| name | vera-ai-image-reviewing |
| description | Runs data quality diagnostics and baseline image classification. Produces class distribution tables, sample image grids, image size and channel statistics, a baseline CNN or pre-trained feature extractor with Logistic Regression, weighted F1 and macro AUC (bootstrapped 95% CIs), confusion matrix, and ROC curves. Ends with a recommendation block listing additional models available in the analysis workflow. Outputs Python scripts with 2 publication-quality plots. Triggered when user has image data and says "image classification," "computer vision," "CNN," "object recognition," "medical imaging," "image detection," "visual recognition," "photo classification," "X-ray classification," or describes a task involving classifying images into categories. Does not handle free-text NLP or tabular-only data. |
| argument-hint | ["dataset-path-or-description"] |
| allowed-tools | Read, Bash, Write, Edit |
Image Classification --- Data Diagnostics & Baseline Modeling
Table of Contents
Open-source skill.
Scope Boundary
Use this skill when:
- The task is supervised image classification with labeled folders or label metadata.
- A reproducible baseline is needed before transfer learning, ViT, or ensembles.
Do not use this skill when:
- The task is detection, segmentation, captioning, retrieval, video understanding, or generation.
- The dataset is so small that any result should be treated only as a smoke test, not a benchmark.
- The main signal is tabular metadata rather than image pixels.
Workflow
Read each step file in workflow/ before executing that step.
| Step | Responsibility | Executor | Document | Input | Output |
|---|
| Collect | Collect Inputs | Main Agent | workflow/step01-collect-inputs.md | User input | Structured input summary |
| Diagnose | Check Distribution | Main Agent | workflow/step02-check-distribution.md | Prior step output | PART 1 code block |
| Baseline | Run Primary Test | Main Agent | workflow/step03-run-primary-test.md | Prior step output | PART 2-3 code blocks + T1 track artifacts |
Decision Tree
1. CHECK CLASS BALANCE
├── Balanced (minority ≥ 10%) → standard methods
└── Imbalanced (minority < 10%) → weighted loss, data augmentation note
2. IMAGE SIZE STRATEGY
├── Uniform size → use directly
└── Variable size → resize to common dimension (224x224 default)
3. BASELINE MODEL SELECTION
├── N ≥ 1000 → Simple CNN (train from scratch)
└── N < 1000 → Pre-trained feature extractor (ResNet18) + LogReg
# N=1000 threshold: below this, from-scratch CNNs typically overfit (too few examples
# per parameter). ResNet18 is deliberately the smallest modern ResNet — large enough
# to carry useful ImageNet features, small enough that feature-extraction + LogReg is
# tractable on CPU. Larger backbones (ResNet50, ViT) are reserved for the analyzing skill.
Required Inputs
| Role | What to collect |
|---|
| Image source | Directory path, dataset name, or file format |
| Label source | Subdirectory names, CSV mapping, or metadata |
| Image format | PNG, JPEG, DICOM, etc. |
| Number of classes | Binary or multi-class |
Code Structure
PART 0: Setup & Data Loading
PART 1: Data Diagnostics → plot_01_data_overview.png
PART 2: Baseline Classification → plot_02_confusion_roc.png
PART 3: Recommendation Block → text pointing to analysis workflow
Reporting Standards
- Metrics: weighted F1 and macro AUC (OVR) — always with 95% bootstrapped CIs
- For imbalanced classes (minority < 10%): also report PR-AUC (Average Precision) — primary discrimination metric under imbalance.
- Format: "F1 = 0.XXX, 95% CI [0.XXX, 0.XXX]"; "PR-AUC = 0.XXX, 95% CI [..., ...]"
- AUC: "AUC = 0.XXX, 95% CI [0.XXX, 0.XXX]"
- Decimal places: 3 for F1/AUC, 1 for percentages, 0 for counts
- Image dimensions: report as HxWxC
- Sample size: report final analytic N (train/val/test split sizes)
- Data augmentation: always report what augmentations were applied
- Bootstrapped CIs: 1000 iterations, 2.5th/97.5th percentiles
Models Available
| Status | Models |
|---|
| Implemented in this skill | Simple CNN (larger datasets) or ResNet18 feature extractor + Logistic Regression (small datasets) |
Implemented downstream in vera-ai-image-generating | ResNet50, EfficientNet-B0, VGG16 (legacy replication only), DenseNet121, ViT-B/16, soft voting, stacking, GradCAM, attention maps |
| Planned but not yet shipped | ConvNeXt-Tiny is a roadmap item only; there is no open-source src/ module for it yet |
Example Dataset
torchvision built-ins: CIFAR10, FashionMNIST, MNIST.
Python: from torchvision.datasets import CIFAR10
Configuration Defaults
Pipeline constants live in config/default.json. Read it before generation. Key knobs:
alpha, ci_level — inference thresholds
plot_dpi, plot_width, plot_height — figure dimensions
bootstrap_iterations — bootstrap CIs for metrics
split.{test_size, val_size_of_train, random_state} — data-split reproducibility
image.{resize, normalize_mean, normalize_std} — preprocessing (ImageNet norms by default)
baseline.{N_threshold, small_N_model, large_N_model} — N-dependent baseline choice (ResNet18 feature extractor for small N; simple CNN for large N)
augmentation.* — train-time augmentation pipeline
class_balance_threshold — minority-class rare-event threshold
To override: create config/local.json; the runtime merges local over default.
Why These Defaults
baseline.N_threshold = 1000 is a practical overfitting guardrail, not a formal cutoff. Below that scale, frozen transfer features usually behave more predictably than a from-scratch CNN in open-source baseline runs.
image.resize = 224x224 and ImageNet normalization are defaults because they align with the shipped torchvision backbones and make the baseline comparable to the downstream transfer-learning models.
- PR-AUC is promoted under class imbalance for the same reason as the NLP and structured skills: ROC-AUC often looks healthier than the positive-class retrieval story when negatives dominate.
Minimal Smoke Test
- Smoke-test prompt: "Run
vera-ai-image-reviewing on a 2-4 class subset of CIFAR-10 or an equivalent ImageFolder dataset. Produce the standard T1 artifacts."
- Suggested fixture: 20-100 images per class for a CPU-only smoke test; use the ResNet18 feature-extractor branch if the sample is small.
- Expected pass condition: the run writes one runnable Python script,
methods.md, results.md, tables/, references.bib, and the two baseline figures listed below.
Cross-Skill Interface
Output:
├── code_python → .py script
├── methods_md → methods.md baseline fragment
├── results_md → results.md baseline results fragment
├── tables/ → Markdown/CSV tables for dataset stats + metrics
├── figures/ → 2 PNGs (data overview + confusion/ROC)
├── references_bib → .bib with baseline/evaluation citations
└── recommendations → text block (what analysis workflow produces)
When this skill is used as T1_baseline inside vera-ai-application-pipelining,
the standardized track artifacts above are REQUIRED, not optional.