apple-app-icon — the icon as a build artefact, not a drawing

On iOS 26 an app icon is no longer a flattened PNG: it is a small bundle of layers the system lights, tints and renders as Liquid Glass. Icon Composer draws them by hand; this skill generates the same document from the brand artwork, so the icon is rebuilt when the brand changes rather than redrawn from memory.

Reach for it when the icon and the app disagree — different mark, different gradient, or nine PNGs whose source nobody can find.

Workflow

1. Find the real artwork before drawing anything

Two attempts went the wrong way on one project before the file turned up: rebuilding the mark from the app's own button geometry (beautiful, and a different mark), then tracing it off a 1024 PNG by measuring pixels (the right mark, at second-hand accuracy).