Windsurf favicon install runbook
A full icon set touches several files at once — head tags, manifest, static assets — which is exactly the kind of work Cascade handles well, and exactly where mistakes hide. Hand it real image files and one precise instruction, then make it prove the icons are actually being served.
Make Cascade verify, not guess
The agent has a terminal. Have it request each icon path against the running dev server so a 404 surfaces immediately instead of on launch day.
Reject data URIs
Agents love shortcuts like inline base64 or a lone SVG. Apple touch icons, Android home screens, and older browsers all need real files on disk.
URL finder for Windsurf
Paste your Windsurf preview link or production domain. We'll grab every favicon, let you choose one, and push it back to the generator.
Paste a domain and tap Scan to see every icon we can harvest.
We will open the generator with your selected favicon pre-loaded as the base image.
Playbook
Follow these beats whenever your builder regenerates UI so favicon coverage stays ahead of AI edits.
1Drop the exported kit in place
Unzip the generated icons into the project's static directory before you start the conversation, so Cascade is editing around files that already exist.
2Give one scoped instruction
List the paths and sizes and tell Cascade to change only the head markup and manifest. Open-ended prompts here tend to turn into an unrelated layout refactor.
3Have it prove the result
Ask Cascade to start the dev server and fetch each icon URL, confirming a 200 and an image content type before you accept the diff.
Checklist
Drop this straight into your deployment doc.
Record in your workspace rules that icons are generated assets, so later Cascade runs leave them alone.
Check the icons array in manifest.json matches the filenames and sizes that actually shipped.
Re-run the fetch check after any Cascade refactor that touches the layout or document head.
Windsurf favicon FAQ
Can Windsurf create the favicon images themselves?
No. Cascade edits text files and runs commands, so it can install and wire an icon set but cannot render the PNG or ICO artwork. Generate the images first, then let Cascade handle placement, markup, and verification.
Why is my icon broken after Cascade edited the head?
Nine times out of ten it is a path prefix problem: files in /public are served from the site root, so the correct link is /favicon.ico rather than /public/favicon.ico. Ask Cascade to curl the exact URL from the link tag — the 404 makes the mistake obvious in seconds.
Windsurf install guide
Add /windsurf/favicon-install to project README files, onboarding docs, and launch checklists so nobody skips the favicon step.