Cosmetic forms: compact Appearance picker

Pull sprite-only variants into the snapshot — Unown letters, Vivillon
patterns, Furfrou trims, seasonal Deerling/Sawsbuck, Flabébé-line colours,
Alcremie decorations, Pikachu caps (278 across 50 species). They share the
base Pokémon's typing/stats/abilities/learnset, so they carry only
{ slug, id, name, sprite } and never trigger a /pokemon fetch.

build-snapshot.mjs: cosmetic varieties (previously dropped) and the
/pokemon-form entries for species with >1 form now land in
species.cosmeticForms.

PokemonDetail: a single <select> "Appearance" dropdown, separate from the
mechanical form pills, that swaps only the hero artwork + label. Picking a
cosmetic look while a mechanical form is active reverts to base first.
Card "+N forms" badge counts cosmetic variants too.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_017Ve7HLspzeG2xDPtJQ8vmu

README.md

@@ -71,10 +71,14 @@ Working app with a type-themed UI:
 
 - **Dex grid** — type-tinted cards (official artwork, spotlight, ghost number),
   per-dex progress, name/number filter, caught/favorite filters.
-- **Forms** — Megas, Gigantamax, regional forms and alternate formes (264
-  across 203 species) in the snapshot; a form switcher on the detail page
-  rebuilds types / stats / matchups / abilities / learnset / artwork for
-  the chosen form. Cards show a "+N forms" badge.
+- **Forms** — Megas, Gigantamax, regional forms and alternate formes in the
+  snapshot; a pill switcher on the detail page rebuilds types / stats /
+  matchups / abilities / learnset / artwork for the chosen form. Purely
+  cosmetic variants (Unown's 27 letters, Vivillon's 19 patterns, Furfrou
+  trims, seasonal Deerling/Sawsbuck, Flabébé line colours, Alcremie's 62
+  decorations, Pikachu caps — 278 across 50 species) get a separate compact
+  "Appearance" dropdown that only swaps the sprite. Cards show a "+N forms"
+  badge.
 - **Detail** — type-gradient hero + tabbed sheet (About / Stats / Evolution /
   Moves / Locations); coloured animated stat bars; defensive type matchups;
   evolution chain re-parented to the selected game's generation; learnset with

scripts/build-snapshot.mjs

@@ -211,6 +211,13 @@ async function main() {
       .filter((v) => !v.is_default)
       .map((v) => v.pokemon.name);
     const forms = [];
+    // Sprite-only variants (Pikachu caps, Alcremie decorations, Gastrodon
+    // east/west, Unown letters, Vivillon patterns, Furfrou trims, seasonal
+    // Deerling/Sawsbuck, Flabébé/Floette/Florges colours…). Share the base
+    // Pokémon's typing, stats, abilities and learnset — only the art differs,
+    // so they get a lightweight { slug, id, name, sprite } record and a
+    // separate, compact picker in the UI.
+    const cosmeticForms = [];
     for (const slug of variantSlugs) {
       let fp;
       try {
@@ -232,19 +239,54 @@ async function main() {
         height: fp.height,
         weight: fp.weight,
       };
-      // Drop purely-cosmetic forms: same typing, stats AND abilities as the
-      // base, and not a named category (mega/gmax/regional/primal).
+      // Purely-cosmetic forms: same typing, stats AND abilities as the base,
+      // and not a named category (mega/gmax/regional/primal).
       const cosmetic =
         cat === 'other' &&
         ftypes.join() === baseTypes.join() &&
         statKey(fstats) === baseStatKey &&
         abilKey(fp) === baseAbil;
-      if (cosmetic) continue;
+      if (cosmetic) {
+        cosmeticForms.push({
+          slug,
+          id: fp.id,
+          name: formLabel(slug, sp.name),
+          sprite: fp.sprites?.front_default || null,
+        });
+        continue;
+      }
       forms.push(entry);
     }
 
+    // Cosmetic forms that live on /pokemon-form rather than as varieties
+    // (Unown, Vivillon, Furfrou, Deerling, Sawsbuck, Flabébé line…).
+    if ((pk.forms || []).length > 1) {
+      const known = new Set([...forms, ...cosmeticForms].map((f) => f.slug));
+      for (const fref of pk.forms) {
+        if (fref.name === pk.name || known.has(fref.name)) continue;
+        let fm;
+        try {
+          fm = await api(fref.url);
+        } catch {
+          continue;
+        }
+        if (fm.is_default || fm.is_battle_only || fm.is_mega) continue;
+        const rest = fm.name.startsWith(`${sp.name}-`)
+          ? fm.name.slice(sp.name.length + 1)
+          : fm.form_name || fm.name;
+        cosmeticForms.push({
+          slug: fm.name,
+          id: fm.id,
+          name: pretty(rest || fm.form_name || fm.name),
+          sprite: fm.sprites?.front_default || null,
+        });
+        known.add(fm.name);
+      }
+    }
+
     return {
       forms,
+      ...(cosmeticForms.length ? { cosmeticForms } : {}),
       id,
       name: sp.name,
       generation: idFromUrl(sp.generation.url),

src/components/Card.js

@@ -61,9 +61,10 @@ export function Card(species, number, { spriteStyle = 'official', versionGroup,
       el('span', { class: 'card__num' }, `#${num}`),
       el('span', { class: 'card__name' }, species.name.replace(/-/g, ' ')),
       el('span', { class: 'card__types' }, ...types.map(TypeChip)),
-      species.forms?.length
-        ? el('span', { class: 'card__forms' }, `+${species.forms.length} form${species.forms.length > 1 ? 's' : ''}`)
-        : null,
+      (() => {
+        const n = (species.forms?.length || 0) + (species.cosmeticForms?.length || 0);
+        return n ? el('span', { class: 'card__forms' }, `+${n} form${n > 1 ? 's' : ''}`) : null;
+      })(),
       metric ? el('span', { class: 'card__metric' }, metric) : null,
     ),
   );

src/styles/layout.css

@@ -829,6 +829,9 @@
   height: 100%;
   object-fit: contain;
 }
+.phero__pixelart {
+  image-rendering: pixelated;
+}
 .phero__art--boxed {
   width: min(180px, 46vw);
   height: min(180px, 46vw);
@@ -2424,6 +2427,35 @@
   border-color: #fff;
   color: var(--type-main);
 }
+.formbar--cosmetic {
+  align-items: center;
+  gap: 8px;
+}
+.formbar__caption {
+  font-size: 0.72rem;
+  font-weight: 700;
+  text-transform: uppercase;
+  letter-spacing: 0.06em;
+  opacity: 0.8;
+}
+.formbar__select {
+  appearance: none;
+  border: 1.5px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.35);
+  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.14)
+    url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='12' height='8' viewBox='0 0 12 8'%3E%3Cpath fill='%23fff' d='M1 1l5 5 5-5'/%3E%3C/svg%3E")
+    no-repeat right 12px center;
+  color: var(--ink);
+  font: inherit;
+  font-size: 0.78rem;
+  font-weight: 600;
+  padding: 6px 32px 6px 12px;
+  border-radius: 999px;
+  cursor: pointer;
+  max-width: 15rem;
+}
+.formbar__select option {
+  color: initial;
+}
 .card__forms {
   margin-top: 4px;
   font-size: 0.62rem;

src/views/PokemonDetail.js

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import { settings } from '../store/settings.js';
 import { ui } from '../store/ui.js';
 import { entry, toggle } from '../store/selection.js';
 import { team, addToTeam, removeFromTeam, inTeam, MAX_TEAM } from '../store/team.js';
-import { Sprite } from '../components/Sprite.js';
+import { Sprite, spriteUrl } from '../components/Sprite.js';
 import { TypeChip } from '../components/TypeChip.js';
 import { StatBar } from '../components/StatBar.js';
 import { EvolutionChain } from '../components/EvolutionChain.js';
@@ -129,7 +129,11 @@ export async function PokemonDetail(nationalId) {
   // whose full /pokemon data lives in `pk`.
   const snapSpecies = snap.speciesById.get(nationalId);
   const forms = (snapSpecies && snapSpecies.forms) || [];
+  const cosmeticForms = (snapSpecies && snapSpecies.cosmeticForms) || [];
   let activeForm = null;
+  // Sprite-only variant chosen from the "Appearance" picker (Unown letter,
+  // Vivillon pattern, Furfrou trim…). Only swaps the artwork + label.
+  let activeCosmetic = null;
   let pk = pokemon;
 
   let types = typesForGeneration(pk, vgGen);
@@ -181,15 +185,36 @@ export async function PokemonDetail(nationalId) {
       )
     : null;
   function paintArt() {
-    artHolder.replaceChildren(
-      Sprite(activeForm ? activeForm.id : nationalId, {
+    let node;
+    if (activeCosmetic) {
+      // Cosmetic variants rarely have official artwork — use the pixel sprite
+      // PokéAPI ships for the exact form, degrading to the base sprite.
+      node = el('img', {
+        class: 'sprite phero__pixelart',
+        loading: 'lazy',
+        decoding: 'async',
+        width: 320,
+        height: 320,
+        alt: `${species.name} (${activeCosmetic.name})`,
+        src: activeCosmetic.sprite || spriteUrl(nationalId, 'default'),
+      });
+      node.addEventListener(
+        'error',
+        () => {
+          node.src = spriteUrl(nationalId, 'default');
+        },
+        { once: true },
+      );
+    } else {
+      node = Sprite(activeForm ? activeForm.id : nationalId, {
         style: artStyle,
         shiny,
         versionGroup: st.versionGroup,
         alt: species.name,
         size: 320,
-      }),
-    );
+      });
+    }
+    artHolder.replaceChildren(node);
     if (shinyBtn) {
       shinyBtn.textContent = shiny ? '✦ shiny' : '✧ shiny';
       shinyBtn.classList.toggle('is-on', shiny);
@@ -458,29 +483,39 @@ export async function PokemonDetail(nationalId) {
   );
   const heroTypes = el('div', { class: 'phero__types' }, ...types.map(TypeChip));
 
-  // Form switcher: Base + each snapshot form. Selecting one re-fetches that
-  // form's /pokemon and rebuilds the type-dependent parts of the page.
+  // Form switcher: Base + each mechanical form (Mega / regional / alt forme).
+  // Selecting one re-fetches that form's /pokemon and rebuilds the
+  // type-dependent parts of the page.
   let formBar = null;
+  let formPills = [];
+  let formOpts = [];
   if (forms.length) {
-    const opts = [{ slug: null, name: 'Base' }, ...forms];
-    const pills = opts.map((o) =>
+    formOpts = [{ slug: null, name: 'Base' }, ...forms];
+    formPills = formOpts.map((o) =>
       el(
         'button',
         {
           class: 'formbar__pill',
           type: 'button',
-          onclick: () => switchForm(o.slug ? o : null, pills, opts),
+          onclick: () => switchForm(o.slug ? o : null),
         },
         o.name,
       ),
     );
-    pills[0].classList.add('is-active');
-    formBar = el('div', { class: 'formbar' }, ...pills);
+    formPills[0].classList.add('is-active');
+    formBar = el('div', { class: 'formbar' }, ...formPills);
   }
 
-  async function switchForm(form, pills, opts) {
+  function syncFormPills() {
+    const slug = activeForm ? activeForm.slug : null;
+    formPills.forEach((b, i) => b.classList.toggle('is-active', formOpts[i].slug === slug));
+  }
+
+  async function switchForm(form) {
     activeForm = form;
-    pills.forEach((b, i) => b.classList.toggle('is-active', opts[i].slug === (form ? form.slug : null)));
+    activeCosmetic = null;
+    if (cosmeticSelect) cosmeticSelect.value = '';
+    syncFormPills();
     heroForm.textContent = form ? form.name : '';
     try {
       pk = form ? await getPokemon(form.slug) : pokemon;
@@ -498,6 +533,47 @@ export async function PokemonDetail(nationalId) {
     if (ui.get().detailTab === 'stats') animateStats();
   }
 
+  // Appearance picker: purely-cosmetic variants (Unown letters, Vivillon
+  // patterns, Furfrou trims…). Can be 60+ per species, so one compact
+  // dropdown rather than a row of pills. Only swaps art + label.
+  let cosmeticBar = null;
+  let cosmeticSelect = null;
+  if (cosmeticForms.length) {
+    cosmeticSelect = el(
+      'select',
+      {
+        class: 'formbar__select',
+        'aria-label': 'Appearance',
+        onchange: (e) => {
+          const slug = e.target.value;
+          activeCosmetic = slug ? cosmeticForms.find((f) => f.slug === slug) : null;
+          if (activeCosmetic && activeForm) {
+            // A cosmetic look only applies to the base Pokémon; drop the
+            // mechanical form first, then re-assert the cosmetic choice.
+            const keep = activeCosmetic;
+            switchForm(null);
+            activeCosmetic = keep;
+            cosmeticSelect.value = slug;
+          }
+          heroForm.textContent = activeCosmetic
+            ? activeCosmetic.name
+            : activeForm
+              ? activeForm.name
+              : '';
+          paintArt();
+        },
+      },
+      el('option', { value: '' }, `Default (${cosmeticForms.length + 1})`),
+      ...cosmeticForms.map((f) => el('option', { value: f.slug }, f.name)),
+    );
+    cosmeticBar = el(
+      'label',
+      { class: 'formbar formbar--cosmetic' },
+      el('span', { class: 'formbar__caption' }, 'Appearance'),
+      cosmeticSelect,
+    );
+  }
+
   clear(view).append(
     el(
       'div',
@@ -519,6 +595,7 @@ export async function PokemonDetail(nationalId) {
         heroTypes,
       ),
       formBar,
+      cosmeticBar,
       el(
         'div',
         { class: 'phero__stage' },