@hizliemre/horse-code 0.1.0 → 0.1.1

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+ ---
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+ name: brainstorming
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+ description: "You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation."
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs
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+
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+ Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.
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+
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+ Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design and get user approval.
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+
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+ <HARD-GATE>
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+ Do NOT invoke any implementation skill, write any code, scaffold any project, or take any implementation action until you have presented a design and the user has approved it. This applies to EVERY project regardless of perceived simplicity.
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+ </HARD-GATE>
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+
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+ ## Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design"
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+
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+ Every project goes through this process. A todo list, a single-function utility, a config change — all of them. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short (a few sentences for truly simple projects), but you MUST present it and get approval.
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+
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+ ## Checklist
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+
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+ You MUST create a task for each of these items and complete them in order:
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+
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+ 1. **Explore project context** — check files, docs, recent commits
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+ 2. **Offer the visual companion just-in-time** — NOT upfront. The first time a question would genuinely be clearer shown than described, offer it then (its own message); on approval its browser tab opens for you. If no visual question ever arises, never offer it. See the Visual Companion section below.
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+ 3. **Ask clarifying questions** — one at a time, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
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+ 4. **Propose 2-3 approaches** — with trade-offs and your recommendation
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+ 5. **Present design** — in sections scaled to their complexity, get user approval after each section
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+ 6. **Write design doc** — save to `docs/superpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md` and commit
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+ 7. **Spec self-review** — quick inline check for placeholders, contradictions, ambiguity, scope (see below)
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+ 8. **User reviews written spec** — ask user to review the spec file before proceeding
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+ 9. **Transition to implementation** — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan
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+
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+ ## Process Flow
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+
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+ ```dot
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+ digraph brainstorming {
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+ "Explore project context" [shape=box];
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+ "Ask clarifying questions" [shape=box];
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+ "Propose 2-3 approaches" [shape=box];
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+ "Present design sections" [shape=box];
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+ "User approves design?" [shape=diamond];
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+ "Write design doc" [shape=box];
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+ "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)" [shape=box];
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+ "User reviews spec?" [shape=diamond];
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+ "Invoke writing-plans skill" [shape=doublecircle];
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+
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+ "Explore project context" -> "Ask clarifying questions";
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+ "Ask clarifying questions" -> "Propose 2-3 approaches";
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+ "Propose 2-3 approaches" -> "Present design sections";
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+ "Present design sections" -> "User approves design?";
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+ "User approves design?" -> "Present design sections" [label="no, revise"];
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+ "User approves design?" -> "Write design doc" [label="yes"];
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+ "Write design doc" -> "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)";
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+ "Spec self-review\n(fix inline)" -> "User reviews spec?";
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+ "User reviews spec?" -> "Write design doc" [label="changes requested"];
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+ "User reviews spec?" -> "Invoke writing-plans skill" [label="approved"];
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+ }
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+ ```
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+
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+ **The terminal state is invoking writing-plans.** Do NOT invoke frontend-design, mcp-builder, or any other implementation skill. The ONLY skill you invoke after brainstorming is writing-plans.
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+
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+ ## The Process
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+
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+ **Understanding the idea:**
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+
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+ - Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
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+ - Before asking detailed questions, assess scope: if the request describes multiple independent subsystems (e.g., "build a platform with chat, file storage, billing, and analytics"), flag this immediately. Don't spend questions refining details of a project that needs to be decomposed first.
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+ - If the project is too large for a single spec, help the user decompose into sub-projects: what are the independent pieces, how do they relate, what order should they be built? Then brainstorm the first sub-project through the normal design flow. Each sub-project gets its own spec → plan → implementation cycle.
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+ - For appropriately-scoped projects, ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
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+ - Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too
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+ - Only one question per message - if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions
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+ - Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria
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+
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+ **Exploring approaches:**
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+
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+ - Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
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+ - Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning
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+ - Lead with your recommended option and explain why
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+
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+ **Presenting the design:**
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+
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+ - Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design
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+ - Scale each section to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced
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+ - Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
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+ - Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
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+ - Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense
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+
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+ **Design for isolation and clarity:**
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+
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+ - Break the system into smaller units that each have one clear purpose, communicate through well-defined interfaces, and can be understood and tested independently
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+ - For each unit, you should be able to answer: what does it do, how do you use it, and what does it depend on?
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+ - Can someone understand what a unit does without reading its internals? Can you change the internals without breaking consumers? If not, the boundaries need work.
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+ - Smaller, well-bounded units are also easier for you to work with - you reason better about code you can hold in context at once, and your edits are more reliable when files are focused. When a file grows large, that's often a signal that it's doing too much.
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+
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+ **Working in existing codebases:**
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+
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+ - Explore the current structure before proposing changes. Follow existing patterns.
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+ - Where existing code has problems that affect the work (e.g., a file that's grown too large, unclear boundaries, tangled responsibilities), include targeted improvements as part of the design - the way a good developer improves code they're working in.
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+ - Don't propose unrelated refactoring. Stay focused on what serves the current goal.
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+
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+ ## After the Design
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+
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+ **Documentation:**
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+
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+ - Write the validated design (spec) to `docs/superpowers/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md`
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+ - (User preferences for spec location override this default)
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+ - Use elements-of-style:writing-clearly-and-concisely skill if available
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+ - Commit the design document to git
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+
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+ **Spec Self-Review:**
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+ After writing the spec document, look at it with fresh eyes:
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+
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+ 1. **Placeholder scan:** Any "TBD", "TODO", incomplete sections, or vague requirements? Fix them.
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+ 2. **Internal consistency:** Do any sections contradict each other? Does the architecture match the feature descriptions?
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+ 3. **Scope check:** Is this focused enough for a single implementation plan, or does it need decomposition?
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+ 4. **Ambiguity check:** Could any requirement be interpreted two different ways? If so, pick one and make it explicit.
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+
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+ Fix any issues inline. No need to re-review — just fix and move on.
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+
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+ **User Review Gate:**
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+ After the spec review loop passes, ask the user to review the written spec before proceeding:
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+
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+ > "Spec written and committed to `<path>`. Please review it and let me know if you want to make any changes before we start writing out the implementation plan."
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+
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+ Wait for the user's response. If they request changes, make them and re-run the spec review loop. Only proceed once the user approves.
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+
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+ **Implementation:**
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+
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+ - Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan
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+ - Do NOT invoke any other skill. writing-plans is the next step.
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+
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+ ## Key Principles
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+
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+ - **One question at a time** - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
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+ - **Multiple choice preferred** - Easier to answer than open-ended when possible
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+ - **YAGNI ruthlessly** - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
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+ - **Explore alternatives** - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
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+ - **Incremental validation** - Present design, get approval before moving on
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+ - **Be flexible** - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense
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+
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+ ## Visual Companion
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+
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+ A browser-based companion for showing mockups, diagrams, and visual options during brainstorming. Available as a tool — not a mode. Accepting the companion means it's available for questions that benefit from visual treatment; it does NOT mean every question goes through the browser.
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+
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+ **Offering the companion (just-in-time):** Do NOT offer it upfront. Wait until a question would genuinely be clearer shown than told — a real mockup / layout / diagram question, not merely a UI *topic*. The first time that happens, offer it then, as its own message:
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+ > "This next part might be easier if I show you — I can put together mockups, diagrams, and comparisons in a browser tab as we go. It's still new and can be token-intensive. Want me to? I'll open it for you."
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+
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+ **This offer MUST be its own message.** Only the offer — no clarifying question, summary, or other content. Wait for the user's response. If they accept, start the server with `--open` so their browser opens to the first screen automatically. If they decline, continue text-only and don't offer again unless they raise it.
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+
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+ **Per-question decision:** Even after the user accepts, decide FOR EACH QUESTION whether to use the browser or the terminal. The test: **would the user understand this better by seeing it than reading it?**
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+
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+ - **Use the browser** for content that IS visual — mockups, wireframes, layout comparisons, architecture diagrams, side-by-side visual designs
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+ - **Use the terminal** for content that is text — requirements questions, conceptual choices, tradeoff lists, A/B/C/D text options, scope decisions
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+
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+ A question about a UI topic is not automatically a visual question. "What does personality mean in this context?" is a conceptual question — use the terminal. "Which wizard layout works better?" is a visual question — use the browser.
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+
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+ If they agree to the companion, read the detailed guide before proceeding:
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+ `skills/brainstorming/visual-companion.md`
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+ ---
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+ name: frontend-design
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+ description: Guidance for distinctive, intentional visual design when building new UI or reshaping an existing one. Helps with aesthetic direction, typography, and making choices that don't read as templated defaults.
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+ license: Complete terms in LICENSE.txt
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Frontend Design
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+
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+ Approach this as the design lead at a small studio known for giving every client a visual identity that could not be mistaken for anyone else's. This client has already rejected proposals that felt templated, and is paying for a distinctive point of view: make deliberate, opinionated choices about palette, typography, and layout that are specific to this brief, and take one real aesthetic risk you can justify.
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+
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+ ## Ground it in the subject
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+
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+ If the brief does not pin down what the product or subject is, pin it yourself before designing: name one concrete subject, its audience, and the page's single job, and state your choice. If there's any information in your memory about the human's preferences, context about what they're building, or designs you've made before – use that as a hint. The subject's own world, its materials, instruments, artifacts, and vernacular, is where distinctive choices come from. Build with the brief's real content and subject matter throughout.
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+
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+ ## Design principles
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+
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+ For web designs, the hero is a thesis. Open with the most characteristic thing in the subject's world, in whatever form makes sense for it: a headline, an image, an animation, a live demo, an interactive moment. Be deliberate with your choice: a big number with a small label, supporting stats, and a gradient accent is the template answer, only use if that's truly the best option.
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+
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+ Typography carries the personality of the page. Pair the display and body faces deliberately, not the same families you would reach for on any other project, and set a clear type scale with intentional weights, widths, and spacing. Make the type treatment itself a memorable part of the design, not a neutral delivery vehicle for the content.
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+
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+ Structure is information. Structural devices, numbering, eyebrows, dividers, labels, should encode something true about the content, not decorate it. Many generic designs use numbered markers (01 / 02 / 03), but that's only appropriate if the content actually is a sequence - like a real process or a typed timeline where order carries information the reader needs. Question if choices like numbered markers actually make sense before incorporating them.
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+
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+ Leverage motion deliberately. Think about where and if animation can serve the subject: a page-load sequence, a scroll-triggered reveal, hover micro-interactions, ambient atmosphere. An orchestrated moment usually lands harder than scattered effects; choose what the direction calls for. However, sometimes less is more, and extra animation contributes to the feeling that the design is AI-generated.
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+
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+ Match complexity to the vision. Maximalist directions need elaborate execution; minimal directions need precision in spacing, type, and detail. Elegance is executing the chosen vision well.
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+
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+ Consider written content carefully. Often a design brief may not contain real content, and it's up to you to come up with copy. Copy can make a design feel as templated as the design itself. See the below section on writing for more guidance.
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+
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+ ## Process: brainstorm, explore, plan, critique, build, critique again
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+
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+ For calibration: AI-generated design right now clusters around three looks: (1) a warm cream background (near #F4F1EA) with a high-contrast serif display and a terracotta accent; (2) a near-black background with a single bright acid-green or vermilion accent; (3) a broadsheet-style layout with hairline rules, zero border-radius, and dense newspaper-like columns. All three are legitimate for some briefs, but they are defaults rather than choices, and they appear regardless of subject. Where the brief pins down a visual direction, follow it exactly — the brief's own words always win, including when it asks for one of these looks. Where it leaves an axis free, don't spend that freedom on one of these defaults. Just like a human designer who's hired, there's often a careful balance between doing what you're good at and taking each project as a chance to experiment and learn.
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+
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+ Work in two passes. First, brainstorm a short design plan based on the human's design brief: create a compact token system with color, type, layout, and signature. Color: describe the palette as 4–6 named hex values. Type: the typefaces for 2+ roles (a characterful display face that's used with restraint, a complementary body face, and a utility face for captions or data if needed). Layout: a layout concept, using one-sentence prose descriptions and ASCII wireframes to ideate and compare. Signature: the single unique element this page will be remembered by that embodies the brief in an appropriate way.
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+
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+ Then review that plan against the brief before building: if any part of it reads like the generic default you would produce for any similar page (work through a similar prompt to see if you arrive somewhere similar) rather than a choice made for this specific brief — revise that part, say what you changed and why. Only after you've confirmed the relative uniqueness of your design plan should you start to write the code, following the revised plan exactly and deriving every color and type decision from it.
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+
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+ When writing the code, be careful of structuring your CSS selector specificities. It's easy to generate CSS classes that cancel each other out (especially with a type-based selector like .section and a element-based selector like .cta). This can happen often with paddings/margins between sections.
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+
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+ Try to do a lot of this planning and iteration in your thinking, and only show ideas to the user when you have higher confidence it'll delight them.
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+
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+ ## Restraint and self-critique
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+
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+ Spend your boldness in one place. Let the signature element be the one memorable thing, keep everything around it quiet and disciplined, and cut any decoration that does not serve the brief. Not taking a risk can be a risk itself! Build to a quality floor without announcing it: responsive down to mobile, visible keyboard focus, reduced motion respected. Critique your own work as you build, taking screenshots if your environment supports it – a picture is worth 1000 tokens. Consider Chanel's advice: before leaving the house, take a look in the mirror and remove one accessory. Human creators have memory and always try to do something new, so if you have a space to quickly jot down notes about what you've tried, it can help you in future passes.
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+
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+ ## More on writing in design
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+
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+ Words appear in a design for one reason: to make it easier to understand, and therefore easier to use. They are design material, not decoration. Bring the same intentionality to copy that you would bring to spacing and color. Before writing anything, ask what the design needs to say, and how it can best be said to help the person navigate the experience.
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+
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+ Write from the end user's side of the screen. Name things by what people control and recognize, never by how the system is built. A person manages notifications, not webhook config. Describe what something does in plain terms rather than selling it. Being specific is always better than being clever.
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+
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+ Use active voice as default. A control should say exactly what happens when it's used: "Save changes," not "Submit." An action keeps the same name through the whole flow, so the button that says "Publish" produces a toast that says "Published." The vocabulary of an interface is the signposting for someone navigating the product. Cohesion and consistency are how people learn their way around.
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+
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+ Treat failure and emptiness as moments for direction, not mood. Explain what went wrong and how to fix it, in the interface's voice rather than a person's. Errors don't apologize, and they are never vague about what happened. An empty screen is an invitation to act.
54
+
55
+ Keep the register conversational and tuned: plain verbs, sentence case, no filler, with tone matched to the brand and the audience. Let each element do exactly one job. A label labels, an example demonstrates, and nothing quietly does double duty.