Brand & style guide

• Plain dark gray rock body. No stripes, ever. No bands, no patterns.
• Always wearing a full outfit. Never bare. Faces-only emojis are the one exception (head only).
• Big teal eyes with white highlights, small friendly mouth.
• Two arms, two legs, little white-and-teal sneakers.
• Hats sit on his head. No chin straps (hard hat included).
• Verdict colors: Real = green · Half-real = yellow/amber · Vapor = red · Testing = teal / white lab coat.
• Topic costumes match the repo's category (gallery below).
• Holiday & sports costumes: on hold. The outfit switcher and overlays were removed on 2026-10-17. If they come back: real art only, plain colors, no team logos, no hand gestures.
• Retired / rejected: stripes, five spider legs, the hand-drawn SVG Rocky, Pebble Bot, Rocky Crab, chin straps, the stamp badge, the foam finger.

# Rocky Tested: Brand & Style Guide v3 (2026-10-17)

## Who Rocky is
Rocky is a cute little rock alien engineer. He installs hyped repos, AI tools, models and MCP servers, measures what they really do, and tells the truth kindly. Duolingo-mascot energy: playful, warm, approachable, helpful instead of guilt-trippy.
**Motto:** "Rocky measure. Rocky tell truth. Rocky help fix."

## Character lock (approved 2026-10-17, never change)
- **Plain dark gray rock body.** No stripes, ever. No bands, no patterns.
- **Always wearing a full outfit.** Never bare. (Head-only reaction faces are the one exception.)
- **Big teal eyes** with white highlights and a small friendly mouth.
- **Two arms, two legs, little white-and-teal sneakers.**
- **Hats sit on his head with NO chin strap** (hard hat included).
- **Verdict colors:** Real = green · Half-real = yellow/amber · Vapor = red · Testing = teal / white lab coat.
- **Topic costumes** match the repo's category (list below).
- **Holiday & sports costumes: on hold.** The header outfit switcher and the pumpkin/bats/foam-finger overlays were removed on 2026-10-17 (the foam finger read as a rude gesture). If costumes return: real generated art only, plain colors, no team logos, no hand gestures.
- **Rejected / retired:** stripes, five spider legs, the old hand-drawn SVG Rocky, the older generated sheets with stripes, Pebble Bot, Rocky Crab, chin straps, the stamp badge, the foam finger.

## Source art
Approved sheets live in `brand/source-art/` (`verdict-outfits.jpg`, `faces.jpg`, `topic-outfits-1.jpg`, `topic-outfits-2.jpg`).
`sneakers-reference.jpg` is an older sheet with stripes: **reference only, never on the site.**
`scripts/slice_art.py` cuts them into transparent assets: `brand/assets/*.png` masters and `static/img/rocky/rocky-<name>-<size>.webp`.
Contact sheet: `brand/contact-sheet.png`. When making new art, pass the approved sheets as reference images and repeat the character lock in the prompt.

## Verdict outfits (`rocky-<name>-512|256|128.webp`)
| Pose | Outfit | Use |
|---|---|---|
| REAL (`real`) | green hoodie + green cap, thumbs up | REAL verdict stamp, real cards |
| HALF-REAL (`half-real`) | yellow safety vest + hard hat (no chin strap), magnifier | HALF-REAL verdict, Recycle-o-meter |
| VAPOR (`vapor`) | red hazmat suit, unimpressed, puff of smoke | VAPOR verdict |
| TESTING (`testing`) | white lab coat + goggles, bubbling flask | in-progress reviews, request form, og:image |
| SHIP IT (`ship-it`) | navy cap, teal tee, clipboard | home hero, default, holiday costume base |

## Faces (`rocky-face-<name>-256|96|48.webp`)
amaze! (logo mark, favicon, X avatar) · proud · curious · shook · thinking · side eye · mind blown · nope · crying laughing · facepalm · love it · sus
- Claim results: amaze (holds) / side-eye (stretched) / nope (failed) / thinking (results coming)
- Empty states: thinking or curious · Errors and 404: facepalm or shook · Recycled hype: sus · Thank-yous: love it

## Topic outfits (`rocky-topic-<name>-512|256|128.webp`)
| Topic | Outfit | Site category |
|---|---|---|
| vision | beret, glasses, camcorder | media-gen |
| phishing | bucket hat, fishing vest, rod with an envelope | mcp-servers/comms, email tools |
| cad | blue shirt, pencil, blueprint | cad-3d |
| trading-bots | navy suit, chart | trading-bots |
| coding-agents | teal hoodie, headphones, laptop | coding-agents |
| voice-audio | denim jacket, mic | media-gen/voice, media-gen/music |
| security | detective coat + deerstalker, magnifier | data-rag (and security repos) |
| robotics | coveralls, wrench, robot buddy | agent-frameworks |
| ai-models | graduation gown, diploma | local-models |
| mcp-servers | green polo, lanyard, cables | mcp-servers |
| prompts | wizard hat + robe, glowing scroll | "magic prompt" reviews |
| speed-claims | red racing suit, stopwatch, helmet | bot-ops, speed/benchmark claims |
A review page shows the verdict pose plus the topic Rocky for its category (`TOPIC_FOR` in `scripts/build.py`).

## Holiday & sports costumes (on hold)
Removed from the site on 2026-10-17. `data/outfits.json` stays in the repo (and at `/v1/outfit`) but nothing reads it. Don't bring back overlays drawn in code.

## Logo
- **New logo coming.** Options are being made for review; don't design one in the meantime.
- **For now:** the header shows the amaze! face plus the "Rocky Tested" wordmark in Fredoka 700 ("Rocky" teal, "Tested" yellow with a thin ink outline).
- **Retired:** the stamp badge (`/logo-badge.svg` still answers but is no longer used anywhere).
- Favicons: `/favicon.ico`, `/favicon.svg`, `/apple-touch-icon.png`, `/icon-192.png`, `/icon-512.png`. Social preview: `/og/rocky-og.png` (1200×630).
- X exports (not uploaded): `brand/x/rocky-x-profile-400.png`, `brand/x/rocky-x-banner-1500x500.png`.

## Page patterns
- **Verdict cards:** four playing-card style cards (REAL, HALF-REAL, VAPOR, TESTING) with corner letters, the verdict pose and a one-line explainer.
- **Testing cards:** one topic Rocky, category chip, a plain-English explainer taken from the repo's README/description, live GitHub stats (stars, forks, open issues, last push, license, language) and an ETA line.
- **Review pages:** the topic Rocky is the big image with a small Testing badge. Before any results there's a single "Results coming. Here's what Rocky will measure" list, plus empty Sneak peek and Outputs slots.
- **ETAs** come from `data/queue.json`, are always labeled as estimates, and are shown in Central Time (or the visitor's own time zone). If nothing is planned the line says "Not scheduled yet".
- **Times** show as readable dates such as "Oct 15, 2026, 2:04 PM CT". Never show raw UTC strings.

## Color
| Name | Hex | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Real Green | #2E9D4F | REAL |
| Half-real Amber | #E0A500 | HALF-REAL |
| Vapor Red | #D63031 | VAPOR |
| Rocky Teal | #0F8B8D | eyes, sneakers, links, TESTING |
| Safety Yellow | #F5B800 | primary buttons, wordmark |
| Rock Gray | #4A4744 | Rocky's body (plain) |
| Ink | #26221F | outlines, text, chunky shadows |
| Paper | #FFFBF0 | background (with soft cream polka dots) |
| Mint | #D7F2F2 | pills, table headers, testing panels |

## Type
- **Fredoka 600/700**: headlines, buttons, stamps, nav
- **Nunito 400/700/800**: body
- Both are self-hosted woff2 files under `/fonts/` (SIL OFL).

## UI style
Chunky 4px ink outlines, 24px rounded corners, solid offset shadows (`0 6px 0 ink`), buttons that "press" on hover, tinted art panels behind Rocky (mint, green, amber, red by verdict). Gentle motion only: bob, wiggle on hover, pop-in. All motion is off under `prefers-reduced-motion`.

## Verdict badges
Rotated stamps with the matching verdict pose inside: **REAL** (green) · **HALF-REAL** (amber) · **VAPOR** (red) · **TESTING…** (teal). Never invent a verdict. Draft pages show TESTING and a "Testing in progress" notice.

## Voice
Gentle movie-Rocky broken English: short sentences, few articles, sincere and curious.
- Catchphrases: "Amaze, amaze, amaze!" (it's good) · "Question?" (a polite challenge) · "Rocky measure." · "Fist my bump." (thanks a contributor) · "Bad bad bad." (only for real security problems)
- Examples:
  - "README say 10x faster. Rocky measure: 1.3x. Still good! Not 10x. Question?"
  - "Install take 4 minutes. Work first try. Amaze, amaze, amaze!"
  - "Rocky look for repo. Repo is 404. Rocky sad. Maybe link typo?"
- Plain-English mode is for tables, methods and legal: normal clear English, no Rocky-speak.

## Do
- Use the approved art as-is; pick the outfit that matches the verdict or topic.
- Use faces as small reactions (claim rows, empty states, 404).
- Credit authors by name on every review, and thank them.
- Separate the claim from the measurement and link the source of the claim.
- Offer a fix or file a helpful issue upstream. Use counts, not adjectives, for recycled hype.
- Keep everything rerunnable (Dockerfile, logs, clip).

## Don't
- Add stripes, show Rocky without an outfit, add chin straps, or bring back the spider legs, Pebble Bot or Rocky Crab.
- Recolor his body, or stretch, squash or skew the art.
- Mock people, call anyone a scammer, or speculate about motives.
- Publish a verdict before the test is finished.
- Do politics or take sides on teams beyond the playful color picker. No team logos, movie stills or other people's trademarks.
- Mention the operator's private projects, clients or family.
- Let sponsors or payment touch a verdict.