Triage
Examines your scene and finds what's wrong. It doesn't fix anything, that isn't its job. It tells you what's broken, and what matters most.
BLENDER ADD-ON · THE FRIDGE
CG GENERAL
Find what's wrong before you render.
Diagnose first.
Then treat.
CG General works the way a hospital does.
The Doctors
The specialists. Each one takes a diagnosis in its own field and actually treats it, with specific fixes you review and apply yourself.
Lighting Doctor is the first specialist. More are on the way.
TRIAGE
The idea
Naming the problem is the hard part
Almost every problem in a Blender scene is trivial to fix once somebody tells you what it is. Apply the scale. Turn the modifier back on at render. Swap the 4K texture for a 512. Thirty seconds, each one.
The expensive part is never the fixing. It's the hour you spend working out which of four hundred things in your scene is the one causing it.
Triage does that part. It reads your scene and names what's wrong, graded so you can see which of it is serious. It diagnoses. It doesn't fix.
98 checks across geometry, materials, lighting, performance, render settings, scene organisation and animation and rigging.
- The modifier switched off at render but left on in the viewport.
- The scale you never applied.
- The 4K texture on something three pixels wide.
- The heavy object you hid but never excluded, quietly costing you render time.
- The armature modifier with half a mesh unweighted underneath it.
Then it tells you which three of those forty warnings actually matter, and which you can ignore.
These checks run entirely on your own machine. Nothing leaves your computer, and they never cost a Consultation.
Graded and filterable
Only some of it matters
A long list of warnings is its own kind of useless. Filter to Critical and High and you're looking only at the things that will actually cost you something. The rest is housekeeping, there when you want it.
Sorted by what matters
98 checks. Sorted by what matters.
Findings are grouped by category and graded by severity, so the highest-priority issues surface first instead of getting lost in a long flat list.
Right where you're working
It lives in the N-panel
Run it from Blender's own sidebar, next to your scene, not a separate window or a browser tab.
Screenshot placeholder
Real in-Blender N-panel UI, pending capture from the live add-on
Findings, on a real render
Not a vibe. A fact.
Hover a marker to see what Triage found.
What Triage checks
98 checks, every time you run it
Every one runs locally, costs nothing, and returns the same answer every time. Each check has a defined condition, and it either fires or it doesn't.
The 98 checks above are exactly as described: free, local, no account needed.
On top of that, sign in after a scan to run AI Insights. It clusters related findings, points to a likely root cause, and tells you what to fix first. Optional, and metered in Consultations, the same way Lighting Doctor's analysis is.
LIGHTING DOCTOR
Lighting Doctor
The first specialist
Triage can tell you your lighting is wrong. Lighting Doctor tells you why, and what to do about it.
It renders your scene, looks at the result, and works out where your subject actually is, what's enclosing it, what's blocking what, and what the camera can genuinely see.
Then it prescribes: this light, from this angle, at this distance, and here's the reasoning. You read the diagnosis, apply the fixes you agree with, and ignore the ones you don't.
It never changes your scene without asking. Everything can be undone.
Lighting Doctor uses AI to read your render and reason about light, subject and camera, the same way a specialist would review your shot. That means it needs an internet connection, and each analysis uses a Consultation.
What it actually says
A woodworking workshop interior, cluttered workbench with tools, sawdust, and craft items under dramatic window light streaming from the left.
Working
Strong directional key from the left windows creates clear shadows
Good separation between lit foreground and darker background
Not working
Area light at zero energy contributing nothing
Right side of the workbench reads very dark with minimal fill
Spot light much too bright, creating blown highlight on upper-left workbench edge
Activate the unused area light as a soft fill from the right side
Currently at zero energy and doing nothing, repurpose it as camera-right fill to lift the dark right half of the workbench
APPLY · SKIP
Reduce the spot light brightness to eliminate the blown highlight
Currently way too bright, creating overexposed patch on upper workbench that pulls focus from the subject tools
APPLY · SKIP
Real output, shortened. It tells you what's already working before it tells you what isn't, and every suggestion arrives with its reasoning attached.
The plan
It works in plan, not in guesses
Before it suggests anything it works out where the camera is looking, which lights already exist, and which of them are contributing nothing. Proposals are placed against that picture, at a real distance, from a real angle, with a reason.
Render history
Every version you've tried, still there
Your recent analyses and renders are kept. Click back through what you've tried on this scene, in order. Find one you preferred three attempts ago and restore it, the whole lighting state comes back exactly as it was.
Light sources
Lights go where lights belong
It finds the fixtures you've already modelled, street lamps, windows, ceiling lights, signage, and works out which ones the camera can actually see. Then it places the lights inside them, so illumination comes from where it would really come from.
Right where you're working
The diagnosis, in Blender's sidebar
Same panel, same workflow. The proposal and its reasoning sit right there next to your viewport.
Screenshot placeholder
Real in-Blender N-panel UI, pending capture from the live add-on
The roadmap
More specialists are coming
Lighting is the first field, not the last. The suite is built to take more Doctors, each handling its own domain the way Lighting Doctor handles lighting.
Two specialists on call. More in training.
Triage
The diagnostics on their own. Finds what's wrong, tells you what matters, runs locally.
Lighting Doctor
The first specialist. Reads the lighting, prescribes specific fixes, changes nothing without you.
If you buy CG General, you get them as they arrive. No upgrade fee, no second purchase.
Consultations
A Consultation is what gets used each time the add-on asks the AI to think about your scene: a Lighting Doctor lighting read, or a Triage AI Insights run.
It's a unit of usage, not a fixed number of analyses. A simple product shot costs less to examine than a complex interior with dozens of lights.
CG General's 200 Consultations work out at roughly 20 to 40 full Lighting Doctor analyses, or about 65 Triage AI Insights runs. Triage's 50 cover around 16 AI Insights runs on their own.
Running an AI feature sends a rendered preview and a structured summary of your scene to a remote service for processing, never your .blend file. Details are in the privacy policy.
Your balance is always visible in the add-on's preferences. Top-ups and subscription payments credit automatically to your account once checkout completes.
Topping up is optional. Triage's 98 deterministic checks keep working forever, whether you have a Consultations balance or not.
What you're buying
One purchase, no strings
25% off
first 10
first 10
Triage
The diagnostics on their own. Finds what's wrong, tells you what matters, runs locally.
$14.99one-time
- 50 Consultations included
- 98 local checks, free forever
- Optional AI Insights layer
- One-time purchase, no subscription
Get Triage
Secure checkout via Lemon Squeezy
25% off
first 10
first 10
CG General
The full suite: Triage, plus Lighting Doctor, plus every specialist added from here on, no upgrade fee.
$39.99one-time
- 200 Consultations included
- Everything in Triage, plus Lighting Doctor
- Every future Doctor, no upgrade fee
- One-time purchase, no subscription
Price rises as new Doctors join the suite. Buying now locks in today's price.
Get CG General
Secure checkout via Lemon Squeezy
Consultations meter the AI features, a unit of usage, not a fixed number of analyses. A simple product shot costs less to examine than a complex interior with dozens of lights. Triage's 98 diagnostic checks are never metered; they run locally, for free, forever.
Already own it? Learn how to get more Consultations →
Naming the problem is a skill that takes years to build. That's the part I wanted to hand over.
Haris, The Fridge · why I built this →
Who it's for
Anyone working without a second pair of eyes
In a studio there's a lead who walks past your desk and says the thing you couldn't see. Working on your own, there isn't. This is for solo artists, freelancers and small teams: people who know enough to tell something's off, and would rather not spend the afternoon working out what.
Learning
You can tell it isn't working but not why. The findings name the problem in words you can look up.
Working
You know what's wrong once it's pointed out. This is the pass before you hit render, so the six-hour mistake doesn't happen.
Handing over
Files going to a client, a marketplace or a teammate. Catch the unapplied scale and the missing texture before someone else does.
Questions
Things people ask before buying
Is this a subscription?
No. You buy it once and it's yours. Consultations are included with the purchase, and if you use them all up you can buy more, but you never have to.
How do I cancel my Consultations subscription?
Email support@cggeneral.net and we'll cancel it, no questions asked. You keep access and your Consultations until the current billing period ends; it just won't renew.
What's the refund policy?
Refunds go through Lemon Squeezy, the platform you bought through, within 60 days of purchase. Contact support first though, most problems are fixable.
What is a Consultation?
A unit of usage, not a fixed number of analyses. Asking Lighting Doctor to analyse a scene typically spends 5 to 10 Consultations depending on how much there is to examine, a simple product shot costs less than a complex interior with dozens of lights. Triage's AI Insights is cheaper again, around 3.
Triage's 98 diagnostic checks cost nothing at all. Those run on your machine, however many times you run them.
How far do the included Consultations go?
CG General's 200 work out at roughly 20 to 40 full Lighting Doctor analyses, or about 65 Triage AI Insights runs. Triage's 50 cover somewhere around 16 AI Insights runs. Neither has an expiry date.
How do I top up once I've run out?
Buy more from your account and it credits automatically after checkout, no code or manual step needed. Your balance updates in the add-on's preferences as soon as it's through.
What happens when I run out?
Every deterministic check carries on working exactly as before. Only the AI features pause. You can top up whenever you want, or never.
Why credits at all?
The AI features call a paid API that costs money every time they run. A one-time price with unlimited AI use isn't something that could be honestly promised. Everything that can run locally does, and that part is free forever.
Does it change my scene?
Not without you saying so. Everything is proposed first, with the reasoning attached. You apply what you agree with and ignore the rest, and anything you do apply can be undone.
Is my scene data used to train AI models?
No. The AI features run on Anthropic's Claude via a commercial API, and Anthropic states that by default it does not use inputs or outputs from its commercial products to train its models. Anthropic deletes what it receives within 30 days.
What gets sent is a rendered preview of your scene and a structured summary of it, light settings, camera position, object names and dimensions. Your .blend file is never uploaded. Triage's diagnostic checks send nothing at all.
Do I need an internet connection?
For the AI features, yes. Triage's diagnostic checks run entirely offline.
Which Blender versions?
Blender 4.2 LTS and newer.
Does Lighting Doctor work with Cycles or EEVEE?
Both. It renders your scene with whatever engine your file is already set to and analyses the result the same way either way.
What's the difference between Triage and CG General?
Triage is the diagnostic on its own, with 50 Consultations. CG General is Triage plus Lighting Doctor with 200 Consultations, and it includes every future specialist at no extra cost.
What if the advice is wrong?
Sometimes it will be. It's making judgement calls about your scene, and judgement calls can be wrong, which is exactly why nothing is applied without you approving it, and why everything can be undone.
If a suggestion is clearly bad, the add-on's Send Feedback button packages up the diagnostic logs, you'll see exactly what's being sent before anything leaves your machine.
Will it work on my kind of scene?
Triage's checks apply to any scene. Lighting Doctor works wherever the lighting has a job to do, products, characters, interiors, environments. Deliberately stylised or crushed work will produce suggestions you'll want to reject, which is why nothing is applied without your say-so.