Style-Explore Candidates Schema

candidates.json is the input the agent writes during Phase 2 style strategy and generate-illustrations.py --style-explore reads to render the exploration grid.

• Owner skill: illustrations (Step 3 — Define Style Strategy)
• Writer: the agent, after proposing candidate styles and computing the model shortlist
• Reader: generate-illustrations.py --style-explore
• Location: style-explore/candidates.json in the talk working directory

Schema (schema_version 1)

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "slides": { "FULL": 7, "IMG+TXT": 12 },
  "models": ["gemini-3-pro-image-preview", "gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview"],
  "styles": [
    {
      "name": "Blueprint Schematic",
      "anchors": {
        "FULL": "Full-bleed style anchor paragraph for this style.",
        "IMG+TXT": "Portrait anchor paragraph for this style."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Fields

• schema_version — integer, must be 1. The reader rejects other values.
• slides — maps each format to one representative slide number from the outline. The render pulls that slide's scene prompt and substitutes each style's anchor for the [STYLE ANCHOR] token. A format whose slide has no image prompt in the outline is skipped with a warning.
• models — the shortlisted model ids (from model_registry.py --shortlist), best-first. Each is rendered for every style × format. Codenames resolve via the registry alias map before dispatch.
• styles — candidate styles. Each needs a name and an anchors map of format → anchor text. A style that omits a format is skipped for that format.

Output

The render writes style-explore/<style-slug>/<format-slug>/<model>.<ext> per cell plus style-explore/index.md, a contact sheet grouped by style linking each rendered image.

Only schema_version 1 is accepted today — the reader rejects any other value. candidates.json is a transient per-talk input, not a persisted record, so there is no on-read migration. A future schema change bumps the version and teaches the reader to handle the new shape.