@lemoncode/lemony 0.1.0 → 0.1.1-alpha.0

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Files changed (48) hide show
  1. package/NOTICE +39 -0
  2. package/catalog/VERSION +1 -1
  3. package/catalog/agents/architect.md +4 -4
  4. package/catalog/agents/fit-assessment.md +1 -1
  5. package/catalog/agents/implementer.md +15 -8
  6. package/catalog/agents/orchestrator.md +165 -24
  7. package/catalog/agents/reviewer.md +7 -7
  8. package/catalog/agents/spec-author.md +4 -4
  9. package/catalog/agents/ui-designer.md +115 -15
  10. package/catalog/commands/add-capability.md +3 -3
  11. package/catalog/commands/resume.md +10 -4
  12. package/catalog/commands/spinoff.md +2 -2
  13. package/catalog/commands/sync-design-tokens.md +29 -0
  14. package/catalog/harness.config.schema.json +14 -0
  15. package/catalog/hooks/init.sh +11 -11
  16. package/catalog/hooks/lib/lemony.sh +3 -3
  17. package/catalog/hooks/lib/playbook-scan.sh +10 -11
  18. package/catalog/hooks/session-close.sh +7 -7
  19. package/catalog/schemas/tier2-events-history.md +11 -11
  20. package/catalog/schemas/tier2-events.md +46 -47
  21. package/catalog/skills/a11y-audit/SKILL.md +121 -0
  22. package/catalog/skills/bootstrap-architecture/SKILL.md +3 -3
  23. package/catalog/skills/build-ui/SKILL.md +147 -0
  24. package/catalog/skills/build-ui/accessibility.md +101 -0
  25. package/catalog/skills/build-ui/anti-slop.md +107 -0
  26. package/catalog/skills/code-explorer/SKILL.md +1 -1
  27. package/catalog/skills/design-critique/SKILL.md +110 -0
  28. package/catalog/skills/design-tool-sync/SKILL.md +120 -0
  29. package/catalog/skills/grill-ui/SKILL.md +187 -0
  30. package/catalog/skills/grill-ui/ui-handoff-format.md +148 -0
  31. package/catalog/skills/grill-with-docs/SKILL.md +9 -2
  32. package/catalog/skills/mutation-testing/SKILL.md +1 -1
  33. package/catalog/skills/note-side-finding/SKILL.md +1 -1
  34. package/catalog/skills/playbook-iterate/SKILL.md +2 -2
  35. package/catalog/skills/review-pr/SKILL.md +3 -3
  36. package/catalog/skills/task-closeout/SKILL.md +9 -8
  37. package/catalog/skills/update-architecture/SKILL.md +3 -3
  38. package/catalog/templates/claude-code/agents.md.tpl +16 -10
  39. package/catalog/templates/claude-code/docs/playbooks/README.md.tpl +1 -3
  40. package/catalog/templates/claude-code/harness.config.yml.tpl +9 -1
  41. package/dist/cli.mjs +1286 -1665
  42. package/package.json +13 -4
  43. package/catalog/agents/README.md +0 -29
  44. package/catalog/hooks/README.md +0 -56
  45. package/catalog/playbook-format.md +0 -198
  46. package/catalog/schemas/README.md +0 -13
  47. package/catalog/skills/README.md +0 -62
  48. package/catalog/templates/README.md +0 -32
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
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+ # Anti-slop — building the design's point of view into the code
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+
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+ Load this before generating any visual UI. The `ui-handoff.md` already chose the
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+ **direction** (the dials, the tone, the brand references); this resource is about
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+ **executing** that direction in code without collapsing back to the generic defaults a
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+ model reaches for unprompted.
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+
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+ ## The failure mode to avoid
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+
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+ "AI slop" is what UI looks like when no decision was made: the safe system font, the
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+ predictable purple-to-blue gradient, the evenly-spaced card grid with no focal point, the
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+ centred hero with a heading and two buttons, borders and shadows on everything. None of it
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+ is _wrong_ — it is just **average**, and average reads as nobody-cared. The handoff set a
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+ point of view; your job is to make every screen carry it. When you catch yourself
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+ reaching for the obvious default, stop and ask what the dials in §2 actually asked for.
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+
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+ Match the **variance dial**: at low variance, restraint and convention are correct — do
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+ not manufacture flair the handoff didn't ask for. At medium/high, the generic default is
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+ a failure. Calibrate to the dial, don't apply maximum expression everywhere.
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+
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+ ## Typography
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+
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+ - **Establish a real scale, not ad-hoc sizes.** Sizes, weights and line-heights come from
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+ the token scale; a screen using five arbitrary pixel sizes has no hierarchy.
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+ - **Hierarchy through contrast, not just size.** Weight, colour, letter-spacing and space
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+ separate levels — a heading is not merely "bigger body text".
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+ - **Line length and leading are deliberate.** Long-form text wants ~60–75 characters and
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+ generous line-height; dense UI labels want tight leading. One global line-height for
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+ everything is a tell.
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+ - **Type carries the brand.** If the direction is expressive, the typeface and its
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+ treatment are where it shows first — not a decorative afterthought bolted on at the end.
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+
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+ ## Colour
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+
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+ - **Drive colour from semantic tokens, always.** No raw hex in components. Reach for the
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+ intent (`color.surface`, `color.text.muted`), so a theme change is a token change.
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+ - **Restraint reads as intentional.** A tight, deliberate palette with one confident
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+ accent beats a rainbow. Most of a good UI is neutrals; colour earns attention where it
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+ carries meaning (state, emphasis, brand).
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+ - **Contrast is a design tool, not only an a11y gate.** Use it to direct the eye — but the
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+ floor is the a11y requirement (see [accessibility.md](./accessibility.md)).
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+ - **The gradient/glow reflex.** A gradient is a choice, not a default. If you add one, it
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+ should be motivated by the direction, not reflexively dropped behind every hero.
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+
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+ ## Space, layout and hierarchy
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+
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+ - **Spacing comes from the scale and creates rhythm.** Consistent, intentional spacing is
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+ most of what makes a UI feel designed. Uniform padding everywhere flattens hierarchy;
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+ vary space to group and separate.
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+ - **Every screen has a focal point.** Decide what the eye hits first and build the layout
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+ to deliver it. A grid of equal-weight cards with no anchor is the canonical slop layout.
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+ - **Use alignment and an underlying grid.** Things line up on purpose; deliberate
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+ asymmetry is a choice, accidental misalignment is noise.
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+ - **Density follows the dial.** Airy vs compact is a decision in §2 — honour it. Don't
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+ pad an expert, data-dense tool into a marketing page or cram a spacious landing page.
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+ - **Whitespace is structure, not leftover.** Generous space around a focal element is how
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+ you signal importance; reaching to fill every region is a reflex to resist.
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+
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+ ## Depth, borders and surface
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+
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+ - **Don't outline everything.** Borders-and-shadow on every element is slop. Separate with
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+ space and surface colour first; reach for a border or elevation only where it carries
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+ meaning (an interactive boundary, a raised layer).
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+ - **Elevation is a system, not per-component guesswork.** Shadows come from the token
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+ scale and map to a consistent sense of layering, not random blur values.
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+ - **Radius and stroke are part of the voice.** Sharp vs soft corners, hairline vs heavy
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+ strokes — keep them consistent and aligned to the direction, from tokens.
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+
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+ ## Motion as craft
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+
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+ Motion appetite is the **motion dial** in §2 — respect it; do not animate a low-motion
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+ brief, and don't leave a high-motion one static.
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+
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+ - **Motion has a job.** Animate to show a relationship — where a thing came from, what
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+ changed, what is loading. Decoration-only motion is noise.
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+ - **Fast and eased.** UI transitions are short (typically ~150–250ms) with easing that
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+ matches the feel; linear, slow, or bouncy-by-default reads as amateur.
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+ - **Animate cheap properties.** Prefer transform and opacity; animating layout-affecting
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+ properties janks.
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+ - **Respect `prefers-reduced-motion`.** Provide a reduced or no-motion path — this is both
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+ craft and an accessibility requirement (see [accessibility.md](./accessibility.md)).
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+
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+ ## Responsive as craft
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+
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+ - **Design the breakpoints, don't just let things reflow.** Decide what actually changes
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+ per the handoff's §7 — a layout shift, a nav pattern, a density change — rather than
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+ shrinking the desktop layout until it breaks.
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+ - **Touch and pointer differ.** Targets, hover affordances and spacing adapt to the input,
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+ not just the viewport width.
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+ - **No horizontal scroll, no clipped content.** The small-screen state is a first-class
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+ design, including the empty/loading/error states from §6.
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+
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+ ## Component and state completeness
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+
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+ - **Build every state the handoff names.** Empty, loading, error, success and edge content
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+ (§6) are part of the design — a component that only renders the happy path is unfinished.
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+ - **Reuse the design system; don't reinvent primitives.** Match existing components and
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+ their variants. A bespoke one-off button next to the system button is slop.
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+ - **Microcopy is the words in the handoff (§10), verbatim and in voice.** Don't substitute
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+ generic "Submit" / "Something went wrong" when the handoff specified the real copy.
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+
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+ ## The point-of-view test
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+
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+ Before you call a screen done, ask: **could this have been generated for any product?** If
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+ yes, it has no point of view — return to the dials and the brand references in §2 and make
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+ the deliberate choice the handoff asked for. A design that someone could not have
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+ articulated alone is the bar; the average is the failure.
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ worthless.
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  first — it is the maintained high-level map of the system's shape (contexts, boundaries,
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  seams). Use it as your baseline: don't re-derive what it already states; deep-dive only
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  where it is thin or stale for the question at hand. If it is **absent**, map from scratch
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- as below — and never suggest creating it (it is the client's choice, decision #8). When the
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+ as below — and never suggest creating it (it is the client's choice). When the
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  map contradicts the code in an area you read (the map says X, the code does Y), call out the
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  staleness in your report's **Notes** so the Architect (your invoker, who owns the map) can
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  reconcile it via `update-architecture` — don't silently trust either side.
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
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+ ---
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+ name: design-critique
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+ description: The design-QA review lens for the UI Designer — judge an implemented UI change against its ui-handoff.md design contract (dials, focal point, states, microcopy) and the point-of-view test. Confidence-gated, verdict plus route-back, no severity theatre. Use at REVIEW when a task touched UI, alongside a11y-audit.
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+ origin: vendor
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+ vendor_version: '{{vendor_version}}'
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+ phase: post-implementation
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+ invoked-by: [ui-designer]
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Design Critique
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+
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+ Judge the **design quality** of an implemented UI change, with **fresh context** — the
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+ subjective half of design QA. The objective, measurable half (WCAG contrast, keyboard,
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+ semantics) is the `a11y-audit` skill, run alongside this one. This skill does not re-judge
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+ accessibility; it asks whether the screen carries the **point of view the handoff chose**.
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+
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+ Your bar is the `ui-handoff.md` the UI Designer authored for this task (under the task's
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+ `spec/` directory) — its dials, focal points, component and state decisions, motion
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+ appetite and microcopy. The build twin is the implementer's `build-ui/anti-slop.md`: this
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+ lens checks, in judge voice, what that resource asks the implementer to build. When you
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+ change an axis below, keep its build twin in step.
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+
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+ ## What you judge against — and what you don't
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+
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+ Every finding ties to one of two anchors, never to raw preference:
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+
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+ - **A handoff deviation** — the build did not honour a decision the handoff made: the §2
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+ dials, the §4 focal point, the §6 states, the §10 microcopy, the §8 motion appetite.
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+ - **The point-of-view test** — _could this screen have been generated for any product?_ If
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+ yes, it has no point of view, which is itself a failure of the handoff's chosen direction.
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+
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+ You do **not** flag "I would have done it differently". The UI Designer holds a point of
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+ view but holds it lightly; a critique that relitigates settled, handoff-honouring choices
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+ trains the reader to ignore it. If the handoff itself is wrong or silent on a case, that is
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+ a **discovery**, not a rejection — raise it (`raise-discovery`) so the designer or human
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+ resolves it, rather than failing the change.
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+
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+ ## Confidence gating
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+
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+ Only raise a finding you are **>80% confident** is a real deviation or point-of-view
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+ failure. State confidence when borderline. Match the **variance dial**: at low variance,
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+ restraint is correct and manufactured flair is the bug; at medium/high, the generic default
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+ is the failure. Calibrate to the dial — don't demand maximum expression everywhere.
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+
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+ ## The axes
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+
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+ For each, the question is "does the build carry the handoff's decision?" — not "is this how
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+ I'd do it?".
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+
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+ ### Typography
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+
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+ Does the type establish the handoff's hierarchy through a real scale (size, weight,
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+ colour, space), or fall back to arbitrary sizes and one global line-height? If the direction
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+ is expressive, does the typeface treatment actually carry it?
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+
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+ ### Colour
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+
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+ Is colour driven from semantic tokens with the restraint the dial asked for — most of the
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+ UI neutral, the accent earning attention where it carries meaning — or a reflexive
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+ gradient/rainbow the handoff never called for?
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+
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+ ### Space, layout and hierarchy
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+
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+ Does spacing come from a scale and create rhythm, with the density the §2 dial set? Is there
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+ a deliberate focal point (§4), or a flat grid of equal-weight cards with no anchor — the
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+ canonical slop layout?
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+
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+ ### Depth, borders and surface
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+
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+ Is separation carried by space and surface first, with borders and elevation only where
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+ they mean something — or is everything outlined and shadowed? Are radius, stroke and
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+ elevation consistent and on-voice, from tokens?
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+
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+ ### Motion as craft
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+
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+ Does motion match the §8 appetite — present where the brief is high-motion, absent where
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+ it's low — and does each animation show a relationship (origin, change, loading) rather
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+ than decorate? Fast and eased, not slow or bouncy-by-default?
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+
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+ ### Responsive as craft
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+
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+ Are the §7 breakpoints designed — a real layout/nav/density change — rather than the
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+ desktop layout shrunk until it breaks? Are the small-screen empty/loading/error states
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+ first-class, with no horizontal scroll or clipped content?
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+
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+ ### Component and state completeness
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+
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+ Are all the §6 states built (empty, loading, error, success, edge), or only the happy path?
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+ Does the change reuse the design system rather than introduce a bespoke one-off next to the
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+ system component? Is the §10 microcopy verbatim and in voice, not generic "Submit"?
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+
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+ ## Report
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+
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+ Output a concise verdict the Orchestrator can act on — prose and a one-line verdict, **not**
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+ a severity table:
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+
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+ ```
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+ ## Design Critique — <task name>
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+
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+ **Against**: ui-handoff.md (<the focal decisions you checked>)
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+
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+ <findings — each tied to a handoff section or the point-of-view test, with confidence
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+ when borderline; or "no design deviations">
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+
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+ **Verdict**: approve / changes requested — <one-line reason>
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+ ```
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+
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+ "Changes requested" routes back to the Implementer (transient — no label). When the handoff
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+ is the thing at fault, raise a discovery instead. An independent defect unrelated to this
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+ change is a side finding (`note-side-finding`), not a rejection.
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+ ---
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+ name: design-tool-sync
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+ description: The token sync connector between the canonical design-tokens.json and a design tool (Figma, Pencil, or any variables-capable tool). Provider-agnostic and runtime-detected — the tool is a projection of the JSON, never a peer source of truth. import pulls tool variables into the 3-tier JSON (human-curated); export projects the JSON to the tool as an additive upsert that never deletes. Use when syncing tokens with a design tool, or when a drift check shows an export is pending.
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+ origin: vendor
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+ vendor_version: '{{vendor_version}}'
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+ invoked-by: [ui-designer]
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Design-Tool Sync
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+
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+ Keep the design tool and the canonical `docs/design-tokens.json` in step — tokens only. The
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+ JSON is the **single source of truth**; the design tool is a **projection** of it that can run
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+ ahead. That asymmetry shapes everything here:
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+
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+ - **`import` (tool → JSON)** is the primary flow and **human-curated**: the tool cannot
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+ silently overwrite the source of truth, so you present the diff and the human picks the
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+ slice that lands.
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+ - **`export` (JSON → tool)** is an **additive upsert**: it creates and updates variables but
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+ **never deletes** a tool-only variable. The JSON leads; the tool catches up.
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+ - **drift** is one-directional and deterministic: "has the JSON changed since the last
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+ export?" — a pure-JSON check that needs no tool connection.
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+
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+ You are invoked two ways: by `/sync-design-tokens` (the human's explicit handle, argument
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+ `import` or `export`), and at DEFINE when the drift check shows an export is pending and the
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+ current user has the tool connected.
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+
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+ ## Detect the tool (runtime, detect-or-skip)
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+
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+ There is no per-provider configuration baked into the harness. Detect at runtime:
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+
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+ 1. Read the binding at the root of `docs/design-tokens.json`:
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+ `$extensions["com.lemony.design-tool"]` → `{ "provider": "<tool>", "lastProjected": "<hash>" }`.
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+ A declared `provider` means the project syncs; **no binding means the project is pure-code
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+ — there is nothing to sync, stop here.**
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+ 2. Confirm the declared tool's MCP server is actually connected in this session. If the
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+ provider is declared but its MCP server is **not** available (a teammate's tool, a CI run,
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+ a disconnected session), **skip gracefully**: say so in one line and do nothing. The
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+ deterministic drift check still works without the tool, so detection never blocks.
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+
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+ You bridge the tool's MCP and the deterministic CLI. The CLI never talks to the tool; **you**
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+ read and write tool variables over MCP and shuttle them through a provider-neutral file.
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+
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+ ## The neutral file (the bridge)
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+
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+ Your per-provider adapter normalizes the tool's variables into one provider-agnostic shape the
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+ CLI consumes (and produces). It is a third representation, distinct from both the tool's raw
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+ variables and the DTCG JSON:
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+
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+ ```json
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+ {
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+ "schemaVersion": 1,
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+ "provider": "<tool>",
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+ "variables": [
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+ { "name": "primitive.color.brand", "type": "color", "value": "#3b82f6" },
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+ {
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+ "name": "semantic.color.text",
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+ "type": "color",
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+ "ref": "primitive.color.brand"
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+ },
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+ {
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+ "name": "semantic.color.surface",
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+ "type": "color",
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+ "value": "#ffffff",
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+ "modes": { "dark": "#000000" }
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+ }
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+ ]
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+ }
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+ ```
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+
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+ - `name` — the variable's dotted path. Map it to/from the tool's own grouping separator.
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+ - `value` for a literal; `ref` for an alias (the name of the variable it points at).
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+ - `modes` — per-theme overrides (the base theme is `value`/`ref`, not repeated).
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+
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+ The CLI maps this to the 3-tier DTCG model: `ref` → an alias `{path}`, `modes` →
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+ `$extensions["com.lemony.modes"]`, and the tier follows the path (a literal defaults to
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+ `primitive`, an alias to `semantic` when the name carries no tier).
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+
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+ ## import — tool → JSON
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+
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+ 1. **Read** the tool's variables over MCP and write them to a neutral file (a temp path).
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+ 2. **Preview** the diff (writes nothing):
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+ `lemony design-tokens import --from=<neutral-file>`. It prints, per token, the target tier
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+ and `new` / `changed` (with the old → new value) / `unchanged`.
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+ 3. **Present and curate.** Walk the human through it: which new tokens to take, which changes
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+ to accept, and — where a tool-origin name is ambiguous — whether a literal belongs in
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+ `primitive` or `semantic`. The human owns the slice.
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+ 4. **Apply** the agreed slice:
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+ `lemony design-tokens import --from=<neutral-file> --apply --only=<dotted,paths>`.
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+ This does the additive merge into `docs/design-tokens.json` deterministically (it
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+ bootstraps the file if it does not exist yet). Then run `lemony design-tokens validate` to
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+ confirm the result is well-formed.
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+
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+ ## export — JSON → tool
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+
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+ 1. **Plan.** Read the tool's current variables over MCP into a neutral file, then:
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+ `lemony design-tokens export --tool-state=<tool-state> --out=<projection-file>`. It prints
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+ the additive upsert plan (how many to create, how many to update — **never any deletes**)
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+ and writes the projection the tool should hold to `<projection-file>`. The `--tool-state`
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+ is optional; without it every variable is planned as a create (the upsert is idempotent by
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+ name either way).
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+ 2. **Confirm.** Show the plan; the human approves.
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+ 3. **Push.** Write the projection's variables into the tool over MCP — create new ones, update
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+ changed ones, leave tool-only variables untouched.
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+ 4. **Record — only after the push succeeds.** `lemony design-tokens export --record` stamps
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+ the drift baseline (`lastProjected`) so `status`/`doctor` report in sync. If the push
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+ failed, do **not** record: the file correctly keeps reporting an export is pending.
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+
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+ ## Drift and degradation
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+
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+ - `lemony status` and `lemony doctor` surface an **export-pending** state (the JSON moved past
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+ the last projection). This is deterministic and needs no tool — it works in CI.
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+ - A declared-but-unavailable tool is never an error: skip with an informational note and let
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+ the deterministic gates carry on.
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+
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+ ## Known limit (MVP)
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+
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+ Export is **additive**: it does not propagate JSON-side deletions or renames to the tool. A
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+ variable removed or renamed in the JSON leaves its old counterpart in the tool — clean that up
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+ by hand. This is rare and deliberate: the safe default is to never delete a designer's work.
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+ Visual/screen sync is out of scope — this connector is tokens only.
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+ ---
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+ name: grill-ui
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+ description: Design-direction interview for the UI Designer. Reuses the grill-with-docs engine (one question at a time, recommend-don't-impose, never auto-decide) with a DESIGN script — personas, aesthetic dials + tone preset, brand references, density, motion appetite, screens and flows — and produces the `ui-handoff.md` design contract (not a PRD). Inherits the task's PRD and consumes `docs/personas.md` if present. Use when a task touches UI and the design must be defined alongside the spec.
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+ origin: vendor
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+ vendor_version: '{{vendor_version}}'
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+ invoked-by: [ui-designer]
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+ attribution:
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+ - source: mattpocock/skills
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+ author: Matt Pocock
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+ url: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills
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+ license: MIT
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+ relationship: derived-from
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+ note: grill interview engine — one question at a time, decision-by-decision interrogation
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Grill UI
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+
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+ The UI Designer's **DEFINE** method: a design-direction interview that turns a task into a
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+ `ui-handoff.md` design contract the implementer can build from. It is the design sibling of
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+ `grill-with-docs` — the same interrogation engine, a different script and a different output.
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+
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+ ## Core Principle
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+
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+ You are a design director with taste. Push for **deliberate, distinctive** direction, not the
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+ generic defaults a model reaches for unprompted. Drill every design branch. Present concrete
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+ options with trade-offs — never just open questions. The goal is a design the user could not have
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+ articulated alone, captured as decisions the implementer can execute and the review can verify.
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+
29
+ ## Hard rules
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+
31
+ 1. **NEVER auto-decide.** Every design decision (tone, dials, layout, component variant, motion,
32
+ a11y target, copy voice) goes through `AskUserQuestion`. "My recommendation: X" is fine as an
33
+ OPTION — never as a closed decision in the handoff.
34
+ 2. **One question at a time.** Always. Wait for the answer before continuing.
35
+ 3. **Recommend, never impose.** Mark one option `(Recommended)` and explain why; the user chooses.
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+ You have taste, but it is the user's product.
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+ 4. **Don't close the handoff unilaterally.** Ask before marking it complete. A WIP handoff is fine;
38
+ a falsely-closed one is not.
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+ 5. **Capture decisions at decisions-altitude.** The handoff holds DECISIONS and targets, not
40
+ know-how. How to implement a token system, avoid slop, or meet WCAG lives in the implementer's
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+ and reviewer's skills — never restate it here.
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+
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+ ## Inheritance — don't re-ask the need
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+
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+ This interview runs **after** the general grill and the spec. Before the first question:
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+
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+ - **Read the task's PRD** (`docs/prds/<topic>-*.md`) and the spec
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+ (`.claude/state/tasks/<id>/spec/requirements.md` / `design.md`). The _what_ and _why_ are already
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+ settled — do NOT re-ask them. You are defining the _how it looks and feels_.
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+ - **Consume `docs/personas.md` if it exists** — the project's user models. Treat it as input; do not
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+ re-derive personas the file already states. **If it is absent, ask inline** (the persona branch
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+ below) and capture the answer in the handoff's §1 — **never create `docs/personas.md`** here (it is
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+ client-owned; the harness only consumes it). When you captured personas inline **because the file
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+ was absent**, say so in your return so the Orchestrator can offer to persist them to
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+ `docs/personas.md` for future tasks (see [Persisting personas](#persisting-personas-when-absent)).
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+ The offer is the Orchestrator's — a human-facing surface — never yours mid-interview.
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+ - **Consume `docs/design-tokens.json` if it exists** — the single source of truth for tokens. The
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+ handoff §11 points at it; you never inline token values.
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+ - **Read `docs/architecture.md` if it exists** — orient against the system's shape so design
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+ proposals don't contradict existing surfaces. Absent is fine; never push the user to create it.
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+
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+ ## The design script — branch by branch
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+
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+ Walk these one at a time, in roughly this order. Skip a branch when the PRD/personas already
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+ settle it; mark a branch **N/A** when it doesn't apply to the task. Each closed branch maps to a
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+ section of [ui-handoff-format.md](./ui-handoff-format.md).
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+
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+ 1. **Personas / who it serves** (→ §1). Consume `docs/personas.md` if present; else ask: who uses
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+ this, in what context, with what constraints (device, expertise, frequency)? Capture only what
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+ shapes design decisions. If you asked inline because the file was absent, flag it in your return
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+ so the Orchestrator can offer to persist them ([Persisting personas](#persisting-personas-when-absent)).
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+ 2. **Aesthetic direction** (→ §2). The heart of the interview. Start from an optional **tone
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+ preset** (`controlled` / `impact` / `innovative`) as shorthand that seeds defaults, then set the
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+ three explicit **dials** — **variance** (conventional ↔ expressive), **motion** (still ↔
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+ animated), **density** (airy ↔ compact). Gather **brand references** (sites/products the user
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+ admires and why) and any voice/feel words. The dials are the canonical, verifiable direction
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+ language — see [ui-handoff-format.md](./ui-handoff-format.md) §2 for the full definitions.
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+ 3. **Screens & flows** (→ §3). Enumerate the screens/surfaces this task adds or changes; map the
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+ navigation / user-flow between them in text or mermaid. **Text-first** — no pixels.
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+ 4. **Per-screen layout** (→ §4). For each screen, the structural intent: regions, hierarchy, what
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+ draws the eye first. Words, not mockups.
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+ 5. **Components** (→ §5). Name the components and the variant/states that matter. **Graduated
83
+ altitude**: decisions-altitude by default (name the variant + the states that matter); the full
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+ component anatomy ONLY for a genuinely novel or critical component.
85
+ 6. **States** (→ §6). Empty / loading / error / success / edge content for the task's surfaces.
86
+ 7. **Responsive** (→ §7). Breakpoint behavior that actually changes for this task.
87
+ 8. **Motion / interaction** (→ §8). Motion appetite (from the dial) + the few interactions that
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+ carry meaning. Not an animation catalogue.
89
+ 9. **Accessibility** (→ §9). Target level (default WCAG 2.1 AA) + any task-specific a11y decisions.
90
+ The _audit_ and _how-to_ are skills — capture only decisions here.
91
+ 10. **Microcopy** (→ §10). The actual words for the task's key labels/messages, **inline**. Voice
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+ follows §2; no separate copy artifact.
93
+ 11. **Tokens** (→ §11). Point at `docs/design-tokens.json`. If the project has no token file yet,
94
+ say so and capture it as an open question — never invent a token set.
95
+
96
+ After important branches, offer a checkpoint:
97
+
98
+ > "We've set direction, screens, and components. Three branches remain: states, responsive,
99
+ > accessibility. Keep going, prioritize, or pause here?"
100
+
101
+ ## Co-creation — Socratic + proposals
102
+
103
+ When the user has no formed design opinion, NEVER leave it open. Present alternatives with
104
+ trade-offs and a recommendation:
105
+
106
+ > "For variance you have: **low** — safe, system-like, fast to build, risks generic;
107
+ > **medium** — distinctive but restrained; **high** — bold and memorable, more build cost and
108
+ > more ways to get it wrong. Recommendation: medium for an internal tool, high for a landing
109
+ > page. Which fits?"
110
+
111
+ This teaches through forced trade-off comparison rather than blind choice.
112
+
113
+ ## Output — `ui-handoff.md`
114
+
115
+ The interview produces **`ui-handoff.md`** under `.claude/state/tasks/<id>/spec/`, a sibling of the
116
+ Spec Author's `requirements.md` / `design.md` / `tasks.md`. You **own** it. Use the canonical
117
+ **11-section** contract in [ui-handoff-format.md](./ui-handoff-format.md).
118
+
119
+ - A `Status:` field marks WIP vs done: `in_progress` while the design is being defined,
120
+ `completed` when closed. **Same file**, just a different status.
121
+ - Update it **inline** as branches close — don't batch at the end.
122
+
123
+ ## Persisting personas (when absent)
124
+
125
+ `docs/personas.md` is **client-owned**: the harness consumes it, never imposes it. So when the
126
+ file was **absent** and you gathered personas inline (§1 above), you do **not** write it
127
+ yourself mid-interview — a sub-agent must not interrupt the human, and the choice to keep a
128
+ persistent user-model doc is the human's.
129
+
130
+ Instead:
131
+
132
+ 1. **Flag it in your return.** State plainly that `docs/personas.md` was absent and you captured
133
+ personas inline in the handoff's §1. That is the signal the Orchestrator needs.
134
+ 2. **The Orchestrator makes the offer** — on its own human-facing surface, after you return —
135
+ asking whether to persist those personas to `docs/personas.md` for future tasks.
136
+ 3. **You author it only if re-dispatched** with the human's yes. Write a **minimal
137
+ `docs/personas.md`** from the personas already captured in §1 — the client's own words, not an
138
+ invented cast. Keep it a skeleton the client can grow: one short block per persona (who they
139
+ are, their context/device, expertise, frequency, the goals and constraints that shape design).
140
+ Create `docs/` if absent. This is the client's real content, surfaced from their own answers —
141
+ never a vendor template, never personas the harness guessed.
142
+
143
+ If the human declines, write nothing: the inline personas live on in the handoff's §1 for this
144
+ task, and the next UI task will simply ask again.
145
+
146
+ ## Pause & Resume
147
+
148
+ Design definition is part of completing the spec, not a separate state. Pausing and resuming use
149
+ the lifecycle the Orchestrator already owns — don't invent a parallel mechanism:
150
+
151
+ - **Pausing**: write `ui-handoff.md` with `Status: in_progress` and the sections closed so far. The
152
+ Orchestrator records the sub-state `awaiting design definition` in the task's `progress.md` and
153
+ parks the task. Confirm with the user before ending the turn.
154
+ - **Resuming**: `/resume <id>` re-enters via that sub-state. Read the in-progress `ui-handoff.md`,
155
+ confirm which sections are closed and which branch comes next, then continue.
156
+ - **Completing**: flip `Status: in_progress` → `Status: completed`. The Orchestrator removes the
157
+ `harness:needs-design` flag at/before `spec-ready`.
158
+
159
+ ## Tone
160
+
161
+ **Adaptive**, like the general grill. Start curious-collaborative; escalate when answers are shallow
162
+ ("I don't know", "whatever looks good"); never go beyond constructive provocation. You bring taste
163
+ and conviction — push for a real direction, but the user decides.
164
+
165
+ ## When the design is underspecified
166
+
167
+ If a design decision needs input the PRD left open with more than one valid answer and the user
168
+ can't resolve it in the interview, **raise it as a discovery** rather than guess — the Orchestrator
169
+ mediates and re-invokes you with the decision. For an independent defect unrelated to the design,
170
+ note it as a side finding and keep going.
171
+
172
+ ## Cross-references
173
+
174
+ ```
175
+ grill-ui → ui-handoff.md → implementer (build-ui) → REVIEW (design-critique + a11y-audit) → merge gate
176
+ ```
177
+
178
+ The implementer reads `ui-handoff.md` as its obligatory design input; the REVIEW design lens checks
179
+ the built UI against it. The `build-ui`, `design-critique`, and `a11y-audit` skills carry the
180
+ know-how and the audits — this skill only defines the contract.
181
+
182
+ ---
183
+
184
+ See also:
185
+
186
+ - [ui-handoff-format.md](./ui-handoff-format.md) — the canonical 11-section `ui-handoff.md` contract,
187
+ the dials + tone-preset definitions (§2), and the graduated component anatomy.