openai-hatch-pet/references/qa-rubric.md

QA Rubric

Do not accept an atlas until all checks pass.

Geometry

• Exact 1536x1872 dimensions.
• 8 columns x 9 rows.
• Each frame fits inside its 192x208 cell.
• Unused cells are transparent.
• Fully transparent atlas pixels do not retain non-zero RGB residue after export.
• qa/review.json has no errors.
• frames/frames-manifest.json records component extraction for production rows unless stable-slots was intentionally chosen to preserve row-level playback stability after visual inspection.

Character Consistency

• Same silhouette and proportions across every row.
• Same face and expression language.
• Same style, material, palette, lighting, and prop design.
• No frame introduces a new unintended character or object.

Pet-Safe Style

• Art reads as a Codex app pet, not a scene, app icon, logo sheet, or standalone illustration.
• Silhouette is compact and clear enough to read inside a 192x208 cell.
• The chosen style is consistent across every row, including edge treatment, material, lighting, and palette.
• Pixel, plush, clay, sticker, flat vector, 3D toy, painterly mascot, ink, and brand-inspired styles are all acceptable when readable at pet size.
• No tiny accessories, texture detail, logo detail, or text that disappears or becomes noisy at pet size.

Animation Completeness

• Each row uses the exact expected number of frames.
• The first and last frames can loop without an obvious pop.
• Directional rows read as the intended direction.
• Mirrored directional rows preserve temporal frame order rather than reversing the cadence.
• State-specific actions are recognizable at pet size.
• Poses are generated animation variants, not repeated copies of the same source image.
• Preview GIFs do not show unintended size popping, extraction-induced baseline jumps, or wrong directional facing.

App Fitness

• First idle frame works as a static reduced-motion pet.
• The idle row should be calm and low-distraction; reject it if it reads as waving, walking, running, jumping, talking, working, reviewing, reacting dramatically, changing props, or making large pose/silhouette changes.
• No important detail is too small to read.
• No frame is clipped by the cell.
• Failed/review/waiting states are distinct from ordinary idle.
• Contact sheets must show whole sprite poses inside cells, not cropped tiles from a larger reference image.
• Contact sheets must not be accepted if every used frame is just the reference image with small geometric transforms.
• Used cells must not have white or opaque rectangular backgrounds unless the pet intentionally fills the whole cell and the user accepts that tradeoff.
• The chroma key must be visually absent from the character. If extraction removes character regions, choose a different key and regenerate the affected base/rows.
• Contact sheets must not show edge slivers or partial neighboring sprites inside cells.
• Contact sheets must not show darker/lighter versions of the chroma key as shadows, dust, smears, glows, landing marks, or motion effects. These are background extraction failures and should trigger row repair.
• If qa/review.json reports edge pixels, sparse frames, size outliers, or slot-extraction fallback, inspect the row visually and repair it when the issue is visible.
• If qa/review.json reports chroma-adjacent non-transparent pixels, repair the row unless those pixels are an intentional character color and the selected key was manually accepted.
• If preview GIFs show size popping even though the generated strip itself had stable scale and placement, rerun extraction with stable-slots before regenerating the row.
• If previews show wrong facing direction, reversed cadence, non-alternating gait, or an effectively static idle loop, repair or regenerate the affected row.

Repair Policy

Repair the smallest failing scope first:

1. Single bad frame.
2. One row.
3. Full atlas regeneration only when identity or layout is broadly broken.

The normal production path should regenerate only the affected row and copy the selected replacement into the same decoded output path unless the base character is wrong.