Image Prompts for Maintaining Agent Sandbox Systems

Table of Contents

1. How this file works

The standard wal.sh banner pipeline reads banner.prompt in the note directory and produces banner.png via gmake banner DIR=site/research/maintaining-agent-sandbox-systems (see .claude/skills/banner/SKILL.md). This file is the variants registry — it holds every prompt considered for this note, including the one currently active.

To switch the active prompt, copy the chosen option's text into banner.prompt and rerun gmake banner. To generate all variants serially for side-by-side comparison, use the snippet in 3 below.

Sub-files this note has:

  • banner.prompt – the currently-selected prompt (gmake banner reads this)
  • banner.png – the finalized 728x90 8-bit grayscale leaderboard banner (when generated)
  • banner.raw.png – the 1024x1024 flux intermediate (kept for RSS media, gitignored)

2. Header Image Prompts

Core themes: boundary, isolation, the cost of the boundary over time, egress chokepoint. Lead candidate: Option A (three enclosed yards).

2.1. Option A: Three enclosed yards (active in banner.prompt)

Wide horizontal leaderboard banner, monochrome grayscale, flat minimal editorial style. Three identical small enclosed rectangular yards arranged in a row, each surrounded by a thin geometric wall and containing a single sealed glass jar at center; a tall slender lamppost stands at the boundary between adjacent yards, casting a faint downward cone. Generous negative space above and below. No text, no letters, no numbers, no faces, no logos.

Captures: multiple isolated environments with a shared boundary keeper, the recurring maintenance lamp (the cost over time).

2.2. Option B: Isolated island

Wide horizontal leaderboard banner, monochrome grayscale, flat minimal editorial style. A single small isolated island sits at horizontal center on calm open water; one stylized palm tree at the island's center; a thin rope bridge extends from the island and dissolves into negative space before reaching the frame edge; a sealed wooden crate rests beside the tree. Generous negative space on both horizons. No text, no letters, no numbers, no faces, no logos.

Captures: isolation as the primary metaphor; the dissolved rope bridge is the "boundary that does not fully connect."

2.3. Option C: Suspended cell

Wide horizontal leaderboard banner, monochrome grayscale, flat minimal editorial style. A small rectangular workshop enclosed by thin vertical perimeter bars suspended in open space; inside the workshop, a single workbench with one tool and a faint cable that terminates at the inner side of the perimeter and does not pass through; long horizontal negative space extending left and right of the cell. No text, no letters, no numbers, no faces, no logos.

Captures: the literal jail-bars metaphor + the terminated cable (network egress denied at the boundary).

3. Generate-all loop

Run from a box where ollama + flux2-klein is reachable (mini.local). Tangle-able or copy/paste. Produces three side-by-side banner-<name>.png files + the .raw.png intermediates (kept for RSS media). After review, copy the chosen one over banner.png.

set -e
D=site/research/maintaining-agent-sandbox-systems
cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"

# Tangle each Option's #+begin_quote into a temp .prompt, generate, finalize.
# (Or — simpler — copy the quote text manually into a temp file per variant.)

for variant in yards island cell ; do
  case "$variant" in
    yards)  src="$D/banner.prompt" ;;
    island) src="/tmp/banner-island.prompt"
            cat > "$src" <<'PROMPT'
Wide horizontal leaderboard banner, monochrome grayscale, flat minimal editorial style. A single small isolated island sits at horizontal center on calm open water; one stylized palm tree at the island's center; a thin rope bridge extends from the island and dissolves into negative space before reaching the frame edge; a sealed wooden crate rests beside the tree. Generous negative space on both horizons. No text, no letters, no numbers, no faces, no logos.
PROMPT
            ;;
    cell)   src="/tmp/banner-cell.prompt"
            cat > "$src" <<'PROMPT'
Wide horizontal leaderboard banner, monochrome grayscale, flat minimal editorial style. A small rectangular workshop enclosed by thin vertical perimeter bars suspended in open space; inside the workshop, a single workbench with one tool and a faint cable that terminates at the inner side of the perimeter and does not pass through; long horizontal negative space extending left and right of the cell. No text, no letters, no numbers, no faces, no logos.
PROMPT
            ;;
  esac

  echo "=== generating banner-$variant ==="
  scripts/gen-banner-raw "$src" "$D/banner-$variant.raw.png"
  scripts/banner-finalize "$D/banner-$variant.raw.png" "$D/banner-$variant.png" "$src" "x/flux2-klein:4b"
done

echo ""
for v in yards island cell ; do
  printf '%-30s %s\n' "banner-$v.png" "$(identify -format '%w x %h %z-bit %[colorspace] %B bytes' "$D/banner-$v.png" 2>/dev/null || echo missing)"
done
echo ""
echo "Pick one with: cp $D/banner-<variant>.png $D/banner.png"

4. Generation log

Append rows as banners are generated, so the provenance trail beats the PNG metadata for searchability.

Date Variant Host Result Notes
pending yards mini.local -- first run
pending island mini.local --  
pending cell mini.local --