# Merchant Center “image too small” remediation checklist

Use this checklist for one SKU and one named image surface. Duplicate it per image. Do not approve an entire catalog from a thumbnail review.

## 1. Name the warning and deadline

- Merchant Center item ID:
- SKU / variant:
- Exact diagnostic text:
- Current image URL:
- Current pixel dimensions:
- Named surface: main image / additional image / YouTube Shopping / other
- Requirement that applies today:
- Upcoming requirement and enforcement date:
- Reviewer:
- Review date:

## 2. Retrieve product authority first

Check these sources before enlarging a thumbnail:

- product information management system
- digital asset manager
- supplier portal or original attachment
- photographer or agency delivery
- Shopify product-media original
- current feed URL without a thumbnail-size transform
- approved prior campaign master

Record:

- authority file:
- authority dimensions:
- authority SHA-256:
- authority owner:
- exact product facts visible in the file:
- facts not established by the file:

## 3. Declare the recovery route

- Route ID:
- Method or model:
- Input file and SHA-256:
- Operation or prompt:
- Job ID, if generated:
- Output file and SHA-256:
- Output dimensions and bytes:
- Did the route return a file? yes / no

Do not treat a larger dimension field as recovered product detail.

## 4. Compare against authority at full resolution

- Object count:
- Variant, color, pattern, and material:
- Silhouette and product-to-frame scale:
- Closure, pump, hardware, and included parts:
- Label shape, placement, typography, and every readable character:
- Transparent and reflective boundaries:
- Crop and safe margins:
- Background and contact shadow:
- Compression, halos, sharpening, and color shift:
- Reviewer evidence or notes:

Product gate: PASS / SECONDARY_REVIEW / FAIL / NOT_RUN

## 5. Verify the named destination

- Destination page:
- Selected variant:
- Feed `image_link` or `additional_image_link`:
- Product occupies the intended share of the frame:
- No promotional overlay, watermark, placeholder, or invented item:
- Merchant Center preview checked:
- Diagnostics reprocessed:
- Previous file retained for rollback:

Technical gate: PASS / FAIL / NOT_RUN

## 6. Make one named release decision

Choose one:

- `APPROVED_SOURCE`
- `APPROVED_FOR_NAMED_MAIN_IMAGE`
- `APPROVED_FOR_NAMED_SECONDARY_IMAGE`
- `HOLD_MAIN_IMAGE`
- `REJECT_PRODUCT_DRIFT`
- `NOT_ELIGIBLE_DIMENSIONS`
- `FAILED_EXECUTION`

Decision:

Named placement:

Approver:

Rollback file:

Next verification date:

## Filled NORTHLINE example summary

NORTHLINE is fictional. Its approved 1254 × 1254 source was deliberately downsampled to 320 × 320 so the original remained available as ground truth.

- The 320 × 320 file was `NOT_ELIGIBLE_DIMENSIONS` for the upcoming 500 × 500 minimum.
- A deterministic 1500 × 1500 resize preserved the composition but did not recover lost detail. It remained `HOLD_MAIN_IMAGE`.
- Crystal Upscaler job `68c95d9c-e938-4abb-aea1-1d650892f6a7` returned a sharper 640 × 640 candidate. It cleared the upcoming minimum but not Google’s approximate 1500 × 1500 recommendation; its product pixels and background were reconstructed, so it remained `HOLD_MAIN_IMAGE` pending product-owner approval.
- An earlier local-path submission, job `b92770b1-e737-45e8-81a8-3a1898e61d86`, failed before returning an asset. It is an execution failure, not a model-quality result.

The complete machine-readable record is in `merchant-center-image-too-small-release.tsv`.