Transparency
SpriteCook doesn’t pay us and there’s no affiliate link. The art in the reel is an example we made with a different AI, not with SpriteCook, and the time figures shown in the video are rough estimates, not a measurement. Data checked on 12-Nov-2026 on spritecook.ai and in the plugin’s official repository.
Claude Code can already program a whole game for you: a platformer in a single HTML file, a Godot project, Phaser… The problem comes with big art, like a final boss. Claude “draws” it with code (shapes, gradients, lighting), so it comes out with soft shading, like a 3D model, and doesn’t fit the pixel art in the rest of the level.
SpriteCook is a plugin for Claude Code and Claude Desktop that gives Claude tools to generate sprites, animate them and paint tilesets. The key to making the boss fit: you give it screenshots of your game as a style guide.
The flow in 4 steps
Screenshots of your game
One of the level and one of your character, as PNG.
Style guide
Claude uploads them to SpriteCook and uses them to copy the palette, pixel size and shading.
Boss + attack
It generates 2 variants of the boss, you pick one and it animates it.
Into the level
Claude replaces the code-drawn boss with the new sprites.
What you need
- Claude Code (or Claude Desktop with the Code tab) on your Claude plan.
- A SpriteCook account: it’s created the first time you sign in, no card.
- Two screenshots of your game as PNG: one of the level where the boss will appear and one with your character.
Connect SpriteCook to Claude Code (2 commands)
Open Claude Code in your game’s folder and type, inside the session:
/plugin marketplace add SpriteCook/claude-plugin
/plugin install spritecook@spritecook
Then run /reload-plugins (or restart Claude Code).
- Sign-in: the first time Claude uses a SpriteCook tool, your browser opens so you can sign in (OAuth). No API key needed. Don’t paste keys, tokens or cookies into the chat.
- What it installs: under the hood it’s a hosted MCP server plus 10 skills that teach Claude how to use it (generate sprites, animate, tilesets, upload images, export to Godot…).
- Updating:
claude plugin update spritecook@spritecookand then/reload-plugins. Or turn on auto-update in/plugin→ Marketplaces → spritecook → “Enable auto-update”: third-party plugins don’t update on their own.
In Claude Desktop
According to spritecook.ai/agents: Code tab → Customize → + → Create plugin → Add marketplace → “Add from a repository” → paste https://github.com/SpriteCook/claude-plugin → Sync → install SpriteCook and connect your account.
Alternative: from the plugin’s source code
git clone https://github.com/SpriteCook/claude-plugin.git
cd claude-plugin
claude --plugin-dir .
The trick: your screenshots as a style guide
According to the plugin’s official skills, SpriteCook accepts two kinds of reference image:
| Type | What it’s for | For the boss? |
|---|---|---|
Style guide (style_asset_ids) | Mood images to copy the palette, proportions, pixel size and shading style. Up to 10 is safe on almost every model (some accept 14). | Yes, this one. |
Specific reference (reference_asset_id) | An image that is “the source”, e.g. “this same character in another pose”. | No, except for variants of the boss itself. |
Your screenshots are local files, so Claude first uploads them to your SpriteCook library and then uses them as a guide. You don’t have to do it yourself: just ask.
Clean screenshots
The reference copies its flaws too (noise, stray pixels) and sets the pixel size. Use clean screenshots and, if you can, without the UI on top.
Step by step: your final boss
1. The screenshots
Save two screenshots in your project, for example screenshots/level3.png and screenshots/hero.png.
2. Ask for the boss
Upload screenshots/level3.png and screenshots/hero.png to SpriteCook and use them as a style guide (style references).
Generate the final boss of level 3: a huge, hunched swamp troll, green skin with moss on its back, two red mushrooms, tusks, glowing yellow eyes and a club made from a tree trunk.
Side view facing left, transparent background, same pixel size and same palette as the screenshots.
Give me 2 variants and spend as little as possible.Swap the troll for your own boss: what matters are the first two lines (upload the screenshots and use them as a style guide) and asking for the same pixel size and the same palette.
3. Pick one
Keep one (“the first one”) and ask Claude to save it in the project.
4. The attack
Animate the chosen troll: it raises the club with both hands and slams it into the ground, with dust and rocks on impact, then returns to the starting pose.
Check the sprite sheet and redo it if any frame looks off.If the animation needs a different starting pose, Claude first prepares that pose from the troll and then animates it (the plugin’s spritecook-animate-assets skill explains this).
5. Into the game
Replace the boss you drew with code with these sprites: idle on a loop and the attack every 3 seconds, with screen shake on impact.Price: how far the free plan goes
| Plan | Price | Credits per month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 40 (every 30 days, they don’t roll over, no card) |
| Starter | $12/month | 1,000 |
| Adventurer | $30/month | 3,000 |
| Archmage | $100/month | 12,000 |
Prices exclude VAT and are for monthly billing (annual gets a 20% discount), checked on 12-Nov-2026 on spritecook.ai/pricing. They change often: check the page before paying.
- An image costs 8-12 credits (12 with the default model); at 2K it costs x1.5 and at 4K, x2.5.
- An animation costs 20-26 credits (26 with the default model).
- On the free plan, the boss (1-2 images) and its attack (1 animation) just about fit in one month.
- On the free plan your creations show up in the public gallery and you can save up to 10.
- Commercial use allowed on all plans, the free one too, without crediting SpriteCook (according to its pricing page; its terms and those of the AI models it uses also apply).
Before generating, ask Claude for your balance and the cost of each model: “Use SpriteCook to check my credit balance”.
Tips
- Screenshots first, then the boss. Without a style guide you’re back to the “3D model” problem.
- Animations need a SpriteCook asset (its
asset_id): local images get uploaded first. - Queued jobs: long ones can stay “queued”. Tell Claude to check the status again.
- Expiring links: if a download fails, ask it to check the asset again.
Checklist
- SpriteCook installed with the 2 commands and
/reload-plugins. - Signed in through the browser (no keys pasted into the chat).
- Two clean PNG screenshots of the game.
- Boss generated with the screenshots as a style guide.
- Attack animated and checked frame by frame.
- Sprites in the game and credit balance checked.
Links
- SpriteCook for agents: spritecook.ai/agents
- Pricing: spritecook.ai/pricing
- Plugin (open source, MIT): github.com/SpriteCook/claude-plugin