable
War	Tense, driving percussion, brass stabs, urgent energy, loopable

⚠️ Always verify commercial licensing terms of AI music tools before shipping. Suno and Udio terms change — check at time of release.

🔊 Sound Effects & Audio¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
ElevenLabs	Custom SFX generation from text prompts	Good for unique, on-brand sounds — building hums, machine clicks, alerts
Freesound.org	Library of CC-licensed sound effects	For generic sounds such as UI clicks and ambience. Always check the license, CC0 preferred
Audacity	Audio editing, loop creation, normalisation	Free. Essential for cleaning up and formatting all audio assets

Workflow: 1. List every sound event needed — one entry per UI action, building type, and so on 2. Attempt ElevenLabs generation first for unique game sounds 3. Fill gaps with Freesound CC0 assets 4. Edit and normalise all audio in Audacity 5. Implement in engine with correct trigger points

Audio exists only here. No design document covers music or sound effects, so this section is the whole of it. If audio ever gets a real specification — cue lists, mix targets, dynamic layering — it belongs in a design document and this reverts to naming the tools.

✍️ Writing & Narrative¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Claude	World Bible, lore, UI copy, tooltips, in-game text, documentation	Developer provides direction and tone; Claude drafts; developer edits and approves

Workflow: 1. Developer defines the narrative direction — tone, factions, lore pillars 2. Claude drafts content 3. Developer reviews, edits, and approves — the voice must feel consistent 4. Final text is developer-owned, not raw AI output

📐 UI Design¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Claude	Layout design and component planning, then implementation in Godot	One tool across both, since the design/implement split is gone

Workflow: 1. Design the screen against [09_UI-UX Design Document](<../01_Design Documents/Interface/09_UI-UX Design Document.md>) and [16_HUD Layout Design](<../01_Design Documents/Interface/16_HUD Layout Design.md>) 2. Implement in Godot 4 3. Test on all target resolutions — PC minimum, mobile deferred

⚠️ UI styling is currently code-built StyleBoxes with no global Theme resource. That is an outstanding M2.7 item, not the intended end state, and it is why colour values have drifted from the palette in at least one place (OI-329).

📋 Game Design & Documentation¶

Tool	Use Case	Notes
Claude	Design documents, system design, balancing discussion	All design decisions made by the developer; Claude assists with structure and articulation
Obsidian	Reading and navigating the vault	Every document is markdown in the repository. Graph view shows system relationships
MkDocs	Publishing the vault as a site	`mkdocs build --strict` gates every change; a dead internal link fails the build

Vault Structure¶

The vault lives in the repository at docs/, published with MkDocs. This is the current structure, as of the 2026-08-30 restructure.

docs/
├── 00_Ideas/                      4 documents
├── 01_Design Documents/          32 documents
│   ├── 01_Master GDD.md
│   ├── 02_Scope & MVP Document.md
│   ├── Systems/                   factory, vertical layers, pipes, ports,
│   │                              modules, power, pollution, farming
│   ├── Logistics/                 transport, router, drones, trains
│   ├── Interface/                 UI-UX, tutorial, HUD layout, panel flap,
│   │                              notifications
│   ├── Content/                   world gen, research, achievements,
│   │                              gauntlet, levelling, win conditions,
│   │                              ships, restoration
│   └── Unwritten/                 placeholders — see its README first
├── 02_Technical Documents/        4 documents
├── 03_Art & Audio/                7 documents, plus concept image folders
├── 04_Project Management/         7 documents, incl. ROADMAP.md
├── 05_Reference/                  7 documents, incl. this one
├── 06_Outpost/                    7 documents
├── data/                          power-tuning.json and generated JSON
├── open-items.md                  the register — open work lives here
└── closed-items.md                append-only history

⚠️ This block was wrong for six months, and it did real damage.

It previously showed a pre-repository OneDrive folder tree listing Spaceship Design & Building System.md, Combat & War System Design.md, Space Exploration Design.md, Economy & Progression Design.md and Cross-Platform Strategy.md as though they existed. They were planned in February 2026 and never written, and because this tree was presented as fact, other documents began linking to them. That is the origin of five of the nine phantom documents OI-313 found — 23 dead wiki links across the vault.

Those five now exist as placeholders in Unwritten/. This tree is generated from what is actually on disk. Do not add a folder or file to it that has not been created, or the same thing happens again.

Obsidian notes:

[[Document Name]] links resolve by filename searched across the whole vault, not by path — so moving a file breaks nothing, and renaming one breaks every link to it. Verified by test, 2026-08-30.
[#Section Name](<#section-name>) links to a heading in the same document
A numeric prefix orders a file within its folder. It is not an identifier, and nothing is renumbered to close a gap

Asset Naming¶

[tool]_[category]_[name]_v[N].[ext]

recraft_building_mining-drill_v1.png
leonardo_character_genesis_v1.png
vectorizer_icon_metal-ore_v1.svg
suno_music_planet-ambient_v1.mp3
elevenlabs_sfx_belt-loop_v1.wav

Approved prompts live in [03_Prompt Library](<../03_Art & Audio/03_Prompt Library.md>). Prompts are assets — losing them means inconsistent outputs.

Toolchain Principles¶

AI generates, developer curates — every output is reviewed and approved
Consistency over quantity — 20 cohesive assets beat 100 inconsistent ones
Style guide first — lock art and audio style before mass-generating assets
Save everything — prompts, raw outputs, and final versions all get saved
Version control all assets — the repository, not a folder-based scheme
Check licensing at ship time — AI tool terms change; verify commercial rights before release
Understand the code — never ship AI-generated code you do not understand

Licensing Checklist¶

Review all of these before any commercial release:

Suno / Udio — confirm commercial license covers game release
Recraft — confirm commercial usage rights on your plan tier
Leonardo AI — confirm commercial usage rights on your plan tier
Vectorizer AI — confirm commercial usage rights
Freesound assets — verify all used assets are CC0 or commercially licensed
ElevenLabs — confirm SFX commercial usage rights
Blender — open source, no restrictions ✅
Inkscape — open source, no restrictions ✅
Audacity — open source, no restrictions ✅

This checklist exists nowhere else in the vault. It is the reason this document was rewritten rather than deleted alongside 04_AI Tool Selection Guide (OI-039).

Revision History¶

Version	Date	Changes
0.1	2026-02-22	Initial draft
0.2	2026-02-22	Fixed TOC to use Obsidian-native anchor link format
0.3	2026-03-01	Art stack updated — Midjourney, Meshy, Adobe Firefly, CSM and Figma removed; Recraft, Leonardo AI, Vectorizer AI and Inkscape added. All `.glb` hand-modelled in Blender from AI concept references
1.0	2026-08-30	Rewritten (OI-327) and moved to `05_Reference` as `08_AI Toolchain` — it is a tooling reference, not a design document. Programming and UI sections rewritten off the Claude.ai-designs/Copilot-implements split, which no longer happens. Cel-shader material step, the "single most important visual system" note and the `badge_mesh` step removed as a direction that no longer exists (§6 of Canonical, OI-250). The duplicated master style prompt deleted rather than updated — `03_Prompt Library` is its only home and OI-027 owns its replacement. Vault structure block replaced with the real structure (OI-328): the old one was a pre-repository OneDrive tree presenting five unwritten documents as fact, and is the origin of five of OI-313's nine phantom documents. Audio, writing, naming, principles and the licensing checklist kept — the checklist and the audio toolchain exist nowhere else, which is why this was a rewrite and not a deletion.

Update this whenever a tool is adopted or dropped. The goal is that anyone — including future-you after a long break — can pick it up and know exactly which software the game is built with.