Bug fixes

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> **Additional context needed**: target platforms/devices and usage contexts.
Adapt an existing design to a different context: another screen size, device, platform, or use case. The trap is treating adaptation as scaling. The job is rethinking the experience for the new context.
**Web only** (mobile web included). Native platforms (`ios` / `android` / `adaptive`) route to [adapt.native.md](adapt.native.md) instead; if the project is native, switch to it now.
---
## Assess Adaptation Challenge
Understand what needs adaptation and why:
1. **Identify the source context**:
- What was it designed for originally? (Desktop web? Mobile app?)
- What assumptions were made? (Large screen? Mouse input? Fast connection?)
- What works well in current context?
2. **Understand target context**:
- **Device**: Mobile, tablet, desktop, TV, watch, print?
- **Input method**: Touch, mouse, keyboard, voice, gamepad?
- **Screen constraints**: Size, resolution, orientation?
- **Connection**: Fast wifi, slow 3G, offline?
- **Usage context**: On-the-go vs desk, quick glance vs focused reading?
- **User expectations**: What do users expect on this platform?
3. **Identify adaptation challenges**:
- What won't fit? (Content, navigation, features)
- What won't work? (Hover states on touch, tiny touch targets)
- What's inappropriate? (Desktop patterns on mobile, mobile patterns on desktop)
**CRITICAL**: Adaptation is rethinking the experience for the new context, not scaling pixels.
## Plan Adaptation Strategy
Create context-appropriate strategy:
### Mobile Adaptation (Desktop → Mobile)
**Layout Strategy**:
- Single column instead of multi-column
- Vertical stacking instead of side-by-side
- Full-width components instead of fixed widths
- Bottom navigation instead of top/side navigation
**Interaction Strategy**:
- Touch targets 44x44px minimum (not hover-dependent)
- Swipe gestures where appropriate (lists, carousels)
- Bottom sheets instead of dropdowns
- Thumbs-first design (controls within thumb reach)
- Larger tap areas with more spacing
**Content Strategy**:
- Progressive disclosure (don't show everything at once)
- Prioritize primary content (secondary content in tabs/accordions)
- Shorter text (more concise)
- Larger text (16px minimum)
**Navigation Strategy**:
- Hamburger menu or bottom navigation
- Reduce navigation complexity
- Sticky headers for context
- Back button in navigation flow
### Tablet Adaptation (Hybrid Approach)
**Layout Strategy**:
- Two-column layouts (not single or three-column)
- Side panels for secondary content
- Master-detail views (list + detail)
- Adaptive based on orientation (portrait vs landscape)
**Interaction Strategy**:
- Support both touch and pointer
- Touch targets 44x44px but allow denser layouts than phone
- Side navigation drawers
- Multi-column forms where appropriate
### Desktop Adaptation (Mobile → Desktop)
**Layout Strategy**:
- Multi-column layouts (use horizontal space)
- Side navigation always visible
- Multiple information panels simultaneously
- Fixed widths with max-width constraints (don't stretch to 4K)
**Interaction Strategy**:
- Hover states for additional information
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Right-click context menus
- Drag and drop where helpful
- Multi-select with Shift/Cmd
**Content Strategy**:
- Show more information upfront (less progressive disclosure)
- Data tables with many columns
- Richer visualizations
- More detailed descriptions
### Print Adaptation (Screen → Print)
**Layout Strategy**:
- Page breaks at logical points
- Remove navigation, footer, interactive elements
- Black and white (or limited color)
- Proper margins for binding
**Content Strategy**:
- Expand shortened content (show full URLs, hidden sections)
- Add page numbers, headers, footers
- Include metadata (print date, page title)
- Convert charts to print-friendly versions
### Email Adaptation (Web → Email)
**Layout Strategy**:
- Narrow width (600px max)
- Single column only
- Inline CSS (no external stylesheets)
- Table-based layouts (for email client compatibility)
**Interaction Strategy**:
- Large, obvious CTAs (buttons not text links)
- No hover states (not reliable)
- Deep links to web app for complex interactions
## Implement Adaptations
Apply changes systematically:
### Responsive Breakpoints
Choose appropriate breakpoints:
- Mobile: 320px-767px
- Tablet: 768px-1023px
- Desktop: 1024px+
- Or content-driven breakpoints (where design breaks)
### Layout Adaptation Techniques
- **CSS Grid/Flexbox**: Reflow layouts automatically
- **Container Queries**: Adapt based on container, not viewport
- **`clamp()`**: Fluid sizing between min and max
- **Media queries**: Different styles for different contexts
- **Display properties**: Show/hide elements per context
### Touch Adaptation
- Increase touch target sizes (44x44px minimum)
- Add more spacing between interactive elements
- Remove hover-dependent interactions
- Add touch feedback (ripples, highlights)
- Consider thumb zones (easier to reach bottom than top)
### Content Adaptation
- Use `display: none` sparingly (still downloads)
- Progressive enhancement (core content first, enhancements on larger screens)
- Lazy loading for off-screen content
- Responsive images (`srcset`, `picture` element)
### Navigation Adaptation
- Transform complex nav to hamburger/drawer on mobile
- Bottom nav bar for mobile apps
- Persistent side navigation on desktop
- Breadcrumbs on smaller screens for context
**IMPORTANT**: Test on real devices. Device emulation in DevTools is helpful but not perfect.
**NEVER**:
- Hide core functionality on mobile (if it matters, make it work)
- Assume desktop = powerful device (consider accessibility, older machines)
- Use different information architecture across contexts (confusing)
- Break user expectations for platform (mobile users expect mobile patterns)
- Forget landscape orientation on mobile/tablet
- Use generic breakpoints blindly (use content-driven breakpoints)
- Ignore touch on desktop (many desktop devices have touch)
## Verify Adaptations
Test thoroughly across contexts:
- **Real devices**: Test on actual phones, tablets, desktops
- **Different orientations**: Portrait and landscape
- **Different browsers**: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge
- **Different OS**: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS
- **Different input methods**: Touch, mouse, keyboard
- **Edge cases**: Very small screens (320px), very large screens (4K)
- **Slow connections**: Test on throttled network
When the adaptation feels native to each context, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.
---
## Reference Material
The sections below were previously `responsive-design.md` and live inline now so the adapt flow has its deep responsive reference in one place.
### Responsive Design
#### Mobile-First: Write It Right
Start with base styles for mobile, use `min-width` queries to layer complexity. Desktop-first (`max-width`) means mobile loads unnecessary styles first.
#### Breakpoints: Content-Driven
Don't chase device sizes; let content tell you where to break. Start narrow, stretch until design breaks, add breakpoint there. Three breakpoints usually suffice (640, 768, 1024px). Use `clamp()` for fluid values without breakpoints.
#### Detect Input Method, Not Just Screen Size
**Screen size doesn't tell you input method.** A laptop with touchscreen, a tablet with keyboard. Use pointer and hover queries:
```css
/* Fine pointer (mouse, trackpad) */
@media (pointer: fine) {
.button { padding: 8px 16px; }
}
/* Coarse pointer (touch, stylus) */
@media (pointer: coarse) {
.button { padding: 12px 20px; } /* Larger touch target */
}
/* Device supports hover */
@media (hover: hover) {
.card:hover { transform: translateY(-2px); }
}
/* Device doesn't support hover (touch) */
@media (hover: none) {
.card { /* No hover state - use active instead */ }
}
```
**Critical**: Don't rely on hover for functionality. Touch users can't hover.
#### Safe Areas: Handle the Notch
Modern phones have notches, rounded corners, and home indicators. Use `env()`:
```css
body {
padding-top: env(safe-area-inset-top);
padding-bottom: env(safe-area-inset-bottom);
padding-left: env(safe-area-inset-left);
padding-right: env(safe-area-inset-right);
}
/* With fallback */
.footer {
padding-bottom: max(1rem, env(safe-area-inset-bottom));
}
```
**Enable viewport-fit** in your meta tag:
```html
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, viewport-fit=cover">
```
#### Responsive Images: Get It Right
##### srcset with Width Descriptors
```html
<img
src="hero-800.jpg"
srcset="
hero-400.jpg 400w,
hero-800.jpg 800w,
hero-1200.jpg 1200w
"
sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 50vw"
alt="Hero image"
>
```
**How it works**:
- `srcset` lists available images with their actual widths (`w` descriptors)
- `sizes` tells the browser how wide the image will display
- Browser picks the best file based on viewport width AND device pixel ratio
##### Picture Element for Art Direction
When you need different crops/compositions (not just resolutions):
```html
<picture>
<source media="(min-width: 768px)" srcset="wide.jpg">
<source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcset="tall.jpg">
<img src="fallback.jpg" alt="...">
</picture>
```
#### Layout Adaptation Patterns
**Navigation**: Three stages: hamburger + drawer on mobile, horizontal compact on tablet, full with labels on desktop. **Tables**: Transform to cards on mobile using `display: block` and `data-label` attributes. **Progressive disclosure**: Use `<details>/<summary>` for content that can collapse on mobile.
#### Testing: Don't Trust DevTools Alone
DevTools device emulation is useful for layout but misses:
- Actual touch interactions
- Real CPU/memory constraints
- Network latency patterns
- Font rendering differences
- Browser chrome/keyboard appearances
**Test on at least**: One real iPhone, one real Android, a tablet if relevant. Cheap Android phones reveal performance issues you'll never see on simulators.
---
**Avoid**: Desktop-first design. Device detection instead of feature detection. Separate mobile/desktop codebases. Ignoring tablet and landscape. Assuming all mobile devices are powerful.

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> **Additional context needed**: target platforms/devices and usage contexts.
Adapt an existing **native** design (`ios` / `android` / `adaptive`) to a different context: another device class, orientation, platform, or origin. The trap is treating adaptation as scaling. The job is rethinking the experience for the new context, inside the platform conventions of [ios.md](ios.md) / [android.md](android.md); read the target platform's reference before planning if Setup hasn't already.
## Assess Adaptation Challenge
1. **Source context**: what was it designed for, and what assumptions did it make? (Phone-only? Portrait-only? One platform's idioms? A website?)
2. **Target context**: which device class (phone, tablet, foldable), orientation, platform, and usage posture (one-handed on the go vs two-handed at rest)?
3. **What breaks**: navigation that doesn't fit the target, layouts that stretch instead of restructure, gestures or controls that don't exist there?
## Adaptation Strategies
### Phone → Tablet (iPad / large screens)
- **Restructure, don't stretch.** A scaled-up phone UI on a tablet is the failure mode. Use size classes (iOS) / window size classes (Android) to switch structure.
- **Navigation changes shape**: tab bar stays or becomes a sidebar on iPad; Android navigation bar becomes a rail or drawer on expanded width.
- **Use the width**: split view / master-detail (list + detail side by side), multi-column grids, popovers where phones used sheets.
- **Multitasking is a size, not an edge case**: iPad Split View and Android multi-window can hand you a phone-width window on a tablet; size-class-driven layout handles both for free.
### Orientation & foldables
- Landscape restructures (side-by-side panes, repositioned controls); never clip or letterbox. Lock orientation only when the task truly demands it.
- Foldables (Android): react to posture and hinge via window size classes; test folded, unfolded, and tabletop.
### Platform → platform (iOS ↔ Android)
Translate idioms; never transplant them:
| iOS | Android |
|---|---|
| Tab bar | Navigation bar / rail / drawer |
| Edge-swipe back, back chevron | Predictive Back gesture / button |
| Switch, segmented control, system pickers | Material switch, chips, Material pickers |
| Action sheet | Bottom sheet / Material dialog |
| SF Symbols, SF Pro, Dynamic Type | Material Symbols, Roboto, sp scaling |
| Semantic system colors, materials | Material color roles, tonal elevation |
| System push/sheet transitions | Container transform, shared-axis, fade-through |
Rebuild navigation and controls in the target's vocabulary; carry over the brand's expressive layer (palette intent, type accent, motion personality) through the target's theming system.
### Web → native (porting a website or web app)
Reconform, don't reflow. Replace web navigation with the platform's model, HTML-shaped controls with platform controls, hover affordances with touch-first ones, and px-based type with Dynamic Type / sp. Then treat the result to the full platform reference; the slop test there is the acceptance bar.
## Implement & Verify
- Drive structure from **size classes / window size classes**, never from device-model checks.
- Respect safe areas and window insets in every new configuration (notch, hinge, status bar, keyboard).
- Test on simulators for breadth, then real hardware for truth: at least one phone and one tablet per shipped platform, both orientations, split-screen where supported.
When the adaptation feels native to each context, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.
**NEVER**:
- Ship a stretched phone layout on a tablet
- Port one platform's controls or navigation onto the other
- Hide core functionality on smaller devices (if it matters, make it work)
- Lock orientation to dodge a layout bug
- Trust simulators alone (posture, gestures, and performance need hardware)

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# Android platform
For native Android apps: Jetpack Compose, Android Views, React Native, Expo, Flutter shipping to Android hardware.
On native, the visitor mode narrows what expression may override. Material Design 3 governs structure, navigation, and interaction in every mode; brand expresses through Material's theming (color roles, type scale, shape, motion). A Material-everywhere cross-platform app that also ships to iPhone still owes iOS its OS guarantees on that hardware: safe-area insets, Reduce Motion, edge-swipe back.
## The Android slop test
Would a fluent Android user trust this app, or trip on off-spec components? The most common tell is an iOS app wearing Android's skin: a bottom-only navigation copied from iPhone, a back arrow that ignores the system Back gesture, Cupertino-shaped switches and dialogs. Material 3 is the rulebook; follow its components and theme the brand through it.
## Layout & structure
- **Material navigation, matched to size.** Navigation bar (bottom, 35 destinations) on compact width; navigation rail or drawer on expanded width. Never ship a phone bottom-bar untouched on a tablet.
- **System Back always works.** Honor the predictive Back gesture and Back button; never trap the user or hijack the gesture.
- **Edge-to-edge with window insets.** Apply the status bar, navigation bar, display cutout, and IME insets so content never hides behind system bars or the keyboard.
- **Top app bar for screen context**; pair with a FAB when the screen has a single primary action.
## Touch targets
- **48×48 dp minimum** for every touch target, with at least 8 dp between them.
## Typography
- **Material type scale.** Display, Headline, Title, Body, Label roles (large/medium/small each). Map text to roles; never hand-pick sizes per screen.
- **Roboto is the system face**; theme a brand face in through the type scale, keeping body, labels, and controls legible and consistent.
- **sp units, never fixed px**, so type follows the system font-size setting.
## Color & theming
- **Material color roles** (primary, on-primary, surface, surface-variant, secondary-container, outline, error). Role tokens resolve light/dark and contrast variants automatically; raw hex breaks there.
- **Dynamic Color (Material You)** where it fits: derive the scheme from the user's wallpaper on Android 12+, with a static fallback.
- **Dark theme is a first-class scheme.** Design and test it; never a quick invert.
- **Tonal elevation.** Convey elevation through the standard surface tonal levels (plus shadow where appropriate); no arbitrary drop shadows.
## Components & motion
- **Material components.** Buttons (filled / tonal / outlined / text), FAB, switches, chips, snackbars, bottom sheets, Material dialogs, navigation bar/rail/drawer. Never port iOS controls or invent equivalents.
- **One FAB, one primary action.** Never stack FABs or spend one on a secondary task.
- **Snackbars for transient feedback** (actionable when useful, never a toast for that); dialogs only for decisions that must interrupt.
- **Material motion patterns.** Container transform, shared-axis, fade-through, with standard easing and durations; honor the system Remove animations setting with a crossfade or instant cut.

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> **Additional context needed**: performance constraints.
Use motion to explain state, relationship, and hierarchy, or to create one authored moment the surface has earned. Decoration without purpose is animation debt.
---
## Visitor mode
- **Persuade + Experience:** motion may carry the voice. Prefer one rehearsed focal sequence to repeated section reveals.
- **Operate + Read:** motion serves feedback, state, and continuity. Keep routine transitions fast and do not make users wait through page-load choreography.
- **Native (`ios` / `android` / `adaptive`):** follow the Motion section of [ios.md](ios.md) or [android.md](android.md), including the platform's Reduce Motion behavior. Do not apply the web tooling below.
## Find the job
Inspect the existing motion language, interaction states, target devices, and performance budget. Find only the places where motion would:
- acknowledge an action;
- make a state change or spatial relationship legible;
- preserve continuity through navigation or layout change;
- direct attention at a meaningful moment;
- embody the selected visual world.
Ask only when a material constraint cannot be inferred. Do not animate a static area merely because it exists.
## Set the motion thesis
Write a short plan before implementation:
- **Focal moment:** the one sequence or interaction that deserves authorship, if any.
- **Continuity:** the state, layout, or navigation changes that need explanation.
- **Feedback:** the controls and outcomes that need acknowledgment.
- **Budget:** which effects may be expensive and how often they run.
The focal moment must come from this product and surface concept. A generic fade-and-rise, hover lift, parallax layer, or scroll reveal is not a thesis.
## Choose material by meaning
Transform and opacity are reliable foundations, not the entire palette. Choose properties for what the transition communicates:
- **Continuity and relationship:** shared-element motion, FLIP-style transforms, view transitions, or deliberate spatial movement.
- **Focus and depth:** bounded blur, filter, backdrop, light, or shadow changes.
- **Reveal and composition:** masks, clip paths, cropping, or controlled occlusion.
- **Material and energy:** color, gradient position, texture, distortion, or shader effects when the world and runtime support them.
- **State and feedback:** the smallest change that makes cause and result unmistakable.
Do not stack techniques for spectacle. One strong material idea, carried through the focal sequence and quiet supporting states, is usually enough.
Sibling stagger is appropriate when a list appears as a list. Cap the total delay, and never reinterpret every scrolled section as a staggered list.
## Timing and easing
Timing should express distance and consequence:
| Duration | Typical use |
|---|---|
| 100150 ms | immediate feedback |
| 150300 ms | routine state change |
| 300500 ms | layout, overlay, or view transition |
| 500800 ms | a deliberately authored focal entrance |
Exit faster than entrance. Use natural deceleration such as `cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)` for confident arrivals; do not use bounce or elastic curves by reflex. Long feedback feels like latency.
## Implement to the runtime
- Use CSS transitions and keyframes for declarative state and bounded sequences.
- Use Web Animations API or the project's existing motion library for interruption, sequencing, and dynamic values.
- Use View Transitions or shared-element techniques when continuity across states is the point.
- Use scroll-driven motion only when the scroll relationship itself carries meaning, with a robust fallback.
- Do not add a dependency for an effect the existing stack can express cleanly.
Keep content visible in the default state so failed scripts do not hide the page. Avoid casually animating layout-driving properties such as `width`, `height`, `top`, `left`, and margins; use FLIP, transforms, or grid techniques when appropriate. Bound blur, filter, shadow, canvas, and shader work to isolated regions. Apply `will-change` only during known animation. Measure on target viewports and devices rather than assuming transform means fast.
## Accessibility and control
Respect autoplay and sound preferences. Any nonessential loop must stop when offscreen or hidden.
## Verify
- The focal motion is specific to the selected world and surface.
- Every supporting animation explains feedback, state, or relationship.
- Interruption and repeated use behave correctly.
- Desktop, mobile, and keyboard paths remain usable.
- Expensive effects stay smooth on the target device.
- Removing an animation would lose meaning or authored character, not merely decoration.
When motion earns its place, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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Run systematic **technical** quality checks and generate a comprehensive report. Don't fix issues; document them for other commands to address.
This is a code-level audit, not a design critique. Check what's measurable and verifiable in the implementation.
**Web only.** Native platforms (`ios` / `android` / `adaptive`) route to [audit.native.md](audit.native.md) instead; if the project is native, switch to it now.
## Diagnostic Scan
Run comprehensive checks across 5 dimensions. Score each dimension 0-4 using the criteria below.
### 1. Accessibility (A11y)
**Check for**:
- **Contrast issues**: Text contrast ratios < 4.5:1 (or 7:1 for AAA)
- **Motion sensitivity**: `prefers-reduced-motion` needs an intentional alternative that preserves state change and hierarchy; flag a global `0.01ms` kill that destroys useful feedback, flashing above threshold, and motion that blocks focus, reading, or task completion
- **Missing ARIA**: Interactive elements without proper roles, labels, or states
- **Keyboard navigation**: Missing focus indicators, illogical tab order, keyboard traps
- **Semantic HTML**: Improper heading hierarchy, missing landmarks, divs instead of buttons
- **Alt text**: Missing or poor image descriptions
- **Form issues**: Inputs without labels, poor error messaging, missing required indicators
**Score 0-4**: 0=Inaccessible (fails WCAG A), 1=Major gaps (few ARIA labels, no keyboard nav), 2=Partial (some a11y effort, significant gaps), 3=Good (WCAG AA mostly met, minor gaps), 4=Excellent (WCAG AA fully met, approaches AAA)
### 2. Performance
**Check for**:
- **Layout thrashing**: Reading/writing layout properties in loops
- **Expensive animations**: Casual layout-property animation, unbounded blur/filter/shadow effects, or effects that visibly drop frames
- **Missing optimization**: Images without lazy loading, unoptimized assets, missing will-change
- **Bundle size**: Unnecessary imports, unused dependencies
- **Render performance**: Unnecessary re-renders, missing memoization
**Score 0-4**: 0=Severe issues (layout thrash, unoptimized everything), 1=Major problems (no lazy loading, expensive animations), 2=Partial (some optimization, gaps remain), 3=Good (mostly optimized, minor improvements possible), 4=Excellent (fast, lean, well-optimized)
### 3. Theming
**Check for**:
- **Hard-coded colors**: Colors not using design tokens
- **Broken dark mode**: Missing dark mode variants, poor contrast in dark theme
- **Inconsistent tokens**: Using wrong tokens, mixing token types
- **Theme switching issues**: Values that don't update on theme change
**Score 0-4**: 0=No theming (hard-coded everything), 1=Minimal tokens (mostly hard-coded), 2=Partial (tokens exist but inconsistently used), 3=Good (tokens used, minor hard-coded values), 4=Excellent (full token system, dark mode works perfectly)
### 4. Responsive Design
**Check for**:
- **Fixed widths**: Hard-coded widths that break on mobile
- **Touch targets**: Interactive elements < 44x44px
- **Horizontal scroll**: Content overflow on narrow viewports
- **Text scaling**: Layouts that break when text size increases
- **Missing breakpoints**: No mobile/tablet variants
**Score 0-4**: 0=Desktop-only (breaks on mobile), 1=Major issues (some breakpoints, many failures), 2=Partial (works on mobile, rough edges), 3=Good (responsive, minor touch target or overflow issues), 4=Excellent (fluid, all viewports, proper touch targets)
### 5. Implementation Integrity (CRITICAL)
Run the bundled detector and verify each finding in context. Look for repeated implementation shortcuts, design-system drift, misleading or decorative content, and structure that is interchangeable with an unrelated product. Keep deterministic findings separate from visual judgment and call out false positives.
**Score 0-4**: 0=systemic drift, 1=major repeated failures, 2=several verified issues, 3=minor isolated issues, 4=coherent and intentional
## Generate Report
### Audit Health Score
| # | Dimension | Score | Key Finding |
|---|-----------|-------|-------------|
| 1 | Accessibility | ? | [most critical a11y issue or "--"] |
| 2 | Performance | ? | |
| 3 | Responsive Design | ? | |
| 4 | Theming | ? | |
| 5 | Implementation Integrity | ? | |
| **Total** | | **??/20** | **[Rating band]** |
**Rating bands**: 18-20 Excellent (minor polish), 14-17 Good (address weak dimensions), 10-13 Acceptable (significant work needed), 6-9 Poor (major overhaul), 0-5 Critical (fundamental issues)
### Implementation Integrity Verdict
**Start here.** Pass/fail: does the implementation express a coherent product-specific system? Cite verified evidence and detector findings.
### Executive Summary
- Audit Health Score: **??/20** ([rating band])
- Total issues found (count by severity: P0/P1/P2/P3)
- Top 3-5 critical issues
- Recommended next steps
### Detailed Findings by Severity
Tag every issue with **P0-P3 severity**:
- **P0 Blocking**: Prevents task completion. Fix immediately
- **P1 Major**: Significant difficulty or WCAG AA violation. Fix before release
- **P2 Minor**: Annoyance, workaround exists. Fix in next pass
- **P3 Polish**: Nice-to-fix, no real user impact. Fix if time permits
For each issue, document:
- **[P?] Issue name**
- **Location**: Component, file, line
- **Category**: Accessibility / Performance / Theming / Responsive / Implementation Integrity
- **Impact**: How it affects users
- **WCAG/Standard**: Which standard it violates (if applicable)
- **Recommendation**: How to fix it
- **Suggested command**: Which command to use (prefer: $impeccable adapt, $impeccable animate, $impeccable audit, $impeccable bolder, $impeccable clarify, $impeccable colorize, $impeccable critique, $impeccable delight, $impeccable distill, $impeccable document, $impeccable harden, $impeccable layout, $impeccable onboard, $impeccable optimize, $impeccable overdrive, $impeccable polish, $impeccable quieter, $impeccable shape, $impeccable typeset)
### Patterns & Systemic Issues
Identify recurring problems that indicate systemic gaps rather than one-off mistakes:
- "Hard-coded colors appear in 15+ components, should use design tokens"
- "Touch targets consistently too small (<44px) throughout mobile experience"
### Positive Findings
Note what's working well: good practices to maintain and replicate.
## Recommended Actions
List recommended commands in priority order (P0 first, then P1, then P2):
1. **[P?] `$command-name`**: Brief description (specific context from audit findings)
2. **[P?] `$command-name`**: Brief description (specific context)
**Rules**: Only recommend commands from: $impeccable adapt, $impeccable animate, $impeccable audit, $impeccable bolder, $impeccable clarify, $impeccable colorize, $impeccable critique, $impeccable delight, $impeccable distill, $impeccable document, $impeccable harden, $impeccable layout, $impeccable onboard, $impeccable optimize, $impeccable overdrive, $impeccable polish, $impeccable quieter, $impeccable shape, $impeccable typeset. Map findings to the most appropriate command. End with `$impeccable polish` as the final step if any fixes were recommended.
After presenting the summary, tell the user:
> You can ask me to run these one at a time, all at once, or in any order you prefer.
>
> Re-run `$impeccable audit` after fixes to see your score improve.
**IMPORTANT**: Be thorough but actionable. Too many P3 issues creates noise. Focus on what actually matters.
**NEVER**:
- Report issues without explaining impact (why does this matter?)
- Provide generic recommendations (be specific and actionable)
- Skip positive findings (celebrate what works)
- Forget to prioritize (everything can't be P0)
- Report false positives without verification

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Run systematic **technical** quality checks on a native app (`ios` / `android` / `adaptive`) and generate a comprehensive report. Don't fix issues; document them for other commands to address.
This is a code-level audit, not a design critique. Audit from source (SwiftUI / UIKit / Compose / React Native / Flutter); no browser tooling or `detect.mjs` applies. Score against the platform reference(s): [ios.md](ios.md) / [android.md](android.md), both for `adaptive`. Read them before scoring if Setup hasn't already. The report skeleton mirrors [audit.md](audit.md); keep the two in sync when changing it.
## Diagnostic Scan
Run comprehensive checks across 5 dimensions. Score each dimension 0-4 using the criteria below.
### 1. Accessibility (VoiceOver / TalkBack)
**Check for**:
- **Missing labels**: interactive elements without accessibility labels, traits/roles, or state announcements
- **Reading and focus order**: illogical traversal, unreachable controls, focus lost on navigation
- **Text scaling**: fixed point sizes defeating Dynamic Type (iOS) or px instead of sp (Android); layouts that clip or overlap at large sizes
- **Touch targets**: below 44 pt (iOS) / 48 dp (Android), or crammed without spacing
- **Reduce Motion ignored**: parallax and large slides with no crossfade alternative
- **Contrast**: text failing contrast in either appearance, light or dark
**Score 0-4**: 0=Screen reader unusable, 1=Major gaps (unlabeled controls, no scaling), 2=Partial (labels exist, order or scaling breaks), 3=Good (minor gaps), 4=Excellent (labeled, ordered, scales cleanly, Reduce Motion honored)
### 2. Performance
**Check for**:
- **Slow startup**: heavy work on launch before first frame
- **Unvirtualized lists**: long content without FlatList / LazyColumn / List recycling
- **Main-thread jank**: synchronous work in scroll or gesture paths, dropped frames on 60/120 Hz
- **Wasted rendering**: unnecessary re-renders (React Native) or recompositions (Compose); missing memoization/keys
- **Image handling**: full-size images decoded for thumbnails, no caching
- **App weight**: bloated JS bundle or binary, unused dependencies
**Score 0-4**: 0=Janky everywhere, 1=Major problems (unvirtualized lists, slow launch), 2=Partial, 3=Good (minor improvements possible), 4=Excellent (fast launch, smooth scroll, lean)
### 3. Appearance & Theming
**Check for**:
- **Hard-coded colors**: raw hex instead of semantic system colors (iOS) / Material color roles (Android) / design tokens
- **Broken dark appearance**: missing dark variants, poor contrast in dark, quick inverts
- **Dynamic Color** (Android 12+): no static fallback scheme, or ignored where it fits
- **Off-platform materials**: hand-rolled visual materials where system materials or tonal elevation are expected
**Score 0-4**: 0=Hard-coded everything, 1=Minimal tokens, 2=Partial (tokens exist, inconsistently used), 3=Good (minor hard-coded values), 4=Excellent (semantic throughout, both appearances first-class)
### 4. Platform Conformance (CRITICAL)
Score against the loaded platform reference(s), including their slop tests. **Check for**:
- **Broken system gestures**: edge-swipe back disabled (iOS), predictive Back hijacked (Android)
- **Inset violations**: content under the notch, Dynamic Island, home indicator, status bar, or keyboard
- **Off-platform navigation**: custom global nav, overloaded tab bars, iOS patterns on Android or vice versa
- **Web-shaped controls**: HTML-style buttons, custom toggles, hover-dependent affordances
- **Icon drift**: mixed icon sets instead of SF Symbols / Material Symbols
- **System drift**: repeated shortcuts or decorative patterns that conflict with the product, platform, or established design system
**Score 0-4**: 0=Web port (nothing native), 1=Heavy violations (3-4 kinds), 2=Some (1-2 noticeable), 3=Mostly conformant (subtle issues), 4=Fully native (a fluent user trusts every screen)
### 5. Adaptivity
**Check for**:
- **Stretched phone layouts**: tablet/iPad rendering a scaled-up phone UI instead of using size classes / window size classes
- **Orientation breakage**: landscape clipping, ignored, or locked without reason
- **Keyboard/IME handling**: inputs hidden behind the keyboard, no inset adjustment
- **Multitasking**: iPad Split View / Android multi-window breaking layout
- **Foldables**: hinge-unaware layouts on posture change (Android)
**Score 0-4**: 0=One screen size only, 1=Major breakage (landscape or tablet broken), 2=Partial, 3=Good (minor edge cases), 4=Excellent (adapts across sizes, orientations, and windowing)
## Generate Report
### Audit Health Score
| # | Dimension | Score | Key Finding |
|---|-----------|-------|-------------|
| 1 | Accessibility | ? | [most critical issue or "--"] |
| 2 | Performance | ? | |
| 3 | Appearance & Theming | ? | |
| 4 | Platform Conformance | ? | |
| 5 | Adaptivity | ? | |
| **Total** | | **??/20** | **[Rating band]** |
**Rating bands**: 18-20 Excellent (minor polish), 14-17 Good (address weak dimensions), 10-13 Acceptable (significant work needed), 6-9 Poor (major overhaul), 0-5 Critical (fundamental issues)
### Platform Conformance Verdict
**Start here.** Pass/fail: does this read as a native app or a ported website? List specific violations. Be brutally honest.
### Executive Summary
- Audit Health Score: **??/20** ([rating band])
- Total issues found (count by severity: P0/P1/P2/P3)
- Top 3-5 critical issues
- Recommended next steps
### Detailed Findings by Severity
Tag every issue with **P0-P3 severity**:
- **P0 Blocking**: Prevents task completion. Fix immediately
- **P1 Major**: Significant difficulty or platform-guideline violation. Fix before release
- **P2 Minor**: Annoyance, workaround exists. Fix in next pass
- **P3 Polish**: Nice-to-fix, no real user impact. Fix if time permits
For each issue, document:
- **[P?] Issue name**
- **Location**: Screen, file, line
- **Category**: Accessibility / Performance / Theming / Conformance / Adaptivity
- **Impact**: How it affects users
- **Guideline**: The HIG / Material rule it violates (if applicable)
- **Recommendation**: How to fix it
- **Suggested command**: Which command to use (prefer: $impeccable adapt, $impeccable animate, $impeccable audit, $impeccable bolder, $impeccable clarify, $impeccable colorize, $impeccable critique, $impeccable delight, $impeccable distill, $impeccable document, $impeccable harden, $impeccable layout, $impeccable onboard, $impeccable optimize, $impeccable overdrive, $impeccable polish, $impeccable quieter, $impeccable shape, $impeccable typeset)
### Patterns & Systemic Issues
Identify recurring problems that indicate systemic gaps rather than one-off mistakes:
- "Hard-coded colors appear in 15+ screens, should use semantic colors"
- "Touch targets consistently below 44 pt throughout the tab bar and list rows"
### Positive Findings
Note what's working well: good practices to maintain and replicate.
## Recommended Actions
List recommended commands in priority order (P0 first, then P1, then P2):
1. **[P?] `$command-name`**: Brief description (specific context from audit findings)
2. **[P?] `$command-name`**: Brief description (specific context)
**Rules**: Only recommend commands from: $impeccable adapt, $impeccable animate, $impeccable audit, $impeccable bolder, $impeccable clarify, $impeccable colorize, $impeccable critique, $impeccable delight, $impeccable distill, $impeccable document, $impeccable harden, $impeccable layout, $impeccable onboard, $impeccable optimize, $impeccable overdrive, $impeccable polish, $impeccable quieter, $impeccable shape, $impeccable typeset. Map findings to the most appropriate command. End with `$impeccable polish` as the final step if any fixes were recommended.
After presenting the summary, tell the user:
> You can ask me to run these one at a time, all at once, or in any order you prefer.
>
> Re-run `$impeccable audit` after fixes to see your score improve.
**IMPORTANT**: Be thorough but actionable. Too many P3 issues creates noise. Focus on what actually matters.
**NEVER**:
- Report issues without explaining impact (why does this matter?)
- Provide generic recommendations (be specific and actionable)
- Skip positive findings (celebrate what works)
- Forget to prioritize (everything can't be P0)
- Report false positives without verification

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> **Additional context needed**: which section is the target, and what must stay untouched.
"Bolder" is an amplification request, and almost always it is scoped to something that already exists. The surrounding page, its system, and its conventions are the given. Your job is to raise one part to the conviction the rest already implies, without rebuilding anything the brief did not name. The reflex answer, reaching for more effects, is the opposite of bold; reject it first.
## Scope is sovereign
"Everything else stays" is a literal instruction. Touch only the named target. Do not restyle its neighbors, do not migrate the page to a new idea, do not add colors, fonts, radii, shadows, or system primitives the surface does not already own. If the existing system genuinely cannot express the direction, stop and STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer. before expanding it, naming the exact addition and the job it would do.
## Why it reads flat
A section usually reads flat for reasons its neighbors have already solved. Look at what the rest of the page does that this section does not: the display type at full strength, the structural devices that carry meaning, the signature motif, the density and pacing. A flat section is typically one that quietly opts out of the system's own strongest moves. The most reliable bolder pass brings the target up to the expressive level its neighbors already reach, in the system's own vocabulary rather than a new one.
## The amplification
- **Amplify what the system already owns.** Reuse its motif and its type scale at full strength, turned up for this section rather than invented for it. The bolder version should look more like the same brand, not less.
- **Keep content true.** Existing claims are part of the scope: preserve them unless the user supplies replacements. If real evidence is essential to the direction but absent, ask for it.
- **Commit, then clarify.** Half-measures read as noise. Make the one decisive move completely, then quiet everything around it so the move is legible. If every element got louder, the section got flatter.
- **Give it its own rhythm.** The target should read as a peak in the scroll, a shift in density or pace from what surrounds it, not simply more of the same.
## The skeleton test
Strip the copy out of your planned section and study the bare structure. Does the skeleton still say what this section is and why it matters, through hierarchy and the system's devices alone? If it only works once the words return, the boldness is in the text size, not the design. A placeholder for an image or artifact names a job, an anchor and a piece of evidence, not a cue to drop in a decorative photo; fill that job with whatever the subject actually has.
## Before you finish
- Everything outside the named target is unchanged.
- No new color, font, or system primitive appeared without being asked for.
- The conventions the section carried, including anything that drives an action, still work the same way.
- The section is unmistakably the same brand, only more sure of itself.
When the target holds its own without pulling the page apart, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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> **Additional context needed**: audience knowledge and emotional state.
Rewrite unclear interface text so users understand what happened, what matters, and what to do next. Preserve factual meaning, product terminology, and brand voice.
## Audit the language
Read the entire interaction path, not isolated strings. Identify:
- ambiguous nouns, verbs, and actions;
- internal jargon or assumed knowledge;
- vague labels, outcomes, and system states;
- missing consequences, recovery, or timing;
- inconsistent terminology and capitalization;
- redundant headings, intros, helper text, and confirmations;
- text that breaks at realistic widths or in translation;
- tone that ignores stress, risk, success, or urgency.
Infer audience and task from product context and surrounding UI. Ask before changing factual claims, legal meaning, or a term that may be domain-specific.
## Set the message hierarchy
For each state, decide:
1. the one fact the user needs now;
2. the action available next;
3. supporting context that changes the decision;
4. the appropriate tone for this moment.
Say each idea once. If the heading already explains the state, the introduction should add new information or disappear.
## Rewrite by function
### Actions and navigation
Use a specific verb and object when the outcome is not already obvious. Labels should describe what will happen, not the gesture used to trigger it. Keep the same noun and verb for the same concept throughout the product.
For destructive actions, name the object and consequence. Prefer undo over confirmation when recovery is safe. When confirmation is necessary, name the action on both the message and button instead of using `Yes`, `No`, `OK`, or `Submit`.
### Forms
Use persistent labels; placeholders are examples, not labels. Put format and eligibility requirements before submission. Explain why information is requested only when it is not obvious. Required and optional treatment should be consistent.
Validation says what needs attention and how to correct it without blaming the user. Keep related instructions near the field and announce errors accessibly.
### Errors and permissions
An actionable error answers:
1. what failed;
2. why, when known and useful;
3. how to recover or what alternative remains.
Do not expose internal codes as the primary message. Do not promise a cause or resolution the system cannot know. Treat privacy, payment, deletion, access loss, and blocked work seriously; warmth is welcome, jokes are not.
### Loading, empty, and success states
Loading text names the real operation and sets an honest expectation when the wait is meaningful. Show determinate progress when available; never invent progress.
An empty state distinguishes first use, no results, filters, permissions, and failure. Explain the state and provide the next useful action.
Success confirms the completed outcome and mentions the next consequence only when it changes what the user should do. Routine success should be brief.
### Help and instructional text
Helper text answers an implicit question instead of restating the control. Use progressive disclosure for uncommon detail. Link text must make sense out of context; icon-only controls need accessible names.
## Voice, accessibility, and localization
Voice stays consistent; tone adapts to the moment. Use plain language without flattening terminology the audience genuinely knows.
- Write complete translatable messages rather than concatenated fragments.
- Keep variables and numbers structured so translators can reorder them.
- Allow expansion instead of abbreviating prematurely.
- Make alt text convey the image's information; use empty alt for decoration.
- Keep screen-reader names aligned with visible labels and outcomes.
- Do not rely on punctuation, color, or iconography to carry the message alone.
Maintain a short terminology glossary when inconsistency spans the product. Do not vary words for literary effect in an interface.
## Verify
Read the flow in context and test:
- comprehension without hidden product knowledge;
- actionability at errors, empty states, and decision points;
- factual accuracy and consistent terminology;
- scanability at target widths and 200% zoom;
- long names, localization expansion, pluralization, and dynamic values;
- accessible names and announced state changes;
- tone appropriate to consequence and emotional context.
The final copy is as short as it can be without removing meaning or recovery.
When the language reads cleanly, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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> **Additional context needed**: existing brand colors.
Introduce color as hierarchy, meaning, and atmosphere. Preserve confirmed brand and semantic conventions; do not replace a visual world under the guise of colorizing it.
---
## Visitor mode
- **Persuade + Experience:** color may carry the voice and own large regions when the selected world calls for it.
- **Operate + Read:** color primarily encodes action, selection, status, wayfinding, and reading hierarchy. Rarity gives an accent force.
## Audit before choosing
Read DESIGN.md, tokens, assets, current themes, and representative states. Identify:
- which colors are confirmed brand commitments;
- current surface, text, action, and semantic roles;
- places where grayscale obscures hierarchy or state;
- contrast failures and color-only communication;
- light/dark or data-visualization requirements;
- whether the task asks for more color or a new identity.
If a new identity is required, use [new-work.md](new-work.md). Ask only when a binding brand decision cannot be inferred.
## Choose a strategy
Name the intended emotional temperature, dominant relationship, contrast range, and color dosage before editing. The strategy may be restrained or immersive; it must follow the brief and selected world rather than a fixed percentage rule.
Build roles, not a bag of swatches:
- canvas and elevated surfaces;
- primary and secondary text;
- action, focus, and selection;
- borders and separators;
- success, warning, error, and information;
- data categories or scales when needed.
Use the project's existing color space. For a new web palette, prefer OKLCH because lightness and chroma can be adjusted predictably. Choose hue from product meaning and visual direction, never from a default category association.
## Apply at system scale
- Let the strongest color own a deliberate region or role instead of scattering tiny accents.
- Keep the primary action easy to find; do not spend its color on decoration.
- Tint neutrals only when the brand hue genuinely creates cohesion. Neutral gray is valid when it serves the world.
- On colored surfaces, derive secondary text from the foreground or surface hue rather than using washed-out generic gray.
- Keep semantic meanings consistent, but respect platform and domain conventions instead of assuming fixed hues.
- For data, use distinct lightness, chroma, shape, label, or pattern so color is not the only code.
- In dark mode, design surface elevation and contrast explicitly; do not invert the light theme mechanically.
- Define primitive values and semantic tokens when the project has a token system. Theme changes should normally remap semantic roles.
Decoration without a relationship to hierarchy, state, content, or the visual world is not a color strategy.
## Contrast and perception
Verify computed foreground/background pairs:
| Content | WCAG AA minimum |
|---|---|
| body text | 4.5:1 |
| large text | 3:1 |
| controls, icons, focus indicators | 3:1 |
Do not rely on eyesight alone. Check interactive states, overlays, text on images, disabled content, and both themes. Simulate common vision deficiencies. Information conveyed by color also needs text, shape, iconography, or position.
When deriving OKLCH ramps, vary lightness and reduce chroma near white and black. Do not keep high chroma at extreme lightness merely to make the math uniform. Prefer explicit colors over chains of translucent overlays when alpha would make contrast context-dependent.
## Verify
- Every color has a stable role or a world-specific atmospheric purpose.
- Attention lands on the intended action, content, or state.
- The palette works across quiet, dense, interactive, error, and empty states.
- Light and dark themes are each composed, not mechanically inverted.
- Contrast and non-color cues pass in all relevant states.
- The result is recognizably this product, not a generic “colorful” treatment.
When the palette earns its place, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.
## Live-mode signature params
When invoked from live mode, every variant declares a `color-amount` parameter. Author CSS against `var(--p-color-amount, 0.5)` so the user can move from neutral to the variant's full color strategy without regeneration.
```json
{"id":"color-amount","kind":"range","min":0,"max":1,"step":0.05,"default":0.5,"label":"Color amount"}
```
Add at most two variant-specific parameters, such as palette, temperature, or tint behavior. Follow [live.md](live.md)'s parameter contract.

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# Craft floor
Load this after the direction is settled, and build without announcing the checklist. A pinned brief or the committed visual world overrides anything here; your own habit does not. When the design hook is active it already enforces the mechanical checks below as you edit: act on its findings instead of re-auditing each rule.
## Verify
Each of these is a check on the built result, not an intention.
- **Contrast:** body and placeholder text ≥4.5:1, large text ≥3:1. On colored surfaces tint secondary text from that hue or the foreground; never gray.
- **Depth:** shadows carry an offset and a soft blur. A zero-offset colored halo is decoration.
- **Spacing:** tight groups, generous separation, more space above a heading than below it. Read the computed values.
- **Type:** body measure 6575ch, display max 6rem, tracking floor -0.04em, balanced headings, obvious scale and weight steps. Run the real copy at every breakpoint and fix what overflows.
- **Motion:** one authored moment, not scattered effects and not one identical entrance on every section. Exponential ease-out from an already-visible default. Reach past transform and opacity: blur, backdrop-filter, clip-path, mask, and shadow belong to the palette when they stay smooth.
- **States:** hover, disabled, loading, error, empty. Plus real content, working controls, responsive composition, keyboard focus.
- **Copy:** the product's own language. Controls name their action; errors name the problem and the recovery.
- **Coverage:** every brief requirement present and findable within seconds.
## Refuse
These are the category's defaults, not bans: the brief's own words can earn any of them. Reaching for one when the axis is free means you were not deciding; recognizing that means rewriting the element, not softening it.
Page scaffolds:
- Same-size cards of icon plus heading plus text as the page structure. Cards are the lazy container; nested cards are always wrong.
- The hero-metric template: big number, small label, supporting stats, accent.
- A tracked uppercase eyebrow over every section. One named kicker is a system; an eyebrow everywhere is grammar you did not choose.
- Section numbers (01 / 02 / 03) unless the sequence itself carries information the reader needs.
- A modal for a task that needs neither interruption nor protected focus.
Surface habits:
- Gradient text. Emphasis comes from weight or size.
- Glass and blur as decoration rather than as a specific effect.
- A colored `border-left` or `border-right` above 1px on cards, list items, callouts, or alerts.
- Sparklines, progress rings, and soft-shadowed rounded rectangles standing in for content.
- Monospace as a costume for "technical" rather than for code, data, or measurement.
- Light or dark picked by category. Pick it from the use scene: who, where, under what ambient light.
- Tracking stops at -0.04em. -0.02 to -0.03em usually reads better.
- Declare elevation once, border or shadow. A 1px border under a wide soft shadow is the ghost card. Card radii stay at 1216px; pills are for small controls.
- Real illustration or none. Sketch-style SVG scenes, `loose-sketch` / `doodle` class names, and `feTurbulence` grain read as amateur.
- Backgrounds are surfaces, textured only from the subject's world. `repeating-linear-gradient` stripes and two-axis grid overlays need an actual canvas, map, blueprint, or measuring tool under them.
- Claims and configuration come from supplied truth; label illustrative values honestly. Naming a concept and then ironizing it is not a claim.
The floor holds the mechanics; it never picks the direction. With every check green, spend the page on the committed world, and when torn between refined and committed, commit.

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# Craft (deprecated alias)
`craft` is a deprecated alias for an ordinary request to make new visual work. It adds no setup, interview, checkpoint, tool, or quality behavior. Apply SKILL.md's normal routing: create missing PRODUCT.md through [init.md](init.md), then follow [new-work.md](new-work.md) for visual authority, world and surface decisions, implementation, and finish.
Do not tell users they need to invoke `craft`. Natural requests such as “build this feature,” “make a landing page,” or “redesign this screen” use the same flow.

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### Purpose
Resolve one stable target, run two independent assessments, synthesize a design critique, persist a snapshot, and ask the user what to improve next. The chat response is the primary deliverable; the snapshot is an archive/backlog for future commands.
### Hard Invariants
- Assessment A (design review) and Assessment B (detector/browser evidence) are both required.
- Assessment A and B MUST run as two isolated sub-agents whenever a sub-agent/Task tool is exposed. Running them inline in this context is "possible" but is NOT permitted; it is a degraded run. Inline is allowed ONLY when no sub-agent tool exists (or the user declined, on harnesses that ask).
- If you degrade for any reason, the report's first line MUST be a banner: `⚠️ DEGRADED: single-context (<reason>)`. A silent degraded critique is a failed critique.
- Assessment A must finish before detector findings enter the parent synthesis context. Detector output is deterministic, but it still anchors judgment.
- A skipped detector is a failed critique run unless `detect.mjs` is missing or crashes after a real attempt.
- Viewable targets require browser inspection when available.
- Any local server started only for critique visualization must run in the background, have a recorded stop method, and be stopped before final reporting unless the user asks to keep it.
- Do not claim a user-visible overlay exists unless script injection succeeded and the detector ran in the page.
### Setup
1. **Resolve the target** to a concrete file path or URL. Prefer a source path over a dev-server URL when both identify the same surface; ports drift, paths do not.
- "the homepage" -> `site/pages/index.astro` or `index.html`
- "the settings modal" -> the primary component file
- "this page" -> the current URL or source file
2. **Confirm the target slugs cleanly**:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/critique-storage.mjs slug "<resolved-path-or-url>"
```
Every later command also accepts the resolved target directly and derives the same slug internally; never hand-write a slug. If this exits non-zero, skip persistence and trend for this run, but continue the critique.
3. **Read `.impeccable/critique/ignore.md`** if it exists. Drop matching findings silently; it is the only prior-run input critique consumes.
### Assessment Orchestration
Delegate Assessment A and Assessment B to separate sub-agents. They must not see each other's output. Do not show findings to the user until synthesis.
Sub-agent gate (all harnesses):
- Unless a harness-specific gate below overrides this, spawn A and B as two isolated, parallel sub-agents whenever a sub-agent/Task tool is exposed. This is the default and is mandatory; do not run them inline because it is faster.
- "Unavailable" means exactly one thing: no sub-agent/Task tool is exposed in this session (or, on harnesses that ask, the user declined). It does not mean inconvenient.
- If and only if sub-agents are unavailable, fall back sequentially: finish and record Assessment A, then run Assessment B, then synthesize, and emit the degraded banner.
- Whichever path you take, declare it in the report header (see Report header provenance). Skipping sub-agents without the banner is the most common failure of this command.
Codex sub-agent gate (overrides the default above; Codex's permission model requires asking before spawning):
- Asking is the normal path, not a degradation. Approving and spawning is the dual-agent path; do not emit the degraded banner just for asking.
- If `spawn_agent` is exposed and the user explicitly allowed sub-agents, delegation, or parallel agent work, spawn A and B immediately.
- If `spawn_agent` is exposed but the user did not explicitly allow sub-agents, ask exactly once: "Impeccable critique is designed to run two independent sub-agents for an unanchored assessment. May I use sub-agents for this critique?" Then stop until the user answers.
- If allowed, spawn A and B. If declined, run sequentially and lead the report with `⚠️ DEGRADED: single-context (sub-agents declined by user)`.
- If `spawn_agent` is not exposed, do not ask; run sequentially and lead with `⚠️ DEGRADED: single-context (spawn_agent unavailable in this session)`.
- If spawning fails after permission, run sequentially and lead with `⚠️ DEGRADED: single-context (sub-agent spawn failed: <exact error>)`.
Prefer `fork_context: false` with self-contained prompts containing cwd, target, live URL, references, product context, and output contract. If using `fork_context: true`, omit `agent_type`, `model`, and `reasoning_effort`.
If browser automation is available, each assessment creates its own new tab. Never reuse an existing tab, even if it is already at the right URL.
### Assessment A: Design Review
Read relevant source files and visually inspect the live page when browser automation is available. Think like a design director.
Evaluate:
- **Design specificity**: Is the composition, interaction, and visual language grounded in this product, or could an unrelated product use it unchanged? Make this judgment before seeing detector output.
- **Holistic design**: hierarchy, IA, emotional fit, discoverability, composition, typography, color, accessibility, states, copy, and edge cases.
- **Cognitive load**: consult the [Cognitive Load Assessment](#cognitive-load-assessment) section below; report checklist failures and decision points with >4 visible options.
- **Emotional journey**: peak-end rule, emotional valleys, reassurance at high-stakes moments.
- **Nielsen heuristics**: consult the [Heuristics Scoring Guide](#heuristics-scoring-guide) section below; score all 10 heuristics 0-4, marking any heuristic the mode-applicability rule allows as `n/a` instead of forcing a number.
Return: design-specificity verdict, heuristic scores, cognitive load, emotional journey, 2-3 strengths, 3-5 priority issues, persona red flags, minor observations, and provocative questions.
### Assessment B: Detector + Browser Evidence
Run the bundled detector and browser visualization evidence. Assessment B is mandatory and must remain isolated from Assessment A until both are complete.
CLI scan:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/detect.mjs --json [target]
```
- Pass markup files/directories as `[target]`; do not pass CSS-only files.
- For URLs, skip CLI scan and use browser visualization.
- For very large trees (500+ scannable files), narrow scope or ask.
- Exit code 0 = clean; 2 = findings.
- If the detector entrypoint is missing or fails to load, report deterministic scan unavailable and continue with browser/manual review.
Browser visualization is required for a viewable target when browser automation is available. Use a localhost dev/static URL for local files; avoid `file://` unless the available browser explicitly supports this workflow. Overlay flow:
1. Create a fresh tab and navigate. Prefer the harness's native/browser-canvas screenshot path before hand-rolling a Playwright/Puppeteer script; only fall back to a custom script when no native browser tool is exposed.
2. Preflight mutable injection by setting `document.title` and appending a `<script>` tag. Read-only evaluate APIs do not count.
3. If mutation is unavailable, skip live server, browser presentation, and injection; report fallback signal.
4. If mutation is available, start `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-server.mjs --background`, present the browser if supported, label `[Human]`, scroll top, inject `http://localhost:PORT/detect.js`, wait 2-3 seconds, read `impeccable` console messages, then stop the live server.
5. For multi-view targets, inject on 3-5 representative pages.
Codex Browser note: Use the Browser skill. Do not spend a Browser attempt on `file://`. Only call `visibility.set(true)` after mutable script injection is confirmed for the `[Human]` overlay path; verify with `get()`. Use `tab.dev.logs({ filter: "impeccable" })` for console results. Its Playwright `evaluate(...)` surface is read-only; do not rely on it for mutation.
Return: CLI findings JSON/counts, browser console findings if applicable, false positives, and skipped/failed browser steps with concrete reasons.
After Assessment B returns usable CLI findings, reuse them. Do not rerun `detect.mjs` in the parent unless Assessment B failed, was truncated, or omitted count, rule names, or file locations.
Codex failure accounting: final Run Notes must include target slug, ignore list, assessment independence, CLI detector, browser visibility, overlay injection, live-server cleanup, temp-file cleanup, and any fallback signal used. Do not run repo status checks, late API spelunking, or unrelated verification after the report is assembled.
### Generate Combined Critique Report
Synthesize both assessments into a single report. Do NOT simply concatenate. Weave the findings together, noting where the LLM review and detector agree, where the detector caught issues the LLM missed, and where detector findings are false positives.
The chat response is the primary user-facing deliverable. Present the full structured critique below in chat; do not replace it with a summary and a link. The persisted snapshot is only an archive/backlog for later commands.
Codex final-answer note: `$impeccable critique` produces a report artifact, so the final chat response should intentionally exceed the usual concise close-out style. Do not title the final response "Critique Summary" unless the user explicitly asked for a summary.
Structure your feedback as a design director would:
#### Report header provenance
The report's first line MUST declare how the assessments were run, so a degraded run is never silent:
- Dual-agent: `Method: dual-agent (A: <agent-id> · B: <agent-id>)`
- Degraded: `⚠️ DEGRADED: single-context (<reason, e.g. no sub-agent tool exposed>)`
#### Design Health Score
> *Consult the [Heuristics Scoring Guide](#heuristics-scoring-guide) section below.*
Present the Nielsen's 10 heuristics scores as a table:
| # | Heuristic | Score | Key Issue |
|---|-----------|-------|-----------|
| 1 | Visibility of System Status | ? | [specific finding or "n/a" if solid] |
| 2 | Match System / Real World | ? | |
| 3 | User Control and Freedom | ? | |
| 4 | Consistency and Standards | ? | |
| 5 | Error Prevention | ? | |
| 6 | Recognition Rather Than Recall | ? | |
| 7 | Flexibility and Efficiency | ? | |
| 8 | Aesthetic and Minimalist Design | ? | |
| 9 | Error Recovery | ? | |
| 10 | Help and Documentation | ? | |
| **Total** | | **??/[applicable max]** | **[Rating band]** |
The applicable maximum is 4 times the number of heuristics you actually scored: **/40** when all ten apply, **/32** when two are `n/a`. Never print `/40` over a partial set.
Be honest with scores. A 4 means genuinely excellent. Most real interfaces score 20-32 out of 40.
**Mode applicability**: heuristics 7 (Flexibility and Efficiency) and 10 (Help and Documentation) may be scored `n/a` on Persuade and Experience surfaces (landing pages, campaigns, portfolios, bodies of work), as may any other heuristic that genuinely cannot apply to the surface under review. Write `n/a` in the Score cell with a one-line reason, and renormalize the total to the applicable maximum (e.g. **24/32** when two heuristics are n/a) so the rating band stays proportional. The persisted snapshot must record the applicable maximum and which heuristics were scored n/a.
#### Design Specificity Verdict
**Start here.** Does the result feel authored for this product, or category-interchangeable?
**LLM assessment**: Your unanchored evaluation of design specificity. Cover overall coherence, structural sameness, category-interchangeable choices, and missed opportunities for product character.
**Deterministic scan**: Summarize what the automated detector found, with counts and file locations. Note any additional issues the detector caught that you missed, and flag any false positives.
**Visual overlays** (if injection succeeded): Tell the user that overlays are now visible in the **[Human]** tab in their browser, highlighting the detected issues. Summarize what the console output reported. If browser visualization was attempted but injection failed, say that no reliable user-visible overlay is available and report the fallback signal instead.
#### Overall Impression
A brief gut reaction: what works, what doesn't, and the single biggest opportunity.
#### What's Working
Highlight 2-3 things done well. Be specific about why they work.
#### Priority Issues
The 3-5 most impactful design problems, ordered by importance.
For each issue, tag with **P0-P3 severity** (see [Issue Severity below](#issue-severity-p0p3) for definitions):
- **[P?] What**: Name the problem clearly
- **Why it matters**: How this hurts users or undermines goals
- **Fix**: What to do about it (be concrete)
- **Suggested command**: Which command could address this (from: $impeccable adapt, $impeccable animate, $impeccable audit, $impeccable bolder, $impeccable clarify, $impeccable colorize, $impeccable critique, $impeccable delight, $impeccable distill, $impeccable document, $impeccable harden, $impeccable layout, $impeccable onboard, $impeccable optimize, $impeccable overdrive, $impeccable polish, $impeccable quieter, $impeccable shape, $impeccable typeset)
#### Persona Red Flags
> *Consult the [Personas reference](#persona-based-design-testing) below.*
Auto-select 2-3 personas most relevant to this interface type (use the selection table in the reference). If `AGENTS.md` contains a `## Design Context` section from `impeccable init`, also generate 1-2 project-specific personas from the audience/brand info.
For each selected persona, walk through the primary user action and list specific red flags found:
**Alex (Power User)**: No keyboard shortcuts detected. Form requires 8 clicks for primary action. Forced modal onboarding. High abandonment risk.
**Jordan (First-Timer)**: Icon-only nav in sidebar. Technical jargon in error messages ("404 Not Found"). No visible help. Will abandon at step 2.
Be specific. Name the exact elements and interactions that fail each persona. Don't write generic persona descriptions; write what broke for them.
#### Minor Observations
Quick notes on smaller issues worth addressing.
#### Questions to Consider
Provocative questions that might unlock better solutions:
- "What if the primary action were more prominent?"
- "Does this need to feel this complex?"
- "What would a confident version of this look like?"
#### Run Notes
Keep this compact. Include status for target slug, ignore list, assessment independence, CLI detector, browser visibility, overlay injection, live server cleanup, and temp-file cleanup. For failed or skipped steps, give the concrete observed reason and the fallback signal used. In the final chat response, also include snapshot write and trend read status after persistence has run.
Codex Run Notes are final-chat only. Do not include this section in the persisted snapshot body, because persistence, trend read, and temp cleanup happen after the snapshot write and would otherwise archive stale status such as "pending after persistence."
**Remember**:
- Be direct. Vague feedback wastes everyone's time.
- Be specific. "The submit button," not "some elements."
- Say what's wrong AND why it matters to users.
- Give concrete suggestions. Cut "consider exploring..." entirely.
- Prioritize ruthlessly. If everything is important, nothing is.
- Don't soften criticism. Developers need honest feedback to ship great design.
### Persist the Snapshot
Once the report above is finalized, write it to `.impeccable/critique/` so the user can refer back, and so `$impeccable polish` can pick up the priority issues without a copy-paste.
Skip this step if the Setup slug was null (vague or root-level target).
1. **Write the body to a temp file** so you can pipe it to the helper. Use the full critique report (heuristic table, design-specificity verdict, priority issues, persona red flags, minor observations, and questions), but stop before the "Ask the User" / "Recommended Actions" sections that come later.
Codex: exclude Run Notes from the temp body file; Run Notes are final-chat only because persistence, trend read, and temp cleanup happen after the snapshot write.
2. **Pass the structured metadata** through `IMPECCABLE_CRITIQUE_META` (JSON), then run the write command:
```bash
IMPECCABLE_CRITIQUE_META='{"target":"<user phrasing>","total_score":<n>,"max_score":<n>,"na_heuristics":"<comma-separated numbers, or empty>","p0_count":<n>,"p1_count":<n>}' \
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/critique-storage.mjs write "<resolved target>" <body-file>
```
`max_score` is the applicable maximum from the heuristic table (40 when every heuristic applied), so a later run can tell a renormalized total from a full one. The helper prints the absolute path it wrote.
3. **Delete the temp body file** after the write attempt completes, whether the write succeeded or failed. If deletion fails, mention `temp-file cleanup failed: <reason>` briefly in the final output, but do not block the critique.
4. **Read the trend** for context:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/critique-storage.mjs trend "<resolved target>" 5
```
This returns a JSON array of the last 5 frontmatter entries (including the one you just wrote).
5. **Append a single line to the user-visible output**, after the report and before the questions:
> **Trend for `<slug>` (last 5 runs): 24 → 28 → 32 → 29 → 32 (out of 40)**
> Wrote `.impeccable/critique/<filename>`.
Read `max_score` on each trend entry. When every entry shares one maximum, state it once as above. When they differ, print each score with its own denominator (`24/32 → 30/40`) and note that the runs scored different heuristic sets, so the line is not a like-for-like comparison. Treat a missing `max_score` on an older entry as 40.
If this is the first run for the slug, the trend is just one score; say so: "First run for this target, no trend yet."
This is fire-and-forget. Do not show the user the helper's JSON output; only the human-readable trend line and the written path. Failures here should not block the rest of the flow; print the error and move on.
### Ask the User
**After presenting findings**, use targeted questions based on what was actually found. STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer. These answers will shape the action plan.
Ask questions along these lines (adapt to the specific findings; do NOT ask generic questions):
1. **Priority direction**: Based on the issues found, ask which category matters most to the user right now. For example: "I found problems with visual hierarchy, color usage, and information overload. Which area should we tackle first?" Offer the top 2-3 issue categories as options.
2. **Design intent**: If the critique found a tonal mismatch, ask whether it was intentional. For example: "The interface feels clinical and corporate. Is that the intended tone, or should it feel warmer/bolder/more playful?" Offer 2-3 tonal directions as options based on what would fix the issues found.
3. **Scope**: Ask how much the user wants to take on. For example: "I found N issues. Want to address everything, or focus on the top 3?" Offer scope options like "Top 3 only", "All issues", "Critical issues only".
4. **Constraints** (optional; only ask if relevant): If the findings touch many areas, ask if anything is off-limits. For example: "Should any sections stay as-is?" This prevents the plan from touching things the user considers done.
**Rules for questions**:
- Every question must reference specific findings from the report. Never ask generic "who is your audience?" questions.
- Keep it to 2-4 questions maximum. Respect the user's time.
- Offer concrete options, not open-ended prompts.
- If findings are straightforward (e.g., only 1-2 clear issues), skip questions and go directly to Recommended Actions.
Codex final-question gate: The user-visible response must either include the targeted questions or explicitly say `Questions skipped: <reason>` because the findings were straightforward. Each question must include 2-3 concrete answer options tied to the actual critique findings. Do not end with only open-ended questions.
### Recommended Actions
**After receiving the user's answers**, present a prioritized action summary reflecting the user's priorities and scope from Ask the User.
#### Action Summary
List recommended commands in priority order, based on the user's answers:
1. **`$command-name`**: Brief description of what to fix (specific context from critique findings)
2. **`$command-name`**: Brief description (specific context)
...
**Rules for recommendations**:
- Only recommend commands from: $impeccable adapt, $impeccable animate, $impeccable audit, $impeccable bolder, $impeccable clarify, $impeccable colorize, $impeccable critique, $impeccable delight, $impeccable distill, $impeccable document, $impeccable harden, $impeccable layout, $impeccable onboard, $impeccable optimize, $impeccable overdrive, $impeccable polish, $impeccable quieter, $impeccable shape, $impeccable typeset
- Order by the user's stated priorities first, then by impact
- Each item's description should carry enough context that the command knows what to focus on
- Map each Priority Issue to the appropriate command
- Skip commands that would address zero issues
- If the user chose a limited scope, only include items within that scope
- If the user marked areas as off-limits, exclude commands that would touch those areas
- End with `$impeccable polish` as the final step if any fixes were recommended
After presenting the summary, tell the user:
> You can ask me to run these one at a time, all at once, or in any order you prefer.
>
> Re-run `$impeccable critique` after fixes to see your score improve.
---
## Reference Material
The sections below were previously separate reference files (`cognitive-load.md`, `heuristics-scoring.md`, `personas.md`). They live inline now so the critique flow has all its deep context in one place.
### Cognitive Load Assessment
Cognitive load is the total mental effort required to use an interface. Overloaded users make mistakes, get frustrated, and leave. This reference helps identify and fix cognitive overload.
---
#### Three Types of Cognitive Load
##### Intrinsic Load: The Task Itself
Complexity inherent to what the user is trying to do. You can't eliminate this, but you can structure it.
**Manage it by**:
- Breaking complex tasks into discrete steps
- Providing scaffolding (templates, defaults, examples)
- Progressive disclosure: show what's needed now, hide the rest
- Grouping related decisions together
##### Extraneous Load: Bad Design
Mental effort caused by poor design choices. **Eliminate this ruthlessly.** It's pure waste.
**Common sources**:
- Confusing navigation that requires mental mapping
- Unclear labels that force users to guess meaning
- Visual clutter competing for attention
- Inconsistent patterns that prevent learning
- Unnecessary steps between user intent and result
##### Germane Load: Learning Effort
Mental effort spent building understanding. This is *good* cognitive load; it leads to mastery.
**Support it by**:
- Progressive disclosure that reveals complexity gradually
- Consistent patterns that reward learning
- Feedback that confirms correct understanding
- Onboarding that teaches through action, not walls of text
---
#### Cognitive Load Checklist
Evaluate the interface against these 8 items:
- [ ] **Single focus**: Can the user complete their primary task without distraction from competing elements?
- [ ] **Chunking**: Is information presented in digestible groups (≤4 items per group)?
- [ ] **Grouping**: Are related items visually grouped together (proximity, borders, shared background)?
- [ ] **Visual hierarchy**: Is it immediately clear what's most important on the screen?
- [ ] **One thing at a time**: Can the user focus on a single decision before moving to the next?
- [ ] **Minimal choices**: Are decisions simplified (≤4 visible options at any decision point)?
- [ ] **Working memory**: Does the user need to remember information from a previous screen to act on the current one?
- [ ] **Progressive disclosure**: Is complexity revealed only when the user needs it?
**Scoring**: Count the failed items. 01 failures = low cognitive load (good). 23 = moderate (address soon). 4+ = high cognitive load (critical fix needed).
---
#### The Working Memory Rule
**Humans can hold ≤4 items in working memory at once** (Miller's Law revised by Cowan, 2001).
At any decision point, count the number of distinct options, actions, or pieces of information a user must simultaneously consider:
- **≤4 items**: Within working memory limits, manageable
- **57 items**: Pushing the boundary; consider grouping or progressive disclosure
- **8+ items**: Overloaded; users will skip, misclick, or abandon
**Practical applications**:
- Action buttons: 1 primary, 12 secondary, group the rest in a menu
- Navigation menus: ≤5 top-level items (group the rest under clear categories)
- Long-form articles: one reading path; gather related links into a single block at the end instead of scattering them mid-flow
- Documentation sidebars: ≤4 sibling choices visible per level before grouping kicks in
- Portfolio and gallery indexes: one decision per screen (which piece to open), not filter, sort, and tag controls all at once
---
#### Common Cognitive Load Violations
##### 1. The Wall of Options
**Problem**: Presenting 10+ choices at once with no hierarchy.
**Fix**: Group into categories, highlight recommended, use progressive disclosure.
##### 2. The Memory Bridge
**Problem**: User must remember info from step 1 to complete step 3.
**Fix**: Keep relevant context visible, or repeat it where it's needed.
##### 3. The Hidden Navigation
**Problem**: User must build a mental map of where things are.
**Fix**: Always show current location (breadcrumbs, active states, progress indicators).
##### 4. The Jargon Barrier
**Problem**: Technical or domain language forces translation effort.
**Fix**: Use plain language. If domain terms are unavoidable, define them inline.
##### 5. The Visual Noise Floor
**Problem**: Every element has the same visual weight; nothing stands out.
**Fix**: Establish clear hierarchy: one primary element, 23 secondary, everything else muted.
##### 6. The Inconsistent Pattern
**Problem**: Similar actions work differently in different places.
**Fix**: Standardize interaction patterns. Same type of action = same type of UI.
##### 7. The Multi-Task Demand
**Problem**: Interface requires processing multiple simultaneous inputs (reading + deciding + navigating).
**Fix**: Sequence the steps. Let the user do one thing at a time.
##### 8. The Context Switch
**Problem**: User must jump between screens/tabs/modals to gather info for a single decision.
**Fix**: Co-locate the information needed for each decision. Reduce back-and-forth.
---
### Heuristics Scoring Guide
Score each of Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics on a 04 scale. Be honest: a 4 means genuinely excellent, not "good enough."
#### Nielsen's 10 Heuristics
##### 1. Visibility of System Status
Keep users informed about what's happening through timely, appropriate feedback.
**Check for**:
- Loading indicators during async operations
- Confirmation of user actions (save, submit, delete)
- Progress indicators for multi-step processes
- Current location in navigation (breadcrumbs, active states)
- Form validation feedback (inline, not just on submit)
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | No feedback; user is guessing what happened |
| 1 | Rare feedback; most actions produce no visible response |
| 2 | Partial; some states communicated, major gaps remain |
| 3 | Good; most operations give clear feedback, minor gaps |
| 4 | Excellent; every action confirms, progress is always visible |
##### 2. Match Between System and Real World
Speak the user's language. Follow real-world conventions. Information appears in natural, logical order.
**Check for**:
- Familiar terminology (no unexplained jargon)
- Logical information order matching user expectations
- Recognizable icons and metaphors
- Domain-appropriate language for the target audience
- Natural reading flow (left-to-right, top-to-bottom priority)
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Pure tech jargon, alien to users |
| 1 | Mostly confusing; requires domain expertise to navigate |
| 2 | Mixed; some plain language, some jargon leaks through |
| 3 | Mostly natural; occasional term needs context |
| 4 | Speaks the user's language fluently throughout |
##### 3. User Control and Freedom
Users need a clear "emergency exit" from unwanted states without extended dialogue.
**Check for**:
- Undo/redo functionality
- Cancel buttons on forms and modals
- Clear navigation back to safety (home, previous)
- Easy way to clear filters, search, selections
- Escape from long or multi-step processes
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Users get trapped; no way out without refreshing |
| 1 | Difficult exits; must find obscure paths to escape |
| 2 | Some exits; main flows have escape, edge cases don't |
| 3 | Good control; users can exit and undo most actions |
| 4 | Full control; undo, cancel, back, and escape everywhere |
##### 4. Consistency and Standards
Users shouldn't wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing.
**Check for**:
- Consistent terminology throughout the interface
- Same actions produce same results everywhere
- Platform conventions followed (standard UI patterns)
- Visual consistency (colors, typography, spacing, components)
- Consistent interaction patterns (same gesture = same behavior)
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Inconsistent everywhere; feels like different products stitched together |
| 1 | Many inconsistencies; similar things look/behave differently |
| 2 | Partially consistent; main flows match, details diverge |
| 3 | Mostly consistent; occasional deviation, nothing confusing |
| 4 | Fully consistent; cohesive system, predictable behavior |
##### 5. Error Prevention
Better than good error messages is a design that prevents problems in the first place.
**Check for**:
- Confirmation before destructive actions (delete, overwrite)
- Constraints preventing invalid input (date pickers, dropdowns)
- Smart defaults that reduce errors
- Clear labels that prevent misunderstanding
- Autosave and draft recovery
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Errors easy to make; no guardrails anywhere |
| 1 | Few safeguards; some inputs validated, most aren't |
| 2 | Partial prevention; common errors caught, edge cases slip |
| 3 | Good prevention; most error paths blocked proactively |
| 4 | Excellent; errors nearly impossible through smart constraints |
##### 6. Recognition Rather Than Recall
Minimize memory load. Make objects, actions, and options visible or easily retrievable.
**Check for**:
- Visible options (not buried in hidden menus)
- Contextual help when needed (tooltips, inline hints)
- Recent items and history
- Autocomplete and suggestions
- Labels on icons (not icon-only navigation)
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Heavy memorization; users must remember paths and commands |
| 1 | Mostly recall; many hidden features, few visible cues |
| 2 | Some aids; main actions visible, secondary features hidden |
| 3 | Good recognition; most things discoverable, few memory demands |
| 4 | Everything discoverable; users never need to memorize |
##### 7. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
Accelerators, invisible to novices, speed up expert interaction.
**Check for**:
- Keyboard shortcuts for common actions
- Customizable interface elements
- Recent items and favorites
- Bulk/batch actions
- Power user features that don't complicate the basics
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | One rigid path; no shortcuts or alternatives |
| 1 | Limited flexibility; few alternatives to the main path |
| 2 | Some shortcuts; basic keyboard support, limited bulk actions |
| 3 | Good accelerators; keyboard nav, some customization |
| 4 | Highly flexible; multiple paths, power features, customizable |
##### 8. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
Interfaces should not contain irrelevant or rarely needed information. Every element should serve a purpose.
**Check for**:
- Only necessary information visible at each step
- Clear visual hierarchy directing attention
- Purposeful use of color and emphasis
- No decorative clutter competing for attention
- Focused, uncluttered layouts
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Overwhelming; everything competes for attention equally |
| 1 | Cluttered; too much noise, hard to find what matters |
| 2 | Some clutter; main content clear, periphery noisy |
| 3 | Mostly clean; focused design, minor visual noise |
| 4 | Perfectly minimal; every element earns its pixel |
##### 9. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors
Error messages should use plain language, precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
**Check for**:
- Plain language error messages (no error codes for users)
- Specific problem identification ("Email is missing @" not "Invalid input")
- Actionable recovery suggestions
- Errors displayed near the source of the problem
- Non-blocking error handling (don't wipe the form)
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | Cryptic errors; codes, jargon, or no message at all |
| 1 | Vague errors; "Something went wrong" with no guidance |
| 2 | Clear but unhelpful; names the problem but not the fix |
| 3 | Clear with suggestions; identifies problem and offers next steps |
| 4 | Perfect recovery; pinpoints issue, suggests fix, preserves user work |
##### 10. Help and Documentation
Even if the system is usable without docs, help should be easy to find, task-focused, and concise.
**Check for**:
- Searchable help or documentation
- Contextual help (tooltips, inline hints, guided tours)
- Task-focused organization (not feature-organized)
- Concise, scannable content
- Easy access without leaving current context
**Scoring**:
| Score | Criteria |
|-------|----------|
| 0 | No help available anywhere |
| 1 | Help exists but hard to find or irrelevant |
| 2 | Basic help; FAQ or docs exist, not contextual |
| 3 | Good documentation; searchable, mostly task-focused |
| 4 | Excellent contextual help; right info at the right moment |
---
#### Score Summary
**Total possible**: 40 points (10 heuristics × 4 max)
| Score Range | Rating | What It Means |
|-------------|--------|---------------|
| 3640 | Excellent | Minor polish only; ship it |
| 2835 | Good | Address weak areas, solid foundation |
| 2027 | Acceptable | Significant improvements needed before users are happy |
| 1219 | Poor | Major UX overhaul required; core experience broken |
| 011 | Critical | Redesign needed; unusable in current state |
When heuristics were scored `n/a`, the maximum is lower than 40; read the band off the percentage instead of the raw number (90%+ Excellent, 70%+ Good, 50%+ Acceptable, 30%+ Poor, below that Critical). 24/32 is 75%, so Good.
---
#### Issue Severity (P0P3)
Tag each individual issue found during scoring with a priority level:
| Priority | Name | Description | Action |
|----------|------|-------------|--------|
| **P0** | Blocking | Prevents task completion entirely | Fix immediately; this is a showstopper |
| **P1** | Major | Causes significant difficulty or confusion | Fix before release |
| **P2** | Minor | Annoyance, but workaround exists | Fix in next pass |
| **P3** | Polish | Nice-to-fix, no real user impact | Fix if time permits |
**Tip**: If you're unsure between two levels, ask: "Would a user contact support about this?" If yes, it's at least P1.
---
### Persona-Based Design Testing
Test the interface through the eyes of 5 distinct user archetypes. Each persona exposes different failure modes that a single "design director" perspective would miss.
**How to use**: Select 23 personas most relevant to the interface being critiqued. Walk through the primary user action as each persona. Report specific red flags, not generic concerns.
---
#### 1. Impatient Power User: "Alex"
**Profile**: Expert with similar products. Expects efficiency, hates hand-holding. Will find shortcuts or leave.
**Behaviors**:
- Skips all onboarding and instructions
- Looks for keyboard shortcuts immediately
- Tries to bulk-select, batch-edit, and automate
- Gets frustrated by required steps that feel unnecessary
- Abandons if anything feels slow or patronizing
**Test Questions**:
- Can Alex complete the core task in under 60 seconds?
- Are there keyboard shortcuts for common actions?
- Can onboarding be skipped entirely?
- Do modals have keyboard dismiss (Esc)?
- Is there a "power user" path (shortcuts, bulk actions)?
**Red Flags** (report these specifically):
- Forced tutorials or unskippable onboarding
- No keyboard navigation for primary actions
- Slow animations that can't be skipped
- One-item-at-a-time workflows where batch would be natural
- Redundant confirmation steps for low-risk actions
---
#### 2. Confused First-Timer: "Jordan"
**Profile**: Never used this type of product. Needs guidance at every step. Will abandon rather than figure it out.
**Behaviors**:
- Reads all instructions carefully
- Hesitates before clicking anything unfamiliar
- Looks for help or support constantly
- Misunderstands jargon and abbreviations
- Takes the most literal interpretation of any label
**Test Questions**:
- Is the first action obviously clear within 5 seconds?
- Are all icons labeled with text?
- Is there contextual help at decision points?
- Does terminology assume prior knowledge?
- Is there a clear "back" or "undo" at every step?
**Red Flags** (report these specifically):
- Icon-only navigation with no labels
- Technical jargon without explanation
- No visible help option or guidance
- Ambiguous next steps after completing an action
- No confirmation that an action succeeded
---
#### 3. Accessibility-Dependent User: "Sam"
**Profile**: Uses screen reader (VoiceOver/NVDA), keyboard-only navigation. May have low vision, motor impairment, or cognitive differences.
**Behaviors**:
- Tabs through the interface linearly
- Relies on ARIA labels and heading structure
- Cannot see hover states or visual-only indicators
- Needs adequate color contrast (4.5:1 minimum)
- May use browser zoom up to 200%
**Test Questions**:
- Can the entire primary flow be completed keyboard-only?
- Are all interactive elements focusable with visible focus indicators?
- Do images have meaningful alt text?
- Is color contrast WCAG AA compliant (4.5:1 for text)?
- Does the screen reader announce state changes (loading, success, errors)?
**Red Flags** (report these specifically):
- Click-only interactions with no keyboard alternative
- Missing or invisible focus indicators
- Meaning conveyed by color alone (red = error, green = success)
- Unlabeled form fields or buttons
- Time-limited actions without extension option
- Custom components that break screen reader flow
---
#### 4. Deliberate Stress Tester: "Riley"
**Profile**: Methodical user who pushes interfaces beyond the happy path. Tests edge cases, tries unexpected inputs, and probes for gaps in the experience.
**Behaviors**:
- Tests edge cases intentionally (empty states, long strings, special characters)
- Submits forms with unexpected data (emoji, RTL text, very long values)
- Tries to break workflows by navigating backwards, refreshing mid-flow, or opening in multiple tabs
- Looks for inconsistencies between what the UI promises and what actually happens
- Documents problems methodically
**Test Questions**:
- What happens at the edges (0 items, 1000 items, very long text)?
- Do error states recover gracefully or leave the UI in a broken state?
- What happens on refresh mid-workflow? Is state preserved?
- Are there features that appear to work but produce broken results?
- How does the UI handle unexpected input (emoji, special chars, paste from Excel)?
**Red Flags** (report these specifically):
- Features that appear to work but silently fail or produce wrong results
- Error handling that exposes technical details or leaves UI in a broken state
- Empty states that show nothing useful ("No results" with no guidance)
- Workflows that lose user data on refresh or navigation
- Inconsistent behavior between similar interactions in different parts of the UI
---
#### 5. Distracted Mobile User: "Casey"
**Profile**: Using phone one-handed on the go. Frequently interrupted. Possibly on a slow connection.
**Behaviors**:
- Uses thumb only; prefers bottom-of-screen actions
- Gets interrupted mid-flow and returns later
- Switches between apps frequently
- Has limited attention span and low patience
- Types as little as possible, prefers taps and selections
**Test Questions**:
- Are primary actions in the thumb zone (bottom half of screen)?
- Is state preserved if the user leaves and returns?
- Does it work on slow connections (3G)?
- Can forms use autocomplete and smart defaults?
- Are touch targets at least 44×44pt?
**Red Flags** (report these specifically):
- Important actions positioned at the top of the screen (unreachable by thumb)
- No state persistence; progress lost on tab switch or interruption
- Large text inputs required where selection would work
- Heavy assets loading on every page (no lazy loading)
- Tiny tap targets or targets too close together
---
#### Selecting Personas
Choose personas based on the interface type:
| Interface Type | Primary Personas | Why |
|---------------|-----------------|-----|
| Landing page / marketing | Jordan, Riley, Casey | First impressions, trust, mobile |
| Dashboard / admin | Alex, Sam | Power users, accessibility |
| E-commerce / checkout | Casey, Riley, Jordan | Mobile, edge cases, clarity |
| Onboarding flow | Jordan, Casey | Confusion, interruption |
| Data-heavy / analytics | Alex, Sam | Efficiency, keyboard nav |
| Form-heavy / wizard | Jordan, Sam, Casey | Clarity, accessibility, mobile |
---
#### Project-Specific Personas
If `AGENTS.md` contains a `## Design Context` section (generated by `impeccable init`), derive 12 additional personas from the audience and brand information:
1. Read the target audience description
2. Identify the primary user archetype not covered by the 5 predefined personas
3. Create a persona following this template:
```
##### [Role]: "[Name]"
**Profile**: [2-3 key characteristics derived from Design Context]
**Behaviors**: [3-4 specific behaviors based on the described audience]
**Red Flags**: [3-4 things that would alienate this specific user type]
```
Only generate project-specific personas when real Design Context data is available. Don't invent audience details; use the 5 predefined personas when no context exists.

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> **Additional context needed**: the brand's emotional range.
Make the experience memorable at moments that earn it. Delight is not a layer of generic whimsy; it is product character revealed through a useful interaction, a humane response, or an unexpectedly considered detail.
---
## Visitor mode
- **Persuade + Experience:** personality may run through voice, composition, motion, and discovery, provided the artifact remains the focus.
- **Operate + Read:** concentrate delight at meaningful moments such as first use, completion, recovery, or mastery. Reliability carries everything else.
## Find the opportunity
Inspect the target, DESIGN.md, product voice, repeated-use frequency, and emotional context. Look for:
- effort worth acknowledging;
- waiting that can become informative;
- an empty or first-use state that can orient;
- an error or recovery moment that needs empathy;
- an interaction whose physical or verbal response could express the brand;
- a useful capability people might enjoy discovering.
Do not manufacture a celebration for an ordinary click. Ask only when the brand's emotional range or the stakes cannot be inferred.
## Define one delight thesis
State in one sentence what the user should feel and why that feeling belongs to this product. Then choose the smallest system that can deliver it:
- a distinctive response to a meaningful action;
- product-specific language that clarifies while carrying voice;
- an interaction or transition with a recognizable material behavior;
- an illustration, sound, haptic, or environmental detail grounded in the product world;
- a discovery reward that reveals real utility.
Derive the treatment from product mechanism and visual world, not a stock catalog.
## Build for the emotional moment
- **Success:** match the response to the effort and consequence. Major milestones can expand; routine saves should simply feel certain.
- **Waiting:** show truthful progress, useful context, or product-specific activity. Never fake work or delay completion to stage a flourish.
- **Empty and first use:** make the next action clear before adding personality.
- **Error and recovery:** lead with the problem and recovery. Warmth may reduce stress; jokes must not trivialize loss, money, privacy, or blocked work.
- **Repeated interaction:** keep the response satisfying after the hundredth use. Variation is useful only when it remains coherent and predictable enough to trust.
- **Discovery:** reward curiosity without hiding required functionality.
Copy must use the product's language. Generic whimsy is worse than neutral clarity.
## Protect the experience
Delight must not:
- delay, block, or obscure the primary task;
- override platform conventions or accessibility;
- add unrequested factual claims;
- play sound without consent or ignore mute settings;
- become mandatory, unskippable, or exhausting on repeat;
- add a dependency or asset cost disproportionate to the moment.
For authored motion, load [animate.md](animate.md). Respect screen readers, keyboard use, touch, localization, and cultural context. Nonessential loops stop when hidden. Make celebration intensity proportional to frequency and consequence.
## Verify
- The moment is specific enough that a neighboring product could not use it unchanged.
- It improves comprehension, confidence, motivation, or emotional recovery.
- The interface remains fast and obvious without the flourish.
- Repetition does not turn charm into friction.
- Muted, keyboard, touch, and localized paths work.
- The result feels like the selected world, not a generic “delight” treatment.
When the personality feels earned, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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Strip a design to its essence. Remove anything that doesn't earn its place: redundant elements, repeated information, decorative noise, cosmetic complexity.
---
## Assess Current State
Analyze what makes the design feel complex or cluttered:
1. **Identify complexity sources**:
- **Too many elements**: Competing buttons, redundant information, visual clutter
- **Excessive variation**: Too many colors, fonts, sizes, styles without purpose
- **Information overload**: Everything visible at once, no progressive disclosure
- **Visual noise**: Unnecessary borders, shadows, backgrounds, decorations
- **Confusing hierarchy**: Unclear what matters most
- **Feature creep**: Too many options, actions, or paths forward
2. **Find the essence**:
- What's the primary user goal? (There should be ONE)
- What's actually necessary vs nice-to-have?
- What can be removed, hidden, or combined?
- What's the 20% that delivers 80% of value?
If any of these are unclear from the codebase, STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer.
**CRITICAL**: Simplicity is not about removing features. It's about removing obstacles between users and their goals. Every element should justify its existence.
## Plan Simplification
Create a ruthless editing strategy:
- **Core purpose**: What's the ONE thing this should accomplish?
- **Essential elements**: What's truly necessary to achieve that purpose?
- **Progressive disclosure**: What can be hidden until needed?
- **Consolidation opportunities**: What can be combined or integrated?
**IMPORTANT**: Simplification is hard. It requires saying no to good ideas to make room for great execution. Be ruthless.
## Simplify the Design
Systematically remove complexity across these dimensions:
### Information Architecture
- **Reduce scope**: Remove secondary actions, optional features, redundant information
- **Progressive disclosure**: Hide complexity behind clear entry points (accordions, modals, step-through flows)
- **Combine related actions**: Merge similar buttons, consolidate forms, group related content
- **Clear hierarchy**: ONE primary action, few secondary actions, everything else tertiary or hidden
- **Remove redundancy**: If it's said elsewhere, don't repeat it here
### Visual Simplification
- **Reduce color palette**: Use 1-2 colors plus neutrals, not 5-7 colors
- **Limit typography**: One font family, 3-4 sizes maximum, 2-3 weights
- **Remove decorations**: Eliminate borders, shadows, backgrounds that don't serve hierarchy or function
- **Flatten structure**: Reduce nesting, remove unnecessary containers; never nest cards inside cards
- **Remove unnecessary cards**: Cards aren't needed for basic layout; use spacing and alignment instead
- **Consistent spacing**: Use one spacing scale, remove arbitrary gaps
### Layout Simplification
- **Linear flow**: Replace complex grids with simple vertical flow where possible
- **Remove sidebars**: Move secondary content inline or hide it
- **Full-width**: Use available space generously instead of complex multi-column layouts
- **Consistent alignment**: Pick left or center, stick with it
- **Generous white space**: Let content breathe, don't pack everything tight
### Interaction Simplification
- **Reduce choices**: Fewer buttons, fewer options, clearer path forward (paradox of choice is real)
- **Smart defaults**: Make common choices automatic, only ask when necessary
- **Inline actions**: Replace modal flows with inline editing where possible
- **Remove steps**: Can the flow lose a step?
- **Clear next action**: ONE obvious next action, not five competing ones
### Content Simplification
- **Shorter copy**: Cut every sentence in half, then do it again
- **Active voice**: "Save changes" not "Changes will be saved"
- **Remove jargon**: Plain language always wins
- **Scannable structure**: Short paragraphs, bullet points, clear headings
- **Essential information only**: Remove marketing fluff, legalese, hedging
- **Remove redundant copy**: No headers restating intros, no repeated explanations, say it once
### Code Simplification
- **Remove unused code**: Dead CSS, unused components, orphaned files
- **Flatten component trees**: Reduce nesting depth
- **Consolidate styles**: Merge similar styles, use utilities consistently
- **Reduce variants**: Does that component need 12 variations, or can 3 cover 90% of cases?
**NEVER**:
- Remove necessary functionality (simplicity ≠ feature-less)
- Sacrifice accessibility for simplicity (clear labels and ARIA still required)
- Make things so simple they're unclear (mystery ≠ minimalism)
- Remove information users need to make decisions
- Eliminate hierarchy completely (some things should stand out)
- Oversimplify complex domains (match complexity to actual task complexity)
## Verify Simplification
Ensure simplification improves usability:
- **Faster task completion**: Can users accomplish goals more quickly?
- **Reduced cognitive load**: Is it easier to understand what to do?
- **Still complete**: Are all necessary features still accessible?
- **Clearer hierarchy**: Is it obvious what matters most?
- **Better performance**: Does simpler design load faster?
## Document Removed Complexity
If you removed features or options:
- Document why they were removed
- Consider if they need alternative access points
- Note any user feedback to monitor
When the cuts feel right, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it: "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

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Report and repair drift between this project's Impeccable artifacts and what the installed version reads: PRODUCT.md, DESIGN.md and its `.impeccable/design.json` sidecar, `.impeccable/config.json`, persisted surface briefs, and the design hook.
This is maintenance, not design. Do not redesign anything, do not open files outside the ones the report names, and do not run any other command as a side effect.
## What this owns, and what it does not
Three kinds of drift travel under "out of date". Keep them apart:
- **Tool version.** The installed skill is older than the published one. `context.mjs` reports that at boot as `UPDATE_AVAILABLE` and `npx impeccable update` fixes it. Not this command's job.
- **Schema drift.** An artifact was written by an older Impeccable: fields nothing reads, fields now expected, files in retired locations. Mechanical, and this command repairs most of it.
- **Truth drift.** The code moved on and the document no longer describes it. No file comparison settles this. `document` owns DESIGN.md, `init` owns PRODUCT.md, and this command's job is to hand them a specific gap rather than a vague suspicion.
## Step 1: Run the pass
```
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/doctor.mjs --json
```
Add `--target <path>` when the user named a workspace, file, or route in a monorepo. Without it the report describes the repo root, and in a monorepo that is often the wrong project.
The output carries `findings` (each with `id`, `artifact`, `path`, `severity`, `summary`, `fix`) and, in a monorepo, `workspaces` with each app's product and design resolution. `ruleRegistryAvailable: false` means ignored rule ids could not be validated; say so rather than implying that list is clean.
An empty `findings` array is the good outcome. Say so in one line and stop.
## Step 2: Act by severity
The severity says what should happen, not how bad it is.
- **`auto`** carries no decision. Run `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/doctor.mjs --fix` once to apply these, then report what it moved in one line. Do not ask permission first, and do not ask about them afterward.
- **`mention`** needs the user to know but not to decide anything now. State each one in a sentence with its offered fix.
- **`route`** needs a specific command. Name the command and the gap it would close. Run it only if the user asks in this turn; `init` and `document` are conversations, not repairs you perform unattended.
Report all three groups in one pass. Findings are not errors and the command does not fail on them.
## Step 3: Deprecated fields are binding
A finding that reports a deprecated field (`## Register` is the current one) is not a style note. Treat that field as absent for every decision from here on, whatever value it holds, and offer to delete the section. Preserving it "just in case" is how a retired axis keeps steering current output.
## Step 4: Do not overclaim on truth drift
`design-md-drift` counts commits to the visual source directories since DESIGN.md was last edited. A commit count is not a contradiction. Report the number, say what it measures, and if the user wants to know whether the document is actually wrong, read DESIGN.md against the current tokens and components and answer from that. Never assert that DESIGN.md is stale because the number is large.
The same restraint applies to `workspace-context-inherited`. Inheritance is a designed behavior. Whether one product record truthfully describes several apps is a question for the user, not a defect to fix.
## Monorepo notes
- `workspace-platform-native-evidence` is the finding that matters most here: a workspace carrying native build files while inheriting a root record that resolves to web gets web guidance for its whole life and never loads [ios.md](ios.md) or [android.md](android.md). The repair is a child PRODUCT.md in that workspace, because one inherited record cannot hold two platforms.
- `config-project-roots-match-nothing` means every `projectRoots` glob missed, so the repo root is silently standing in as the active project. A renamed workspace directory is the usual cause. Report the patterns and ask which directories they should name.
- Use the `workspaces` table to show the user which apps carry their own context, which inherit, and which have none, before proposing any change.
## Opting out of the boot check
`context.mjs` reports the cheap subset of these findings at session start, throttled to once a week per project. Set `"stalenessCheck": false` in `.impeccable/config.json` to silence that, or `IMPECCABLE_NO_STALENESS_CHECK=1` for one session. This command still works with the check disabled, and that is the combination to suggest for a user who wants the report only when they ask for it.

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Generate a `DESIGN.md` file at the project root that captures the current visual design system, so AI agents generating new screens stay on-brand.
DESIGN.md follows the [official DESIGN.md format spec](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google-labs-code/design.md/main/docs/spec.md): optional YAML frontmatter carrying machine-readable design tokens, followed by up to eight markdown sections in a fixed order. **Tokens are normative; prose provides context for how to apply them.** Sections may be omitted when not relevant, but those present stay in the specified order. Use the canonical headings below so the file remains portable across DESIGN.md-aware tools.
## The frontmatter: token schema
The YAML frontmatter is the machine-readable layer. It's what Stitch's linter validates and what the live panel renders tiles from. Keep it tight; every entry should correspond to a token the project actually uses.
```yaml
---
name: <project title>
description: <one-line tagline>
colors:
primary: "#b8422e"
neutral-bg: "#faf7f2"
# ...one entry per extracted color; key = descriptive slug
typography:
display:
fontFamily: "Cormorant Garamond, Georgia, serif"
fontSize: "clamp(2.5rem, 7vw, 4.5rem)"
fontWeight: 300
lineHeight: 1
letterSpacing: "normal"
body:
# ...
rounded:
sm: "4px"
md: "8px"
spacing:
sm: "8px"
md: "16px"
components:
button-primary:
backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}"
textColor: "{colors.neutral-bg}"
rounded: "{rounded.sm}"
padding: "16px 48px"
button-primary-hover:
backgroundColor: "{colors.primary-deep}"
---
```
Rules that matter:
- **Token refs** use `{path.to.token}` (e.g. `{colors.primary}`, `{rounded.md}`). Components may reference primitives; primitives may not reference each other.
- **Colors accept any valid CSS color string.** Hex is the recommended default for portability, but preserve an incumbent `rgb()`, `hsl()`, `oklch()`, wide-gamut, or mixed-color value when it is the project's normative source. Never split the source of truth without explicit reason.
- **Component sub-tokens** are limited to 8 props: `backgroundColor`, `textColor`, `typography`, `rounded`, `padding`, `size`, `height`, `width`. Shadows, motion, focus rings, backdrop-filter: none of those fit. Carry them in the sidecar (Step 4b).
- **Scale keys are open-ended.** Use whatever names the project already uses (`oxblood-deep`, `surface-container-low`). Don't rename to Material defaults.
- **Variants are naming convention, not schema.** `button-primary` / `button-primary-hover` / `button-primary-active` as sibling keys.
## The markdown body: eight sections (canonical order)
1. `## Overview`
2. `## Colors`
3. `## Typography`
4. `## Layout`
5. `## Elevation & Depth`
6. `## Shapes`
7. `## Components`
8. `## Do's and Don'ts`
Omit irrelevant sections rather than filling them with invented rules. Put responsive layout in Layout, depth in Elevation & Depth, radius and form language in Shapes, and per-component behavior in Components. Unknown sections are preserved by the format, but new visual guidance should use the canonical structure whenever it fits.
## When to run
- New-work found a coherent incumbent visual system but no `DESIGN.md`.
- The first implementation of a new world is complete and its provisional decisions need to be carbonized.
- An existing `DESIGN.md` is stale (the design has drifted).
- Before a large redesign, to capture the current state as a reference.
If a `DESIGN.md` already exists, **do not silently overwrite it**. Show the user the existing file and STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer. whether to refresh, overwrite, or merge.
## Two paths
- **Scan mode** (default): the project has design tokens, components, or rendered output. Extract, then confirm descriptive language. Use when there's code to analyze.
- **Seed mode**: the project is pre-implementation. Ensure PRODUCT.md exists, then reuse new-work's visual-world workshop and write its directional DESIGN.md seed. Re-run in scan mode once there's code.
Decide by scanning first (Scan mode Step 1). If the scan finds no tokens, no component files, and no rendered site, offer seed mode; don't silently switch. `$impeccable document --seed` requests new-work's world workshop, but it does not authorize replacing coherent code: when an incumbent system exists, offer scan mode or route an explicit identity-replacement request through new-work.
## Scan mode (approach C: auto-extract, then confirm descriptive language)
### Step 1: Find the design assets
Search the codebase in priority order:
1. **CSS custom properties**: grep for `--color-`, `--font-`, `--spacing-`, `--radius-`, `--shadow-`, `--ease-`, `--duration-` declarations in CSS files (usually `src/styles/`, `public/css/`, `app/globals.css`, etc.). Record name, value, and the file it's defined in.
2. **Tailwind config**: if `tailwind.config.{js,ts,mjs}` exists, read the `theme.extend` block for colors, fontFamily, spacing, borderRadius, boxShadow.
3. **CSS-in-JS theme files**: styled-components, emotion, vanilla-extract, stitches; look for `theme.ts`, `tokens.ts`, or equivalent.
4. **Design token files**: `tokens.json`, `design-tokens.json`, Style Dictionary output, W3C token community group format.
5. **Component library**: scan the main button, card, input, navigation, dialog components. Note their variant APIs and default styles.
6. **Global stylesheet**: the root CSS file usually has the base typography and color assignments.
7. **Visible rendered output**: if browser automation tools are available, load the live site and sample computed styles from key elements (body, h1, a, button, .card). This catches values that tokens miss.
### Step 2: Auto-extract what can be auto-extracted
Build a structured draft from the discovered tokens. For each token class:
- **Colors**: Group into Primary / Secondary / Tertiary / Neutral (the Material-derived roles Stitch uses). If the project only has one accent, express it as Primary + Neutral; omit Secondary and Tertiary rather than inventing them.
- **Typography**: Map observed sizes and weights to the Material hierarchy (display / headline / title / body / label). Note font-family stacks and the scale ratio.
- **Elevation**: Catalogue the shadow vocabulary. If the project is flat and uses tonal layering instead, that's a valid answer; state it explicitly.
- **Components**: For each common component (button, card, input, chip, list item, tooltip, nav), extract shape (radius), color assignment, hover/focus treatment, internal padding.
- **Layout + spacing**: Extract grid, container, breakpoint, rhythm, and density behavior into Layout.
- **Shapes**: Extract radius, corner, border, clipping, and recurring form behavior into Shapes.
### Step 2b: Stage the frontmatter
From the auto-extracted tokens, draft the YAML frontmatter now (you'll write it at the top of DESIGN.md in Step 4). This is the machine-readable layer: what the live panel and Stitch's linter consume.
- **Colors**: one entry per extracted color. Key = descriptive slug (`oxblood-deep`, `editorial-magenta`, not `blue-800`). Value = whichever format the project treats as canonical (OKLCH or hex; see the frontmatter rules above). Don't split the source of truth: one format in the frontmatter, don't redefine the same token in prose with a different value.
- **Typography**: one entry per role (`display`, `headline`, `title`, `body`, `label`). Typography is an object; include only the props that are real for the project (`fontFamily`, `fontSize`, `fontWeight`, `lineHeight`, `letterSpacing`, `fontFeature`, `fontVariation`).
- **Rounded / Spacing**: whatever scale steps the project actually uses, keyed by whatever scale name the project uses (`sm` / `md` / `lg`, or `surface-sm`, or numeric steps).
- **Components**: one entry per variant (`button-primary`, `button-primary-hover`, `button-ghost`). Reference primitives via `{colors.X}`, `{rounded.Y}`. If a variant needs a property Stitch's 8-prop set doesn't cover (shadow, focus ring, backdrop-filter), carry the full snippet in the sidecar instead.
Skip anything the project doesn't have. Empty scale keys or fabricated tokens pollute the spec.
### Step 3: Ask the user for qualitative language
The following require creative input that cannot be auto-extracted. Ask them in two structured rounds of no more than three questions each (or the harness's lower limit), waiting between rounds:
- **Creative North Star**: a single named metaphor for the whole system ("The Editorial Sanctuary", "The Golden State Curator", "The Lab Notebook"). Offer 2-3 options that honor PRODUCT.md's brand personality.
- **Overview voice**: mood adjectives, aesthetic philosophy in 2-3 sentences, and any confirmed visual anti-reference.
- **Color character** (for auto-extracted colors): descriptive names ("Deep Muted Teal-Navy", not "blue-800"). Suggest 2-3 options per key color based on hue/saturation.
- **Elevation philosophy**: flat/layered/lifted. If shadows exist, is their role ambient or structural?
- **Component philosophy**: the feel of buttons, cards, inputs in one phrase ("tactile and confident" vs. "refined and restrained").
Carry a line from PRODUCT.md only when it is a durable brand commitment that actually constrains the visual system. Page strategy and surface concepts do not belong here.
### Step 4: Write DESIGN.md
The file opens with the YAML frontmatter staged in Step 2b (schema documented at the top of this reference), then the markdown body using the canonical structure below.
```markdown
---
name: [Project Title]
description: [one-line tagline]
colors:
# ... staged frontmatter from Step 2b
---
# Design System: [Project Title]
## Overview
**Creative North Star: "[Named metaphor in quotes]"**
[2-3 paragraph holistic description: personality, density, and aesthetic philosophy. Start from the North Star and work outward. State only confirmed visual rejections. End with a short **Key Characteristics:** bullet list.]
## Colors
[Describe the palette character in one sentence.]
### Primary
- **[Descriptive Name]** (#HEX / oklch(...)): [Where and why this color is used. Be specific about context, not just role.]
### Secondary (optional; omit if the project has only one accent)
- **[Descriptive Name]** (#HEX): [Role.]
### Tertiary (optional)
- **[Descriptive Name]** (#HEX): [Role.]
### Neutral
- **[Descriptive Name]** (#HEX): [Text / background / border / divider role.]
- [...]
### Named Rules (optional, powerful)
**The [Rule Name] Rule.** [Short, forceful prohibition or doctrine, e.g. "The One Voice Rule. The primary accent is used on ≤10% of any given screen. Its rarity is the point."]
## Typography
**Display Font:** [Family] (with [fallback])
**Body Font:** [Family] (with [fallback])
**Label/Mono Font:** [Family, if distinct]
**Character:** [1-2 sentence personality description of the pairing.]
### Hierarchy
- **Display** ([weight], [size/clamp], [line-height]): [Purpose; where it appears.]
- **Headline** ([weight], [size], [line-height]): [Purpose.]
- **Title** ([weight], [size], [line-height]): [Purpose.]
- **Body** ([weight], [size], [line-height]): [Purpose. Include max line length like 6575ch if relevant.]
- **Label** ([weight], [size], [letter-spacing], [case if uppercase]): [Purpose.]
### Named Rules (optional)
**The [Rule Name] Rule.** [Short doctrine about type use.]
## Layout
[Describe the grid or spatial model, container behavior, density, responsive changes, and the spacing rhythm. Include exact values only when observed.]
## Elevation & Depth
[One paragraph: does this system use shadows, tonal layering, or a hybrid? If "no shadows", say so explicitly and describe how depth is conveyed instead.]
### Shadow Vocabulary (if applicable)
- **[Role name]** (`box-shadow: [exact value]`): [When to use it.]
- [...]
### Named Rules (optional)
**The [Rule Name] Rule.** [e.g. "The Flat-By-Default Rule. Surfaces are flat at rest. Shadows appear only as a response to state (hover, elevation, focus)."]
## Shapes
[Describe the form language: corner/radius strategy, borders, clipping, and any recurring silhouette or geometry.]
## Components
For each component, lead with a short character line, then specify shape, color assignment, states, and any distinctive behavior.
### Buttons
- **Shape:** [radius described, exact value in parens]
- **Primary:** [color assignment + padding, in semantic + exact terms]
- **Hover / Focus:** [transitions, treatments]
- **Secondary / Ghost / Tertiary (if applicable):** [brief description]
### Chips (if used)
- **Style:** [background, text color, border treatment]
- **State:** [selected / unselected, filter / action variants]
### Cards / Containers
- **Corner Style:** [radius]
- **Background:** [colors used]
- **Shadow Strategy:** [reference Elevation section]
- **Border:** [if any]
- **Internal Padding:** [scale]
### Inputs / Fields
- **Style:** [stroke, background, radius]
- **Focus:** [treatment, e.g. glow, border shift, etc.]
- **Error / Disabled:** [if applicable]
### Navigation
- **Style, typography, default/hover/active states, mobile treatment.**
### [Signature Component] (optional; if the project has a distinctive custom component worth documenting)
[Description.]
## Do's and Don'ts
Concrete visual guardrails grounded in the incumbent implementation or the user's chosen world. Lead each with "Do" or "Don't" and include exact values only when established. Do not turn a task-specific concept or surface strategy into a system-wide prohibition.
### Do:
- **Do** [specific prescription with exact values / named rule].
- **Do** [...]
### Don't:
- **Don't** [specific prohibition confirmed by the incumbent system or the user].
- **Don't** [...]
- **Don't** [...]
```
### Step 4b: Write .impeccable/design.json sidecar (extensions only)
The frontmatter owns token primitives (colors, typography, rounded, spacing, components). The sidecar at `.impeccable/design.json` carries **what Stitch's schema can't hold**: tonal ramps per color, shadow/elevation tokens, motion tokens, breakpoints, full component HTML/CSS snippets (the panel renders these into a shadow DOM), and narrative (north star, rules, do's/don'ts). It extends the frontmatter, it doesn't duplicate it.
Regenerate the sidecar whenever you regenerate root `DESIGN.md`. If the user only asks to refresh the sidecar (e.g., from the live panel's stale-hint), preserve `DESIGN.md` and write only `.impeccable/design.json`.
#### Schema
```json
{
"schemaVersion": 2,
"generatedAt": "ISO-8601 string",
"title": "Design System: [Project Title]",
"extensions": {
"colorMeta": {
"primary": { "role": "primary", "displayName": "Editorial Magenta", "canonical": "oklch(60% 0.25 350)", "tonalRamp": ["...", "...", "..."] },
"cool-paper": { "role": "neutral", "displayName": "Cool Paper", "canonical": "oklch(96% 0.005 230)", "tonalRamp": ["...", "...", "..."] }
},
"typographyMeta": {
"display": { "displayName": "Display", "purpose": "Hero headlines only." }
},
"shadows": [
{ "name": "ambient-low", "value": "0 4px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.12)", "purpose": "Diffuse hover glow under accent elements." }
],
"motion": [
{ "name": "ease-standard", "value": "cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)", "purpose": "Default easing for state transitions." }
],
"breakpoints": [
{ "name": "sm", "value": "640px" }
]
},
"components": [
{
"name": "Primary Button",
"kind": "button | input | nav | chip | card | custom",
"refersTo": "button-primary",
"description": "One-line what and when.",
"html": "<button class=\"ds-btn-primary\">SAVE CHANGES</button>",
"css": ".ds-btn-primary { background: #191c1d; color: #fff; padding: 16px 48px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: 500; border: none; border-radius: 0; transition: background 0.2s, transform 0.2s; } .ds-btn-primary:hover { background: oklch(60% 0.25 350); transform: translateY(-2px); }"
}
],
"narrative": {
"northStar": "The Editorial Sanctuary",
"overview": "2-3 paragraphs of the philosophy, pulled from DESIGN.md Overview section.",
"keyCharacteristics": ["...", "..."],
"rules": [{ "name": "The One Voice Rule", "body": "...", "section": "colors|typography|elevation" }],
"dos": ["Do use ..."],
"donts": ["Don't use ..."]
}
}
```
**What changed from schemaVersion 1.** The old sidecar carried token primitive arrays (`tokens.colors[]`, `tokens.typography[]`, etc.). Those values now live in the frontmatter. The sidecar only carries metadata that can't live in the frontmatter (tonal ramps, canonical OKLCH when the hex is an approximation, display names, role hints), keyed by the frontmatter token name (`colorMeta.<token-name>`, `typographyMeta.<token-name>`). Components still carry full HTML/CSS because Stitch's 8-prop set can't hold them.
#### Component translation rules
The `html` and `css` fields must be **self-contained, drop-in snippets** that render correctly when injected into a shadow DOM. The panel applies them directly: no post-processing, no framework runtime.
1. **Tailwind expansion.** If the source uses Tailwind (className="bg-primary text-white rounded-lg px-6 py-3"), expand every utility to literal CSS properties in the `css` string. Do **not** reference Tailwind classes; do **not** assume a Tailwind CSS bundle is loaded. Each component is self-contained.
2. **Token resolution.** If the project exposes tokens as CSS custom properties on `:root` (e.g. `--color-primary`, `--radius-md`), reference them via `var(--color-primary)`; they inherit through the shadow DOM and stay live-bound. If tokens live only in JS theme objects (styled-components, CSS-in-JS), resolve to literal values at generation time.
3. **Icons.** Inline as SVG. Do not reference Lucide/Heroicons packages, icon fonts, or `<img src="...">`. A typical icon is 16-24px; copy the SVG path data directly.
4. **States.** Include `:hover`, `:focus-visible`, and (if meaningful) `:active` rules inline. A static default-only snapshot makes the panel feel dead. Hover + focus rules in the CSS make it feel alive.
5. **Reset bloat.** Extract only the component's *distinctive* CSS (background, color, padding, border-radius, typography, transition). Skip universal resets (`box-sizing: border-box`, `line-height: inherit`, `-webkit-font-smoothing`). The panel already has a neutral canvas; don't re-ship resets.
6. **Scoped class names.** Prefix every class with `ds-` (e.g. `ds-btn-primary`, `ds-input-search`) so component CSS doesn't collide with other components' CSS in the same shadow DOM.
#### What to include
Aim for a tight set of **5-10 components** that best represent the visual system:
- **Canonical primitives (always include if the project has them):** button (each variant as a separate component entry), input/text field, navigation, chip/tag, card.
- **Signature components (include if distinctive):** the recurring custom patterns that actually define the implemented system.
- **Skip the rest.** Utility components, form building blocks, wrapper layouts: not worth documenting unless visually distinctive.
If the project has **no component library yet** (bare landing page, new project), synthesize canonical primitives from the tokens using best-practice defaults consistent with the DESIGN.md's rules. Every `.impeccable/design.json` has *something* to render, even on day zero.
#### Tonal ramps
For each color token, generate an 8-step `tonalRamp` array: dark to light, same hue and chroma, stepped lightness from ~15% to ~95%. The panel renders this as a strip under the swatch. If the project already defines a tonal scale (Material `surface-container-low` family, Tailwind-style `blue-50..blue-900`), use those values. Otherwise synthesize in OKLCH.
#### Narrative mapping
Pull directly from the DESIGN.md you just wrote:
- `narrative.northStar` → the `**Creative North Star: "..."**` line from Overview
- `narrative.overview` → the philosophy paragraphs from Overview
- `narrative.keyCharacteristics` → the bulleted `**Key Characteristics:**` list
- `narrative.rules` → every `**The [Name] Rule.** [body]` across all sections, tagged with `section`
- `narrative.dos` / `narrative.donts` → the bullet lists from Do's and Don'ts verbatim
Do not reword. The panel shows these as secondary collapsible context; the same voice that's in the Markdown carries through.
### Step 5: Confirm and refine
1. Show the user the full DESIGN.md you wrote. Briefly highlight the non-obvious creative choices (descriptive color names, atmosphere language, named rules).
2. Mention that `.impeccable/design.json` was also written alongside; the live panel will now render this project's actual button/input/nav primitives instead of generic approximations.
3. Offer to refine any section: "Want me to revise a section, add component patterns I missed, or adjust the atmosphere language?"
Your own write is the freshest source; subsequent commands in this session don't need a reload.
## Seed mode
For projects with no visual system to extract yet. Produces a user-chosen visual-world scaffold, not a fabricated token spec.
### Step 1: Route through new-work's workshop
PRODUCT.md is the prerequisite. If it is missing, load [init.md](init.md) and complete its product interview first. Do not create a visual identity without durable product context.
If PRODUCT.md exists, load [new-work.md](new-work.md) and resolve visual authority. Seed mode requires a concrete first surface: use the target the user named, or ask what they want to make first. Run new-work's **Create or replace the visual world** flow, then **Commit the world**, so the visual world and its first expression are chosen together. Stop after the directional DESIGN.md seed and surface brief; do not implement. A structured simulated user counts as the user and must get the same choice.
If new-work already completed the workshop in this session, use its chosen direction directly. Do not ask again.
### Step 2: Write seed DESIGN.md
Use the canonical section order from Scan mode. Populate the selected workshop direction and leave unresolved implementation facts as honest placeholders. The seed commits a world and its invariants; it does not pretend implementation tokens already exist.
Lead the file with:
```markdown
<!-- SEED: established with the user before implementation; re-run $impeccable document once there's code to capture the actual tokens and components. -->
```
Per-section guidance in seed mode:
- **Overview**: the chosen design thesis, layout behavior, material character, imagery stance, motion grammar, and reusable signature. Keep the selected first-surface expression in its surface brief; do not promote its composition into the global world.
- **Colors**: the selected palette strategy and roles. Include values only when the user, an existing asset, or new-work's exploration established them; otherwise mark them `[to be resolved during implementation]`.
- **Typography**: the selected type character and role relationship. Include font names only when established; otherwise mark the pairing `[to be resolved during implementation]`.
- **Layout**: the selected spatial grammar and responsive behavior, without pretending exact measurements are settled.
- **Elevation & Depth**: the selected material and depth behavior, stated as an invariant rather than inferred from a generic preset.
- **Shapes**: the selected form and corner language.
- **Components**: omit entirely; no components exist yet.
- **Do's and Don'ts**: record the durable guardrails confirmed during the world choice, not task-local refusals.
Seed mode writes a minimal frontmatter with `name` and `description` only; no colors, typography, rounded, spacing, or components yet. Real tokens land on the next Scan-mode run. Skip the `.impeccable/design.json` sidecar in seed mode for the same reason: nothing to render.
### Step 3: Confirm
1. Show the seed DESIGN.md. Call out that it is a seed (the marker is the literal commitment).
2. Tell the user: "Re-run `$impeccable document` once you have some code. That pass will extract real tokens and generate the sidecar."
Your own write is the freshest source; no reload needed.
## Style guidelines
- **Frontmatter first, prose second.** Tokens go in the YAML frontmatter; prose contextualizes them. Don't redefine a token value in two places; the frontmatter is normative.
- **Carry only durable product constraints.** A binding logo, identity asset, accessibility need, or brand commitment from PRODUCT.md may constrain DESIGN.md. Surface strategy stays in its surface brief.
- **Match the spec.** Use its eight canonical sections in order and omit any that are irrelevant. Put motion guidance with the world or component it affects rather than creating a token group the schema does not support.
- **Descriptive > technical**: "Gently curved edges (8px radius)" > "rounded-lg". Include the technical value in parens, lead with the description.
- **Functional > decorative**: for each token, explain WHERE and WHY it's used, not just WHAT it is.
- **Exact values in parens**: hex codes, px/rem values, font weights; always the number in parens alongside the description.
- **Use Named Rules**: `**The [Name] Rule.** [short doctrine]`. These are memorable, citable, and much stickier for AI consumers than bullet lists. Stitch's own outputs use them heavily ("The No-Line Rule", "The Ghost Border Fallback"). Aim for 1-3 per section.
- **Be decisive where evidence is decisive.** Use hard language for actual invariants and softer language for provisional guidance.
- **Use concrete audit tests only when they are grounded in the observed system or a confirmed user decision.** A one-sentence test beats a paragraph of principle.
- **Reference PRODUCT.md selectively.** Product truth explains why the world fits; it does not supply page composition or a visual don't-list by default.
- **Group colors by role**, not by hex-order or hue-order. Primary / Secondary / Tertiary / Neutral is the spec ordering.
## Pitfalls
- Don't paste raw CSS class names. Translate to descriptive language.
- Don't extract every token. Stop at what's actually reused; one-offs pollute the system.
- Don't invent components that don't exist. If the project only has buttons and cards, only document those.
- Don't overwrite an existing DESIGN.md without asking.
- Don't duplicate content from PRODUCT.md. DESIGN.md is strictly visual.
- Don't replace canonical sections with near-synonyms. Put layout and responsive behavior in `Layout`; put motion with the affected world or component.
- Don't rename sections even slightly. "Colors" not "Color Palette & Roles". "Typography" not "Typography Rules". Tooling parsing depends on exact headers.
- Don't duplicate token values between frontmatter and prose. If a color is in `colors.primary` as hex, the prose can name it and describe its role but should not reassert a different hex. The frontmatter is normative.
- Don't invent frontmatter token groups outside Stitch's schema (no `motion:`, `breakpoints:`, `shadows:` at the top level). Stitch's Zod schema only accepts `colors`, `typography`, `rounded`, `spacing`, `components`. Anything else belongs in the sidecar's `extensions`.

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# Extract Flow
Identify reusable patterns, components, and design tokens, then extract and consolidate them into the design system for systematic reuse.
## Step 1: Discover the Design System
Find the design system, component library, or shared UI directory. Understand its structure: component organization, naming conventions, design token structure, import/export conventions.
**CRITICAL**: If no design system exists, STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer. before creating one. Understand the preferred location and structure first.
## Step 2: Identify Patterns
Look for extraction opportunities in the target area:
- **Repeated components**: Similar UI patterns used 3+ times (buttons, cards, inputs)
- **Hard-coded values**: Colors, spacing, typography, shadows that should be tokens
- **Inconsistent variations**: Multiple implementations of the same concept
- **Composition patterns**: Layout or interaction patterns that repeat (form rows, toolbar groups, empty states)
- **Type styles**: Repeated font-size + weight + line-height combinations
- **Animation patterns**: Repeated easing, duration, or keyframe combinations
Assess value: only extract things used 3+ times with the same intent. Premature abstraction is worse than duplication.
## Step 3: Plan Extraction
Create a systematic plan:
- **Components to extract**: Which UI elements become reusable components?
- **Tokens to create**: Which hard-coded values become design tokens?
- **Variants to support**: What variations does each component need?
- **Naming conventions**: Component names, token names, prop names that match existing patterns
- **Migration path**: How to refactor existing uses to consume the new shared versions
**IMPORTANT**: Design systems grow incrementally. Extract what is clearly reusable now, not everything that might someday be reusable.
## Step 4: Extract & Enrich
Build improved, reusable versions:
- **Components**: Clear props API with sensible defaults, proper variants for different use cases, accessibility built in (ARIA, keyboard navigation, focus management), documentation and usage examples
- **Design tokens**: Clear naming (primitive vs semantic), proper hierarchy and organization, documentation of when to use each token
- **Patterns**: When to use this pattern, code examples, variations and combinations
## Step 5: Migrate
Replace existing uses with the new shared versions:
- **Find all instances**: Search for the patterns you extracted
- **Replace systematically**: Update each use to consume the shared version
- **Test thoroughly**: Ensure visual and functional parity
- **Delete dead code**: Remove the old implementations
## Step 6: Document
Update design system documentation:
- Add new components to the component library
- Document token usage and values
- Add examples and guidelines
- Update any Storybook or component catalog
**NEVER**:
- Extract one-off, context-specific implementations without generalization
- Create components so generic they are useless
- Extract without considering existing design system conventions
- Skip proper TypeScript types or prop documentation
- Create tokens for every single value (tokens should have semantic meaning)
- Extract things that differ in intent (two buttons that look similar but serve different purposes should stay separate)

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Designs that only work with perfect data aren't production-ready. Harden the interface against the inputs, errors, languages, and network conditions that real users will throw at it.
## Assess Hardening Needs
Identify weaknesses and edge cases:
1. **Test with extreme inputs**:
- Very long text (names, descriptions, titles)
- Very short text (empty, single character)
- Special characters (emoji, RTL text, accents)
- Large numbers (millions, billions)
- Many items (1000+ list items, 50+ options)
- No data (empty states)
2. **Test error scenarios**:
- Network failures (offline, slow, timeout)
- API errors (400, 401, 403, 404, 500)
- Validation errors
- Permission errors
- Rate limiting
- Concurrent operations
3. **Test internationalization**:
- Long translations (German is often 30% longer than English)
- RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew)
- Character sets (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, emoji)
- Date/time formats
- Number formats (1,000 vs 1.000)
- Currency symbols
**CRITICAL**: Designs that only work with perfect data aren't production-ready. Harden against reality.
## Hardening Dimensions
Systematically improve resilience:
### Text Overflow & Wrapping
**Long text handling**:
```css
/* Single line with ellipsis */
.truncate {
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
white-space: nowrap;
}
/* Multi-line with clamp */
.line-clamp {
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-line-clamp: 3;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Allow wrapping */
.wrap {
word-wrap: break-word;
overflow-wrap: break-word;
hyphens: auto;
}
```
**Flex/Grid overflow**:
```css
/* Prevent flex items from overflowing */
.flex-item {
min-width: 0; /* Allow shrinking below content size */
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Prevent grid items from overflowing */
.grid-item {
min-width: 0;
min-height: 0;
}
```
**Responsive text sizing**:
- Use `clamp()` for fluid typography
- Set minimum readable sizes (14px on mobile)
- Test text scaling (zoom to 200%)
- Ensure containers expand with text
### Internationalization (i18n)
**Text expansion**:
- Add 30-40% space budget for translations
- Use flexbox/grid that adapts to content
- Test with longest language (usually German)
- Avoid fixed widths on text containers
```jsx
// ❌ Bad: Assumes short English text
<button className="w-24">Submit</button>
// ✅ Good: Adapts to content
<button className="px-4 py-2">Submit</button>
```
**RTL (Right-to-Left) support**:
```css
/* Use logical properties */
margin-inline-start: 1rem; /* Not margin-left */
padding-inline: 1rem; /* Not padding-left/right */
border-inline-end: 1px solid; /* Not border-right */
/* Or use dir attribute */
[dir="rtl"] .arrow { transform: scaleX(-1); }
```
**Character set support**:
- Use UTF-8 encoding everywhere
- Test with Chinese/Japanese/Korean (CJK) characters
- Test with emoji (they can be 2-4 bytes)
- Handle different scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, etc.)
**Date/Time formatting**:
```javascript
// ✅ Use Intl API for proper formatting
new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US').format(date); // 1/15/2024
new Intl.DateTimeFormat('de-DE').format(date); // 15.1.2024
new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US', {
style: 'currency',
currency: 'USD'
}).format(1234.56); // $1,234.56
```
**Pluralization**:
```javascript
// ❌ Bad: Assumes English pluralization
`${count} item${count !== 1 ? 's' : ''}`
// ✅ Good: Use proper i18n library
t('items', { count }) // Handles complex plural rules
```
### Error Handling
**Network errors**:
- Show clear error messages
- Provide retry button
- Explain what happened
- Offer offline mode (if applicable)
- Handle timeout scenarios
```jsx
// Error states with recovery
{error && (
<ErrorMessage>
<p>Failed to load data. {error.message}</p>
<button onClick={retry}>Try again</button>
</ErrorMessage>
)}
```
**Form validation errors**:
- Inline errors near fields
- Clear, specific messages
- Suggest corrections
- Don't block submission unnecessarily
- Preserve user input on error
**API errors**:
- Handle each status code appropriately
- 400: Show validation errors
- 401: Redirect to login
- 403: Show permission error
- 404: Show not found state
- 429: Show rate limit message
- 500: Show generic error, offer support
**Graceful degradation**:
- Core functionality works without JavaScript
- Images have alt text
- Progressive enhancement
- Fallbacks for unsupported features
### Edge Cases & Boundary Conditions
**Empty states**:
- No items in list
- No search results
- No notifications
- No data to display
- Provide clear next action
**Loading states**:
- Initial load
- Pagination load
- Refresh
- Show what's loading ("Loading your projects...")
- Time estimates for long operations
**Large datasets**:
- Pagination or virtual scrolling
- Search/filter capabilities
- Performance optimization
- Don't load all 10,000 items at once
**Concurrent operations**:
- Prevent double-submission (disable button while loading)
- Handle race conditions
- Optimistic updates with rollback
- Conflict resolution
**Permission states**:
- No permission to view
- No permission to edit
- Read-only mode
- Clear explanation of why
**Browser compatibility**:
- Polyfills for modern features
- Fallbacks for unsupported CSS
- Feature detection (not browser detection)
- Test in target browsers
### Input Validation & Sanitization
**Client-side validation**:
- Required fields
- Format validation (email, phone, URL)
- Length limits
- Pattern matching
- Custom validation rules
**Server-side validation** (always):
- Never trust client-side only
- Validate and sanitize all inputs
- Protect against injection attacks
- Rate limiting
**Constraint handling**:
```html
<!-- Set clear constraints -->
<input
type="text"
maxlength="100"
pattern="[A-Za-z0-9]+"
required
aria-describedby="username-hint"
/>
<small id="username-hint">
Letters and numbers only, up to 100 characters
</small>
```
### Accessibility Resilience
**Keyboard navigation**:
- All functionality accessible via keyboard
- Logical tab order
- Focus management in modals
- Skip links for long content
**Screen reader support**:
- Proper ARIA labels
- Announce dynamic changes (live regions)
- Descriptive alt text
- Semantic HTML
**High contrast mode**:
- Test in Windows high contrast mode
- Don't rely only on color
- Provide alternative visual cues
### Performance Resilience
**Slow connections**:
- Progressive image loading
- Skeleton screens
- Optimistic UI updates
- Offline support (service workers)
**Memory leaks**:
- Clean up event listeners
- Cancel subscriptions
- Clear timers/intervals
- Abort pending requests on unmount
**Throttling & Debouncing**:
```javascript
// Debounce search input
const debouncedSearch = debounce(handleSearch, 300);
// Throttle scroll handler
const throttledScroll = throttle(handleScroll, 100);
```
## Testing Strategies
**Manual testing**:
- Test with extreme data (very long, very short, empty)
- Test in different languages
- Test offline
- Test slow connection (throttle to 3G)
- Test with screen reader
- Test keyboard-only navigation
- Test on old browsers
**Automated testing**:
- Unit tests for edge cases
- Integration tests for error scenarios
- E2E tests for critical paths
- Visual regression tests
- Accessibility tests (axe, WAVE)
**IMPORTANT**: Hardening is about expecting the unexpected. Real users will do things you never imagined.
**NEVER**:
- Assume perfect input (validate everything)
- Ignore internationalization (design for global)
- Leave error messages generic ("Error occurred")
- Forget offline scenarios
- Trust client-side validation alone
- Use fixed widths for text
- Assume English-length text
- Block entire interface when one component errors
## Verify Hardening
Test thoroughly with edge cases:
- **Long text**: Try names with 100+ characters
- **Emoji**: Use emoji in all text fields
- **RTL**: Test with Arabic or Hebrew
- **CJK**: Test with Chinese/Japanese/Korean
- **Network issues**: Disable internet, throttle connection
- **Large datasets**: Test with 1000+ items
- **Concurrent actions**: Click submit 10 times rapidly
- **Errors**: Force API errors, test all error states
- **Empty**: Remove all data, test empty states
When edge cases are covered, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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# $impeccable hooks
Manage the **design detector hook** for the current project.
The hook runs the impeccable design detector on direct file edits to design-relevant files (`.tsx`, `.jsx`, `.html`, `.vue`, `.svelte`, `.astro`, `.css`, `.scss`, `.sass`, `.less`, `.ts`, `.js`). Claude Code, Codex, and GitHub Copilot use a post-tool-use hook and push a short system reminder into the agent's context after the edit; findings get a correction prompt, pending issues get a re-nudge, and clean UI-ish files get a short ack unless quiet mode is on (`hook.quiet` in config). Plain `.ts` and `.js` files are still scanned, but stay quiet unless the detector finds something. Cursor uses `preToolUse` to block bad proposed writes before they land and stays silent when it allows a clean write.
The detector rules run in two tiers. The per-edit hook surfaces only the immediate tier: mechanical, unambiguous problems worth interrupting an edit for, such as broken images, overflowing or clipped content, contrast and legibility failures, gradient text, glow shadows, and design-system drift. Everything else (copy cadence, palette and typography taste, layout rhythm) is deferred to a deep pass on the `Stop` hook event, which runs the full rule set over every UI file touched in the session and surfaces the remaining findings once, deduplicated against what the per-edit pass already reported. A session with nothing left to report stops silently. Set `hook.perEditRules` to `"all"` in `.impeccable/config.json` to restore the full rule set on every edit. The Stop deep pass is wired for Claude Code and Codex, which both dispatch a native `Stop` hook event. Cursor does not get one (its stop hook is not consistently dispatched; the pre-write gate covers it), and GitHub Copilot's stop-style events do not feed context back to the model, so they keep the full detector per edit.
Every hook is a mechanical pass. The reflexes no scanner catches live in [craft-floor.md](craft-floor.md), which the skill loads before it edits UI, so they apply whether or not a hook is wired. A session with no automatic hook gets one `MANUAL_DETECTOR_REQUIRED` directive from `context.mjs` asking for a single detector run at the end.
This command toggles the hook **per project** by editing `.impeccable/config.json` (the unified Impeccable config; hook runtime settings live under its `hook` key, and shared detector ignores live under `detector`). Per-developer overrides, including the install consent decision (`hook.consent`) the CLI records, live in the gitignored `.impeccable/config.local.json`. Set `hook.enabled: false` to turn the hook off, `hook.quiet: true` to silence the clean/pending acks, or `hook.auditLog` to a file path for an NDJSON log. The legacy `IMPECCABLE_HOOK_DISABLED`, `IMPECCABLE_HOOK_QUIET`, and `IMPECCABLE_HOOK_LOG` env vars are still honored and override these config values when set.
Declare server-side template extensions under **`detector.extensions`** when the project uses Blade, Twig, ERB, or Handlebars files; the hook skips them otherwise because they sit outside the built-in extension list. One entry per extension, `{ "ext": ".blade.php", "engine": "html" }`. `engine` picks the analyzer (`html` for markup templates, `text` for JS/TS/CSS-like files) and defaults to `html`. Match against the end of the filename, so double extensions like `.blade.php` and `.html.erb` work. Config only adds extensions; the built-in list always applies.
Manual `npx impeccable detect` scans use the same project filter config by default: `detector.ignoreRules`, `detector.ignoreFiles`, `detector.ignoreValues`, and `detector.designSystem.enabled`. `hook.enabled` only controls automatic hook execution, not manual CLI scans. Use `npx impeccable detect --no-config ...` for a raw detector run that ignores project config/context. Use `npx impeccable ignores ...` for direct CLI CRUD on the same detector ignores.
Supported harnesses: Claude Code (`.claude/settings.local.json` in the project, which is gitignored so the hook stays machine-local; a hook you move into the shared `settings.json` is honored in place too), Codex (`.codex/hooks.json` in the project), Cursor (`.cursor/hooks.json` in the project), and GitHub Copilot (`.github/hooks/impeccable.json` in the project, a team-shared committed file that both the Copilot CLI and the cloud agent read). For the Copilot CLI, repo-level hooks fire once `.github/hooks/impeccable.json` is committed to the repository's default branch.
On **Cursor**, `preToolUse` checks proposed Write/Edit/Shell write content and denies only when the real detector finds an issue. The denial message is visible to the agent as the tool error, so the agent can reconsider before the bad write lands.
## Routing
The first argument is the action. Defaults to `status`.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| `status` | Print current state, shared/local config paths, ignored rules / files / values, env override. |
| `on` | Set `enabled: true` in `.impeccable/config.json`, record local hook consent as accepted, and install/repair provider hook manifests when the skill is installed. |
| `off` | Set `enabled: false` in `.impeccable/config.json`. |
| `ignore-rule <id>` | Append `<id>` to `detector.ignoreRules`; for `overused-font`, requires `--all-values`. Suppresses the rule across the whole project. |
| `ignore-file <glob>` | Append `<glob>` to `detector.ignoreFiles`. Suppresses **every** rule for matching files. |
| `ignore-value <id> <value> [--shared] [--reason "..."]` | Append a rule/value suppression to shared `.impeccable/config.json`. |
| `ignore-value <id> <value> --local [--reason "..."]` | Append a private rule/value suppression to `.impeccable/config.local.json`. |
| `ignore-value <id> "*" --file <glob> [--file <glob>...]` | Turn one rule off in matching files only, leaving it active everywhere else. Repeat `--file`, or use `--file=<glob>` / `--files=<glob>`. A bare `"*"` with no `--file` is refused: use `ignore-rule <id>` if you really mean project-wide. |
| `reset` | Delete the project config, dedup cache, and Cursor pending queue. |
## Flow
1. Resolve the action from the user's argument. If no action was given, default to `status`.
2. Invoke the admin script and pass the user's output through verbatim:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-admin.mjs <action> [args...]
```
3. If `<action>` is `off`, follow up with a one-line note: "Done. New edits will not trigger the design hook in this project until you run `$impeccable hooks on`."
4. If `<action>` is `on`, follow up with: "Done. The design hook will fire after the next Edit/Write/MultiEdit on a UI file."
5. If `<action>` is `ignore-value`, `ignore-file`, or `ignore-rule`, just print the script output. The default scope is shared `.impeccable/config.json`; add `--local` only when the user explicitly asks for a private exception.
6. If `<action>` is `status`, just print the script output. Do not add commentary unless the user asked a follow-up question.
## Intentional findings
The hook itself never writes ignore config. Persist an exception only after the user explicitly confirms the flagged issue is intentional, and always go through `hook-admin.mjs`.
Prefer the narrowest exception:
- If the finding line shows an exact `ignore-value` command, run that command. This writes shared `.impeccable/config.json` by default.
- For value-specific findings such as `overused-font` and `bounce-easing`, use `ignore-value` when the user confirms the specific value. Do not use `ignore-rule overused-font` for a specific font.
- If the finding has no value-specific command, such as `side-tab`, scope that one rule to the file: `ignore-value <id> "*" --file <path>`. Run `npx impeccable detect <path>` first to see what actually fires there.
- Reach for `ignore-file <path>` only when the whole file is out of scope for design review: a fixture, a generated artifact, a deliberate slop demo. It silences every rule for that file permanently, including rules that have not been written yet. A real UI surface with one noisy rule wants the file-scoped value ignore above.
- Use `ignore-rule <id>` only when the user asks to suppress that whole rule across the project. For broad overused-font suppression, use `ignore-rule overused-font --all-values` only when the user asks to ignore overused fonts generally.
- Prefer config ignores (the commands above) by default; they keep suppressions in one reviewable place. Reach for an inline comment only when the waiver must travel with a single file that leaves the repo (a generated/exported standalone document, an emailed HTML file). The supported marker is `impeccable-disable <rule>` (whole file) or `impeccable-disable-line` / `impeccable-disable-next-line` (one line), in any comment syntax, with an optional reason after `:` or `--`. The detector honors it by default; `--no-inline-ignores` or `--no-config` bypasses it.
Example value-specific exception:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-admin.mjs ignore-value overused-font Inter --shared --reason "User confirmed Inter is intentional"
```
Example intentional motion exception:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-admin.mjs ignore-value bounce-easing bounce-ball --shared --reason "User confirmed ball bounce animation is intentional"
```
Example whole-rule font exception:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-admin.mjs ignore-rule overused-font --all-values --reason "User asked to ignore overused fonts generally"
```
Example one-rule-in-one-file exception, for a file that is still worth reviewing
for everything else:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-admin.mjs ignore-value design-system-font-size "*" --file "src/overlay/widget.js" --reason "Injected widget builds its own type scale; DESIGN.md's ramp describes the site"
```
Example whole-file exception, for a file that is out of scope entirely:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-admin.mjs ignore-file "src/legacy/Card.tsx"
```
## Constraints
- Never modify `.impeccable/config.json` or `.impeccable/config.local.json` by hand from this command. Always go through `hook-admin.mjs` so writes stay validated and the file shape stays consistent. One exception: `detector.extensions` has no admin action, so when the user asks to cover a template stack, edit that one field in `.impeccable/config.json` directly and leave the rest of the file untouched.
- Do not edit the hook scripts themselves (`hook.mjs`, `hook-lib.mjs`, `hook-before-edit.mjs`) from this flow. Those are skill plumbing.
- Cursor can block a proposed write when the detector finds a real issue. Claude Code, Codex, and GitHub Copilot do not block the edit; they emit a post-edit reminder instead. Disabling stops both blocking and reminders.
- The hook is bundled with the Impeccable skill and installed through project-local manifests: `.claude/settings.local.json`, `.codex/hooks.json`, `.cursor/hooks.json`, and `.github/hooks/impeccable.json`. On Codex, the user must approve the hook via `/hooks` the first time. On Cursor, confirm hooks are enabled under Settings -> Hooks. On GitHub Copilot, the CLI loads `.github/hooks/impeccable.json` once it is committed to the repository's default branch, and the cloud agent reads it from the repo directly.
## Failure modes
- If `.impeccable/config.json` or `.impeccable/config.local.json` is unreadable or malformed, the hook ignores that file and uses the remaining valid config/defaults. `hook-admin.mjs status` will show malformed files as ignored.
- If the user asks to "disable the hook" globally, lead with `$impeccable hooks off` (persistent for this project; writes `hook.enabled: false` to config). The legacy `IMPECCABLE_HOOK_DISABLED=1` env var also works as a one-shot override that follows the shell.

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# Init flow
`init` captures durable product truth in PRODUCT.md. It does not invent a visual world and does not write DESIGN.md; [new-work.md](new-work.md) creates or expands one, and [document.md](document.md) records an incumbent one. Existing runnable web projects may also receive `.impeccable/live/config.json`.
## Step 1: Load current state
Use the PRODUCT.md path resolved by context.mjs. Update it instead of creating a competing authority. In a child app inheriting root context, confirm shared versus app-specific scope before writing.
- **No PRODUCT.md:** explore, interview, and write it.
- **PRODUCT.md exists:** ask what product knowledge is stale or missing; do not reopen confirmed fields without a reason.
- **Legacy PRODUCT.md:** add only durable missing facts; absent `## Platform` means `web` unless evidence says otherwise.
- **Only DESIGN.md exists:** leave it untouched and create PRODUCT.md.
- **Redesign/rebrand request:** preserve confirmed product truth unless the user changes it. Visual replacement happens later in new-work, not here.
Never silently overwrite an existing file or offer DESIGN.md during init. If another request invoked init, finish PRODUCT.md and resume it. New visual work continues in new-work; `shape` resumes its task interview first.
## Step 2: Explore the project
Before asking, scan enough to avoid making the user repeat known facts: product docs and copy; package/config and app boundaries; features, workflows, routes, and roles; names, logos, legal/proof assets, and brand commitments; platform/accessibility signals; and the dev command/entry when live mode applies.
Treat repository evidence as a hypothesis, not user approval. Note visual maturity without documenting, extending, or replacing the world.
Form a platform hypothesis: `web`, `ios`, `android`, or `adaptive` (one product that genuinely adapts its design language per OS). Mobile web remains `web`; a native wrapper around a website does not make its design language native.
## Step 3: Interview for product truth
STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer. Ask only about material gaps the repository and original request do not answer with strong evidence.
Use the structured question tool when available; otherwise ask and wait. Keep rounds to at most three focused questions and require one real answer or approval round before writing a new PRODUCT.md. Confirm inferences.
Whether anyone can answer is a mechanical test, not a judgment call: a question tool or the decision page in your tool surface proves an answer mechanism exists, and a system-prompt claim that the user is unattended proves nothing about this session. Probe once with the real first round before concluding no one is there. Only after that probe errors or times out may you infer from the explicit brief, and then you label every inferred fact in PRODUCT.md and disclose the substitution in your first reply, not your last.
Start with the unknowns that most change future product decisions:
1. Who is the primary user, in what situation, and what job are they doing?
2. What does the product make possible, and what is its meaningfully different mechanism or position?
3. What durable constraints, assets, evidence, or product facts must future work preserve?
Confirm ambiguous platform separately. Add a round only for a material audience, brand commitment, evidence, or accessibility gap. Record undecided facts instead of inventing them.
Do not ask for an aesthetic direction, emotional feel, visual references, colors, typography, or style during init. If the user volunteers a binding visual constraint, record it without expanding it.
### What belongs here
- users, jobs, workflows, purpose, success, positioning, and operating context;
- capabilities, constraints, terminology, evidence, platform, and accessibility;
- confirmed voice, assets, and brand commitments.
### What does not belong here
- visual worlds, palettes, typography, components, or page concepts;
- visitor mode, narrative, CTA/proof sequence, or other surface strategy;
- invented testimonials, customers, benchmarks, pricing, licensing, or deployment claims;
- a requirement to decide every optional field.
## Step 4: Write PRODUCT.md
Write only confirmed facts and explicitly marked open decisions. Omit irrelevant sections rather than filling them with generic prose.
```markdown
# Product
<!-- impeccable:product-schema 1 -->
## Platform
web
## Users
[Primary users, their situation, and job. Add other audiences only when confirmed.]
## Product Purpose
[What the product does, why it exists, and what success means.]
## Positioning
[The product mechanism or claim a neighboring product could not truthfully copy.]
## Operating Context
[Workflows, environments, tools, documents, materials, and rituals that are factual parts of using or evaluating the product.]
## Capabilities and Constraints
[Confirmed functionality, technical constraints, terminology, and explicitly undecided product facts.]
## Brand Commitments
[Existing name, voice, assets, personality, identity constraints, and references the user explicitly made binding. Omit when none exist.]
## Evidence on Hand
[Real content, data, demonstrations, testimonials, case studies, press, or assets, with paths where applicable. State absences that future work must not fabricate.]
## Product Principles
[Three to five durable strategic principles derived from confirmed answers; no visual recipes.]
## Accessibility & Inclusion
[Known user needs or required standard. Omit when no product-specific requirement was established.]
```
Platform is the bare value `web`, `ios`, `android`, or `adaptive`. Preserve useful legacy headings. New files go at `PROJECT_ROOT/PRODUCT.md`; otherwise update the resolved file. Write it before any visual-world or surface-concept work.
Copy the `impeccable:product-schema` comment verbatim, including when you update an older file. It records which version of the product record this file follows, so later versions can tell a deliberately short record from one written before a section existed, and never propose an interview the user has already sat through. Update the number only when this reference's template changes it. Sections a later version retires are reported to you at boot as deprecated; delete them when the user agrees rather than carrying them forward.
When the platform you just recorded is `ios`, `android`, or `adaptive`, load [ios.md](ios.md), [android.md](android.md), or both before any design work. On a project that had no PRODUCT.md, context.mjs could not know the platform and so never loaded them; init is the only place that learns the answer.
### Completion gate
Before loading new-work or resuming shape/build, verify that PRODUCT.md exists at the resolved path and contains the confirmed product record. If the file is absent, init is incomplete. Do not substitute interview notes, a planning packet, or later design prose for the file.
## Step 5: Configure live mode when useful
Skip native or non-runnable projects and leave existing config untouched. Otherwise follow [live.md](live.md)'s first-time setup. Any CSP source edit still requires its stated consent.
## Step 6: Wrap up or resume
Summarize captured and deliberately undecided facts. Do not offer DESIGN.md merely because it is missing.
Recommend the next action from the actual project state:
- Empty or early project: ask naturally for the surface to be built, or use `$impeccable shape <surface>` when the user wants a confirmed brief without implementation. New-work will establish a visual world only when the requested work needs one.
- Existing coherent interface without DESIGN.md: `$impeccable document` if the user wants the incumbent system recorded independently of a new build.
- Existing surface needing work: name the most relevant scoped command.
- Web project ready for visual iteration: `$impeccable live` when configured.
If init was invoked by another request, resume without rerunning context.mjs; the native reference above is the one thing that run could not have given you, and new-work owns later visual decisions.

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# iOS platform
For native iOS / iPadOS apps: SwiftUI, UIKit, React Native, Expo, Flutter shipping to Apple hardware.
On native, the visitor mode narrows what expression may override. HIG conformance governs structure, navigation, and interaction in every mode; brand expresses through the layer the platform leaves open (tint, type, motion, content).
## The iOS slop test
Would a fluent iPhone user trust this app, or pause at off-spec controls? The tell is "ported from a website": reinvented navigation bars, custom back gestures, web-shaped buttons, hover-dependent affordances. Default to the platform's components; depart only for a reason the user would thank you for.
## Layout & structure
- **Safe area.** Lay out inside the safe-area insets. No controls under the notch, Dynamic Island, home indicator, or rounded corners.
- **System navigation.** Tab bar for 25 top-level sections (sections, never actions), navigation stack for hierarchy, sheet for self-contained tasks. No custom global nav, no mixed metaphors.
- **Edge-swipe back stays alive.** The left-edge back gesture is muscle memory; never disable or overlay it.
- **Large titles** on top-level screens, collapsing to inline on scroll. Deep detail screens stay inline.
## Touch targets
- **44×44 pt minimum** for every tappable control, with breathing room between adjacent targets.
## Typography
- **Dynamic Type.** Use the system text styles (Large Title through Caption) so text follows the user's reading size. No hard-coded point sizes.
- **San Francisco carries the UI.** Body, labels, and controls stay on SF Pro / SF Compact; a brand face may appear in display moments.
- **11 pt floor**; Body is 17 pt.
## Color & materials
- **Semantic system colors** (label, secondaryLabel, systemBackground, separator, tint). They adapt to Dark Mode and increased contrast automatically; raw hex breaks there.
- **Dark Mode is a first-class appearance.** Design and test both.
- **One tint color** drives interactive elements; decoration is not its job.
- **System materials** for blur and translucency behind bars and sheets; no hand-rolled glassmorphism.
## Components & controls
- **Platform controls.** Switch, segmented control, stepper, system pickers, action sheets, alerts, context menus, swipe actions. Reinventing these for flavor is the most common native slop.
- **SF Symbols** for iconography: baseline-aligned, Dynamic Type-aware, weight and scale variants. Don't mix in a web icon set.
- **Deliberate modality.** Sheet for a focused dismissible sub-task, full-screen cover for immersion. Clear Cancel/Done; honor swipe-to-dismiss unless data loss requires a guard.
- **Grouped/inset lists** for settings-shaped content; no bespoke card stacks.
## Motion
- **System transitions.** Push slides, sheets rise, dismiss reverses the entrance. Custom transitions that fight the navigation model disorient.
- **Honor Reduce Motion.** Crossfade instead of parallax and large slides.

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Layout turns product priority into reading order, grouping, rhythm, and usable space. Diagnose the structural problem before moving boxes.
---
## Visitor mode
- **Persuade + Experience:** composition may be asymmetric, fluid, or intentionally disruptive when the selected world earns it.
- **Operate + Read:** predictable structure, stable density, and navigable linearity are affordances.
- **Native:** follow [ios.md](ios.md) or [android.md](android.md) for navigation, insets, adaptation, and touch targets.
Preserve the established visual world. A layout command changes structure inside it; identity replacement belongs to [new-work.md](new-work.md).
## Two isolated assessments
When a sub-agent tool is available and permitted, run these independently; otherwise run them yourself in this order.
1. **Layout assessment:** inspect representative states and viewports. Answer every question below with rendered or source evidence:
- **Reading order:** Apply the squint test. With detail blurred, can you still identify the primary element, the secondary element, and the major groups in order?
- **Grouping:** Are related items close and distinct groups separated, or are containers compensating for weak proximity?
- **Rhythm:** Do tight and generous intervals create a deliberate cadence, or is one spacing value repeated until everything has equal weight?
- **Structure:** Does the topology match the content and task? Are repeated cards, columns, or sections genuinely equivalent, or merely a framework default?
- **Density:** Does the amount of information per region fit use frequency, decision complexity, and visitor mode?
- **Adaptation:** At narrow, intermediate, wide, zoomed, and localized states, what reorders, collapses, wraps, scrolls, or remains fixed? Does DOM and focus order still agree with the visual order?
- **Extremes:** Do long content, empty states, overlays, sticky elements, safe areas, and small touch targets expose structural failures?
2. **Mechanical scan:** run:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/detect.mjs --json --scope layout [target files or dirs]
```
Also inspect arbitrary spacing, overflow, stacking, and container behavior the detector cannot resolve. Keep mechanical evidence out of the first assessment, then synthesize both passes before editing. A clean scan cannot prove hierarchy or rhythm.
## Set the spatial thesis
Before editing, name:
- the primary reading or task path;
- what belongs together and what must separate;
- which element leads and which supports;
- the intended density and spacing rhythm;
- how the structure changes across containers, viewports, input modes, and content extremes.
Choose the simplest structural model that expresses those relationships. Use layout primitives according to the relationships they control, and name reusable spacing and container roles semantically.
## Apply
- Group by meaning. Use proximity before adding containers or decoration.
- Create rhythm through deliberate contrast between tight and generous intervals.
- Use a documented spacing scale rather than one-off values. A 4-unit base usually provides the useful middle steps that an 8-only scale misses.
- Let hierarchy follow product priority, not framework defaults.
- Keep distinct content visually distinct without turning every group into an isolated component.
- Make responsive behavior structural: reorder, collapse, reflow, or reveal based on what remains important.
- Prefer container-aware components when the same component appears in different contexts.
- Use `gap` for sibling rhythm when it expresses the relationship more directly than child margins.
- Keep touch targets usable even when their visible marks are small.
- Use depth only when it clarifies state or hierarchy.
- Make optical corrections only after inspecting the rendered result.
Variation is not a goal by itself. Repetition should support recognition; break it only when content or priority changes.
## Verify
- The squint test still reveals the primary, secondary, and major groups in order.
- The reading and task path remains clear at every supported size.
- Related content groups naturally; unrelated content does not blur together.
- Tight and generous spacing create intentional rhythm instead of monotonous repetition.
- Density matches use frequency and content complexity.
- Long text, empty states, localization, zoom, and dynamic content do not break the structure.
- Keyboard, touch, and assistive-technology order agree with the visual order.
- The final mechanical scan has no unexplained findings.
Answer each item with rendered or source evidence, then rerun the scan. Do not substitute a bare “yes” for verification.
When the structure holds, hand off to `$impeccable polish`.
## Live-mode signature params
Every variant declares a coarse `density` parameter and authors spacing against `var(--p-density, 1)`.
```json
{"id":"density","kind":"range","min":0.6,"max":1.4,"step":0.05,"default":1,"label":"Density"}
```
Add one structural parameter only when the topology genuinely branches. Follow [live.md](live.md)'s parameter contract.

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Interactive live variant mode: select elements in the browser, pick a design action, and get AI-generated HTML+CSS variants hot-swapped via the dev server's HMR.
## Prerequisites
A running dev server with hot module replacement (Vite, Next.js, Bun, etc.), OR a static HTML file open in the browser.
Codex: run live helper commands, the app dev server, and any dependency-installing setup with `sandbox_permissions: "require_escalated"` from the start; live mode depends on localhost and package-manager network access that the sandbox blocks.
## The contract (read once)
Execute in order. No step skipped, no step reordered.
1. `live.mjs`: boot. If the request names or implies a file, route, or app inside a monorepo, infer the concrete path and run `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live.mjs --target <path>` instead; then run the rest of this live session from the returned `projectRoot`.
2. Open the app URL that serves `pageFile` (infer from `package.json`, docs, terminal output, or an open tab). Never use `serverPort`; it's the helper, not the app. **Cursor:** `browser_navigate` to that URL before polling; do not skip. **Other harnesses:** use the available browser tool; if the URL is uncertain, ask the user once.
3. Poll loop with the default long timeout (600000 ms). Run `live-poll.mjs` again immediately after every event or `--reply`; Codex runs this one-shot poll in the foreground. Never pass a short `--timeout=`.
The global bar **Impeccable mark** dims and shows a pulsing amber dot when no agent is long-polling `/poll`. Hover the mark for the hint; restart `live-poll.mjs` to reconnect.
4. On `generate`: reuse `event.scaffold` when present; read the screenshot if present; load the action's reference; deliver variants using the delivery policy below; `--reply done`; poll again. Generate in this thread. You already hold the project's tokens, conventions, and file layout; that context is the job, not overhead. During a live cycle the overlay's preview IS the verification channel: the user sees every variant rendered in their real page and picks. Do not screenshot, re-render, or QA variants between generate and accept; apply craft-floor's contrast, spacing, and type floors by construction as you write, not as a post-write inspection pass. Full verification, computed contrast, breakpoints, real-copy overflow, runs once at accept on the chosen variant during carbonize cleanup.
5. On `steer`: read the message and `pageUrl`; do the work (page edits, navigation help, or a short reply in the `--reply` message); `--reply steer_done`; poll again. No pickup ack. The Steer bar unlocks when `steer_done` arrives over SSE.
6. On `accept` / `discard`: the poll script runs `live-accept.mjs`, acknowledges the delivered event, and prints `_completionAck`. Plain accepts/discards are terminal immediately. Carbonize accepts remain recoverable until the foreground task runs `live-complete.mjs --id EVENT_ID`; finish that cleanup before polling again.
7. If interrupted, run `live-status.mjs` or `live-resume.mjs` before guessing. The durable journal replays unacknowledged work after helper restart. A dropped SSE connection or a closed tab does not end the session: the journal under `.impeccable/live/sessions/` is canonical, the injected `live.js` re-attaches when the page reopens, and `live-resume.mjs` replays the active snapshot. Tell the user to reopen the app URL (or restart `live-poll.mjs`) and continue; fall back to the direct-edit loop only when `live-resume.mjs` reports no active session, never because disconnects felt frequent.
8. On `exit`: run the cleanup at the bottom.
Harness policy:
- **Claude Code**: run the poll as a **background task** (no short timeout). The harness notifies you when it completes, so the main conversation stays free while you generate and publish in it. Do not block the shell.
- **Cursor**: run **one-shot** poll in a **background terminal** with notify on `"type":"(steer|generate|accept|discard|exit)"`. After each event the poll exits; handle it, `--reply`, then start `live-poll.mjs` again. Do **not** use `--stream` on Cursor: incremental stdout notify is slower in practice than exit-based notify (~5s vs sub-second in testing).
- **Codex**: run the default one-shot poll in a **yielded foreground exec session**. Do not suffix it with `&`, use `--stream`, or leave Live without an active foreground poll. Handle every event in the main task; after each handler/reply, restart the foreground poll.
- **Other harnesses**: one-shot foreground unless you know stdout reliably returns to this session when a shell exits.
Generation delivery policy:
- **Default (Cursor and other harnesses):** keep the established atomic single-edit delivery. Do not switch a harness to progressive until its poll loop is known not to block on the extra publish calls. This avoids trading model latency for extra tool-call latency on harnesses with different streaming behavior.
Chat is overhead. No recap, no tutorial output, no pasting PRODUCT / DESIGN bodies. Spend tokens on tools and edits; on failure, one or two short sentences.
## Start
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live.mjs
```
Output JSON: `{ ok, serverPort, serverToken, pageFiles, hasProduct, product, productPath, hasDesign, design, designPath }`. `pageFiles` is the list of HTML entries the live script was injected into. Keep PRODUCT.md, DESIGN.md, and any surface brief already loaded by Setup in mind for variant generation: **DESIGN.md wins on visual decisions; PRODUCT.md wins on durable product and voice decisions; the surface brief wins on this surface's strategy.** When DESIGN.md is missing, identity is **not** absent; extract it from CSS variables, computed styles, and sibling components on the page (see Step 4 Phase A). Identity preservation is the default; departure requires the user's explicit redesign/replacement intent.
`serverPort` and `serverToken` belong to the small **Impeccable live helper** HTTP server (serves `/live.js`, SSE, and `/poll`). That port is **not** your dev server and is usually not the URL you open to view the app. The browser page is whatever origin serves one of the `pageFiles` entries (Vite / Next / Bun / tunnel / LAN hostname).
If output is `{ ok: false, error: "config_missing" | "config_invalid", path }`, this project hasn't been configured for live mode (or its config is stale). See **First-time setup** at the bottom.
## Poll loop
**Default (portable, all harnesses):**
```
LOOP:
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs # default long timeout; no --timeout=
Read JSON; dispatch on "type"
"generate" → Handle Generate; reply done; LOOP
"steer" → Handle Steer; reply steer_done; LOOP
"accept" → Handle Accept; complete carbonize cleanup if required; LOOP
"discard" → Handle Discard; LOOP
"prefetch" → Handle Prefetch; LOOP
"manual_edit_apply" → Handle Manual Edit Apply; reply done|partial|error; LOOP
"timeout" → LOOP
"exit" → break → Cleanup
```
**Stream mode (experimental, not for Cursor):**
```
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs --stream # stays running; one JSON line per event
Handle event; run --reply in a separate command
Repeat until "exit" line → Cleanup
```
Stream keeps one process alive and waits for `--reply` ack before polling again. Useful only when the harness reads incremental stdout reliably and quickly. **Cursor is not one of those:** background pattern notify on a long-running shell was ~5s to pick up events vs sub-second for one-shot exit notify. Default to one-shot everywhere unless you have measured otherwise.
## Recovery commands
The live helper persists an append-only journal under `.impeccable/live/sessions/`. Browser checkpoints are advisory but durable; the journal is canonical. This is local durable recovery state, not project source.
Use these commands when the chat was interrupted, polling was missed, the helper restarted, or the browser reloaded:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-status.mjs
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-resume.mjs --id SESSION_ID
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-complete.mjs --id SESSION_ID
```
- `live-status.mjs` prints connected helper state, active durable sessions, and queued pending events. It works even when the helper is down by reading the journal directly.
- `live-resume.mjs` prints the active snapshot, pending event, checkpoint phase, visible variant, parameter values, and the next safe agent action.
- `live-complete.mjs` is the canonical manual final acknowledgement. Use it after carbonize/manual cleanup is verified and no further poll acknowledgement will happen automatically.
Server restart rule: start `live-server.mjs` again, then poll. Startup requeues unacknowledged pending events from the journal, so do not ask the user to click Go again unless `live-resume.mjs` says no active session exists.
## Handle `generate`
**Replace mode** (default): `{id, action, freeformPrompt?, count, pageUrl, element, screenshotPath?, comments?, strokes?}`.
**Insert mode** (`event.mode === "insert"`): `{id, mode: "insert", count, pageUrl, insert: { position, anchor }, placeholder: { width, height }, freeformPrompt?, screenshotPath?, comments?, strokes?}`. No `action`. Requires a non-empty `freeformPrompt` **or** annotations. Screenshot is sent only when annotations exist (same rule as replace). Use `placeholder` dimensions as a soft size hint for net-new content.
Speed matters; the user is watching the selected element. Reuse server preflight metadata when available, minimize discovery calls, and follow the harness-specific delivery policy above.
### Insert mode branch
When `event.mode === "insert"`:
1. Read the screenshot if `event.screenshotPath` is present (annotations only).
2. If `event.scaffold` is present, use it as the insert-helper result and do **not** run the helper again. Otherwise run the insert helper instead of wrap:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-insert.mjs --id EVENT_ID --count EVENT_COUNT --position after \
--element-id "ANCHOR_ID" --classes "class1,class2" --tag "section" --text "ANCHOR_TEXT"
```
- `--position``event.insert.position` (`before` | `after`)
- Anchor flags ← `event.insert.anchor` (same mapping as wrap: id, classes, tag, text)
The scaffold has **no** `data-impeccable-variant="original"`. Variants are net-new HTML+CSS inserted at `insertLine`. On source-preview targets the scaffold carries `sourceWritten: false` with `wrapperBlock`, `replaceStartLine`, and `replaceEndLine` (here `replaceEndLine < replaceStartLine`, an insertion): splice your variants into `wrapperBlock` at the marker and insert the result at `replaceStartLine` in one edit, exactly as the wrap section describes, so the framework reloads once. Decide the visitor mode from the surface and load [craft-floor.md](craft-floor.md) before writing net-new markup (freeform only, no action sub-command). Deliver using the harness policy, then `--reply done`.
For Svelte/SvelteKit targets, `live-insert.mjs` returns `previewMode: "svelte-component"` with `mode: "insert"`, `file` pointing at a temporary `node_modules/.impeccable-live/<id>/manifest.json`, `componentDir` pointing at the variant component files, and `sourceFile` pointing at the real `.svelte` route. Write each inserted variant as a real Svelte component (`v1.svelte`, `v2.svelte`, …) under `componentDir`. Insert variants must be non-empty net-new content with a single top-level root, no `data-impeccable-*` attributes, and CSS in each component's `<style>` block. Do **not** edit the route source during generation; the browser mounts the temporary component before/after the live anchor while the user cycles variants. On Accept, `live-accept.mjs` inserts the selected component markup into `sourceFile` immediately and deletes the temp session after the source write succeeds.
For non-Svelte targets, on accept/discard, `live-accept.mjs` removes the wrapper block; the anchor element is untouched.
### Replace mode (default)
### 1. Read the screenshot (if present)
`event.screenshotPath` is **only sent when the user placed at least one comment or stroke before Go.** When present, it's an absolute path to a PNG of the element as rendered with the annotations baked in. **Read it before planning**: annotations encode user intent not recoverable from `element.outerHTML` alone.
When `screenshotPath` is absent, don't ask for one and don't go looking for the current rendering. The omission is deliberate: without annotations, a screenshot would anchor the model on the existing design and fight the three-distinct-directions brief. Work from `element.outerHTML`, the computed styles in `event.element`, and the freeform prompt if present.
`event.comments` and `event.strokes` carry structured metadata alongside the visual. Treat the screenshot as primary; use the structured data for specifics worth quoting (e.g. the exact text of a comment).
Reading annotations precisely:
- **Comment position carries meaning.** Its `{x, y}` is element-local CSS px (same coord space as `element.boundingRect`). Find the child under that point and apply the comment text LOCALLY to that sub-element. A comment near the title is about the title, not a global description.
- **Comments and strokes are independent annotations** unless clearly paired by overlap or tight proximity. Don't let the visual weight of a prominent stroke override the precise location of a textually-specific comment elsewhere.
- **Strokes are gestures; read them by shape.** Closed loop = "this thing" (emphasis / focus); arrow = direction (move / point to); cross or slash = delete; free scribble = emphasis or delete depending on context. A loop around region X means "pay attention to X," not "only change pixels inside X."
- **When a stroke's intent is ambiguous** (circle or arrow? emphasis or move?), state your reading in one sentence of rationale rather than silently guessing. If the uncertainty materially changes the brief, ask one short clarifying question before generating.
### 2. Wrap the element
When `event.scaffold` is present, the local helper already found the source and computed the wrapper before the poll returned. Treat `event.scaffold` as the successful helper output and skip this command entirely. `event.scaffoldAttempted` with `scaffoldError` means local preflight could not finish; use the command/fallback path below. This optimization removes a deterministic tool round trip without changing the generated design.
**On source-preview targets `event.scaffold` carries `sourceWritten: false`.** The helper did NOT write the wrapper into source; it hands you the wrapper as `scaffold.wrapperBlock` plus the picked element's source range (`scaffold.replaceStartLine`, `scaffold.replaceEndLine`, 1-indexed). Write the wrapper **and** all variants in ONE edit: splice your variants into `wrapperBlock` at the "Variants: insert below this line" marker, then replace source lines `[replaceStartLine, replaceEndLine]` with the result. A separate scaffold write reloads the framework before your variant write lands, and a browser caught mid-reload misses the `done` and sits at 0/N; the single edit avoids it. (`replaceEndLine < replaceStartLine` means insert mode: insert `wrapperBlock`, remove nothing.) The `svelte-component` path never sets `sourceWritten`; it follows the component-preview flow below unchanged.
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-wrap.mjs --id EVENT_ID --count EVENT_COUNT --element-id "ELEMENT_ID" --classes "class1,class2" --tag "div" --text "TEXT_SNIPPET"
```
Flag mapping. Keep them separate, don't collapse into `--query`:
- `--element-id``event.element.id`
- `--classes``event.element.classes` joined with commas
- `--tag``event.element.tagName`
- `--text` ← first ~80 chars of `event.element.textContent` (trim, single-line). **Pass this every call.** When the picked element shares classes + tag with sibling components (a list of `<Card>`s, repeating sections), this is what disambiguates which branch in source to wrap. Without it, wrap silently lands on the first match and may rewrite the wrong element.
The helper searches ID first, then classes, then tag + class combo. If `event.pageUrl` implies the file (e.g. `/` is usually `index.html`), pass `--file PATH` to skip the search. `--query` is a fallback for raw text search only; do not use it for normal element lookups.
If `--text` matches multiple candidates equally well, wrap exits with `{ error: "element_ambiguous", candidates: [...] }` and `fallback: "agent-driven"`: read the candidate line ranges, decide which one matches the picked element from page context, and write the wrapper manually per the fallback flow.
Output on success: `{ file, insertLine, commentSyntax, styleMode, styleTag, cssSelectorPrefixExamples, cssAuthoring }`. On source-preview targets it also returns `sourceWritten: false`, `wrapperBlock`, `replaceStartLine`, and `replaceEndLine` (write it yourself per the `event.scaffold` note above). When you run this command directly (no preflight scaffold), it writes the wrapper into source itself, so there is no `wrapperBlock` and you splice variants at `insertLine`.
For Svelte/SvelteKit targets, `live-wrap.mjs` returns `previewMode: "svelte-component"` with `file` pointing at a temporary `node_modules/.impeccable-live/<id>/manifest.json`, `componentDir` pointing at the variant component files, and `sourceFile` pointing at the real `.svelte` route. Write each variant as a real Svelte component (`v1.svelte`, `v2.svelte`, …) under `componentDir`; use the `propContract` prop names for dynamic text (`{propName}`), not literal snapshot strings. Put variant CSS in each component's `<style>` block with semantic class selectors (no `@scope`, no `data-impeccable-*`). Reply with `--file` set to the manifest path; the browser dynamically imports and mounts the compiled components so Svelte HMR does not reset page state while the user cycles variants. On Accept, `live-accept.mjs` inlines the accepted component back into `sourceFile` immediately after source promotion succeeds.
**Params on component-preview paths go in a sidecar, never as an attribute.** Svelte parses `{` inside an attribute value as the start of an expression, and both Svelte/Vue previews mount without an HTML variant wrapper. Declare params in `componentDir/params.json`, keyed by variant number, using the exact param schema from section 7:
```json
{
"1": [
{"id":"density","kind":"steps","default":"snug","label":"Density","options":[
{"value":"airy","label":"Airy"},{"value":"snug","label":"Snug"},{"value":"packed","label":"Packed"}
]}
],
"2": [
{"id":"accent","kind":"range","min":0,"max":1,"step":0.05,"default":0.5,"label":"Accent"}
]
}
```
Author the component `<style>` against `var(--p-<id>, default)` for `range`/`toggle` and `[data-p-<id>="…"]` for `steps`; wrap those selectors in `:global(...)` so the knob values the runtime sets on the mounted root reach your rules. The browser reads `params.json`, docks the panel, and drives `--p-*` / `data-p-*` on the mounted component exactly as it does for the HTML/JSX path.
`styleMode` controls how preview CSS must be authored. Treat it as a detected capability mode, not a framework guess:
- `scoped`: use `@scope ([data-impeccable-variant="N"])` rules.
- `astro-global-prefixed`: use explicit `[data-impeccable-variant="N"]` selector prefixes and the exact `styleTag` returned by the tool.
Use `cssAuthoring` as the source of truth for the current file. It includes the exact `styleTag`, selector strategy, selector examples, requirements, and forbidden patterns. Do not apply a framework-specific exception unless the returned `styleMode` / `cssAuthoring.mode` says to.
**Fallback errors.** Wrap only writes into files it judges to be source (tracked by git, not marked GENERATED, not listed in config's `generatedFiles`). If it can't land on a source file, it errors without writing; accepting a variant into a generated file is silent data loss. Three shapes:
- `{ error: "file_is_generated", file, hint }`: user-supplied `--file` points at a generated file.
- `{ error: "element_not_in_source", generatedMatch, hint }`: element exists only in a generated file (the next build would wipe any edits).
- `{ error: "element_not_found", hint }`: element isn't in any project file; likely runtime-injected (JS component, dynamic render from data).
All three carry `fallback: "agent-driven"`. Follow **Handle fallback** below.
### 3. Load the action's reference
If `event.action` is `impeccable` (the default freeform action), work from SKILL.md's design rules plus [craft-floor.md](craft-floor.md), and decide the visitor mode from the selected surface. Do not load a sub-command reference. **Freeform is not a pass to skip parameters:** you still follow the composition budget and the freeform bias in **§7 Parameters** below. Sub-command files list MUST-have signature knobs; freeform has no such file, so sizing knobs from surface weight and primary axes is entirely on you.
Any other `event.action` (`bolder`, `quieter`, `distill`, `polish`, `typeset`, `colorize`, `layout`, `adapt`, `animate`, `delight`, `overdrive`): Read `reference/<action>.md` before planning. Each sub-command encodes a specific discipline; skipping its reference produces generic output. Those files may require specific params; layer them on top of the §7 budget, not instead of it.
### 4. Plan three variants: identity first, then mode, then axes
The wrong frame for live mode is "show three different design directions." Live runs on an existing surface; the brand has already been chosen. The job is variation **within identity**, not selection between identities. Failure mode: three editorial-typographic variants on a brief that wasn't editorial. Bigger failure mode: three off-brand variants the user can't accept because they don't look like their product.
Four phases. Do them in order.
#### Phase A: Extract the identity (non-skippable)
The existing surface has an identity already. Read it before planning anything. Sources, in priority order:
1. **DESIGN.md** if loaded: read the visual system fields (palette, type pairing, motion, components). This is the authoritative answer.
2. **CSS custom properties** in the page's stylesheets (`:root { --color-...; --font-...; ... }`): these are de-facto tokens.
3. **Computed styles** on the picked element and its parent: colors, fonts, spacing scales, corner radii.
4. **Sibling components on the page**: what visual rhetoric do existing components use? (Asymmetric or centered? Dense or airy? Bold or quiet?)
Write down what you see in **one sentence**. The sentence describes the surface that's actually on screen; it is not aspirational, not opinionated, not edited toward what the brand "should" be. Capture, in roughly this order:
- The dominant surface color and accent color, by hex or token name (use the actual values, not categories like "warm" or "neutral").
- The type pairing: the actual font names loaded, primary first.
- The layout topology: how the dominant elements are arranged (stacked / side-by-side / grid / asymmetric / overlay).
- The surface treatment: corners, borders, shadows, density of decoration.
- The voice tone you read off the copy itself, not off the aesthetic feel.
Be specific. "Modern" is not a color, "elegant" is not a type pairing, "clean" is not a layout. If you can't extract a real value for an axis, skip it rather than fabricate. The point is to record what is, not to describe what you wish it were.
Do not name an aesthetic family in this sentence; that is a conclusion, not observed identity data. Letting conclusions into Phase A collapses the identity lock into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This sentence is the **identity lock**. Every variant must be readable as the same brand if rendered side by side. Skipping this phase is the primary cause of off-brand variants. Absence of DESIGN.md is never an excuse; extract from CSS and computed styles instead.
#### Phase B: Pick mode (default vs departure)
**Default mode**: the existing identity is preserved. Variants vary expression axes within it. *This is the right mode for ~90% of live sessions.* The user picked an element on a real product they're shipping; they expect variants of *their* hero, not three different brands' heroes.
**Departure mode**: the existing identity is rejected. Variants propose alternatives consistent with durable product and brand truth. Trigger only when the user explicitly asks for departure in the current request or freeform prompt ("redesign this", "rebuild this from scratch", "what if it weren't editorial at all", "show me something completely different"). A stale page critique or an old task note is not replacement authorization.
If you're unsure, you're in default mode. The cost of being wrong about default is "three on-brand variants with similar feel": recoverable, the user picks none. The cost of being wrong about departure is "three off-brand variants": unrecoverable, the user is annoyed.
#### Phase C: Plan three variants
**Default mode.** Each variant commits to a different **primary axis** of difference, while preserving the identity sentence. The six axes:
1. **Hierarchy**: which element commands the eye?
2. **Layout topology**: stacked / side-by-side / grid / asymmetric / overlay
3. **Typographic system**: pairing logic, scale ratio, case/weight strategy *within the available faces*
4. **Color strategy**: which existing palette role carries the surface (Restrained / Committed / Full palette / Drenched). Use the brand's existing palette tokens, not new colors.
5. **Density**: minimal / comfortable / dense
6. **Structural decomposition**: merge, split, progressive disclosure
Three variants → three DIFFERENT axes. The trio reads as *the same brand at three angles*. Do not introduce new fonts, new palette hues, or new aesthetic-family signals; those belong to departure mode.
**While planning each variant, also name its 23 parameter knobs** (per the §7 budget table). Parameters are part of the design, not a decoration added afterward. If the variant explores density, expose a density knob. If it explores color commitment, expose a color-amount range. Deciding "what's tunable" during planning produces better knobs than retrofitting them onto finished HTML.
**Departure mode.** Each variant anchors to a different **aesthetic direction**, derived from PRODUCT.md's audience world and voice plus the current DESIGN.md. Do not pick from a fixed catalog; derive directions from this product.
Instead, work from the brand:
1. Read PRODUCT.md's Brand Personality words. Derive physical, spatial, or material experiences that embody them without starting from a design style.
2. From those physical experiences, derive three visual directions that are genuinely different from each other AND from the current surface you're departing.
3. Reject any direction chosen by reflex rather than derived from the brand. Start over from the personality words when the rationale could fit a neighboring product.
4. Each direction must be expressible in one concrete sentence that names a real-world referent ("a museum exhibition label system for a contemporary art gallery" not "clean and minimal"). If your sentence contains only adjectives, it's not concrete enough.
5. **While planning each direction, also name its 23 parameter knobs** (per the §7 budget table). The same principle as default mode: decide "what's tunable" during planning, not after writing the HTML. A departure-mode hero with 0 parameters is not "bold creative vision," it's a missed opportunity for the user to fine-tune the direction they pick.
#### Phase D: Squint test
**Default mode squint.** Read each variant's identity sentence and compare to the locked identity from Phase A. If any variant has drifted to a different palette, type voice, or visual rhetoric, it has crossed into departure mode by accident; rework. Then check that each variant commits to a different primary axis. Three "tighter density" variants is failure.
**Departure mode squint.** Two passes, family before sentence:
1. **Family pass.** Give each variant a concrete family label of your own choosing. If two variants share a label, or a label fits another variant equally well, rework. Do not use a fixed vocabulary. *This pass is non-negotiable in departure mode and catches monoculture the sentence pass misses.*
2. **Sentence pass.** Write three one-sentence descriptions side by side. If two of them rhyme ("both feature big type" / "both are stacks of sections" / "both center the CTA"), rework the offender.
**When the primary axis is color or theme, forbid the trio from sharing theme + dominant hue.** Two dark-plus-one-dark is not distinct. Aim for three color worlds, not three shades of the same.
**For action-specific invocations**, each variant must vary along the dimension the action names:
- `bolder`: amplify a different dimension per variant (scale / saturation / structural change). Not three "slightly bigger" variants.
- `quieter`: pull back a different dimension (color / ornament / spacing).
- `distill`: remove a different class of excess (visual noise / redundant content / nested structure).
- `polish`: target a different refinement axis (rhythm / hierarchy / micro-details like corner radii, focus states, optical kerning).
- `typeset`: different type pairing AND different scale ratio each. Not three riffs on one pairing.
- `colorize`: different hue family each (not shades of one hue). Vary chroma and contrast strategy.
- `layout`: different structural arrangement (stacked / side-by-side / grid / asymmetric). Not spacing tweaks.
- `adapt`: different target context per variant (mobile-first / tablet / desktop / print or low-data). Don't make three mobile layouts.
- `animate`: different motion vocabulary (cascade stagger / clip wipe / scale-and-focus / morph / parallax). Not three staggered fades.
- `delight`: different flavor of personality (unexpected micro-interaction / typographic surprise / illustrated accent / sonic-or-haptic moment / easter-egg interaction).
- `overdrive`: different convention broken (scale / structure / motion / input model / state transitions). Skip `overdrive.md`'s "propose and ask" step; live mode is non-interactive.
### 5. Apply the freeform prompt (if present)
`event.freeformPrompt` is the user's ceiling on direction (all variants must honor it), but still explore meaningfully different *interpretations*. The interpretations stay within whichever mode you picked in Phase B.
In **default mode**, the prompt narrows the axes you choose, not the identity. *"Make it feel more confident"* → variant 1 amplifies hierarchy (one element commands the eye), variant 2 commits the existing accent color (Committed strategy on the brand's hue), variant 3 tightens density and removes decorative slack. Three different axes, same brand.
In **departure mode**, the prompt narrows the lanes you draw from, not the families. *"Make it feel like a newspaper front page"* would itself be a departure-mode prompt; honor it but pick three meaningfully different newspaper-adjacent lanes (broadsheet vs. tabloid vs. trade journal), and run the family pass to confirm they don't collapse into one.
When the prompt conflicts with a confirmed binding brand commitment or DESIGN.md invariant, preserve the invariant unless the user explicitly revokes or replaces it. Task-local strategy from the matching surface brief may change when the user changes that surface's goal.
### 6. Deliver variants
Complete HTML replacement of the original element for each variant, not a CSS-only patch. Consider the element's context (computed styles, parent structure, CSS variables from `event.element`).
Colocate preview CSS as a `<style>` tag inside the variant wrapper; `<style>` works anywhere in modern browsers and keeps each delivered state internally complete (no FOUC).
**Atomic default:** write CSS + all variants + parameter manifests in one edit at `insertLine`, preserving the established behavior.
Use the `cssAuthoring` object returned by `live-wrap.mjs` to author the temporary preview CSS. The style opening tag shown below is the common case; replace it with `cssAuthoring.styleTag` when the tool returns a different one. The variant markup shape is otherwise stable:
```html
<!-- Variants: insert below this line -->
<style data-impeccable-css="SESSION_ID">
/* rules matching cssAuthoring.rulePattern */
</style>
<div data-impeccable-variant="1">
<!-- variant 1: full element replacement (single top-level element) -->
</div>
<div data-impeccable-variant="2" style="display: none">
<!-- variant 2: full element replacement -->
</div>
<div data-impeccable-variant="3" style="display: none">
<!-- variant 3: full element replacement -->
</div>
```
**Each variant div contains exactly one top-level element: the full replacement for the original.** Use the same tag as the original (e.g. `<section>` if the user picked a `<section>`). Loose siblings (heading + paragraph + div as direct children of the variant div) break the outline tracking and the accept flow, which both assume one child.
The first variant has no `display: none` (visible by default). All others do. If variants use only inline styles and no preview CSS, omit the `<style>` tag entirely.
The browser's MutationObserver accepts either delivery shape. On the transactional progressive path it shows arrived variants and pending dots immediately; Accept and Discard are available as soon as one variant exists. Accepting an arrived variant fences the worker before the browser releases the picker, so later publications are rejected.
For `styleMode: "scoped"`, author every `:scope` rule with a descendant combinator. The `@scope` boundary is the **variant wrapper `<div data-impeccable-variant="N">`**, not the element you're designing. A bare `:scope { background: cream; }` styles the wrapper, not the inner replacement, so the cream lands on a `display: contents` shell while the actual element keeps page defaults. Always step in: `:scope > .card`, `:scope > section`, `:scope .hero-title`, etc. The fake test agent's CSS in `tests/live-e2e/agent.mjs` is a faithful template; every scoped rule starts `:scope > ...`.
**JSX / TSX target files.** Wrap `<style>` content in a template literal so the CSS `{` / `}` aren't parsed as JSX expressions, and use `className=` / `style={{…}}` on every variant element. Keep `data-impeccable-*` attributes as-is; they're plain strings:
```tsx
<style data-impeccable-css="SESSION_ID">{`
@scope ([data-impeccable-variant="1"]) { ... }
@scope ([data-impeccable-variant="2"]) { ... }
`}</style>
<div data-impeccable-variant="1">
{/* variant 1 */}
</div>
<div data-impeccable-variant="2" style={{ display: 'none' }}>
{/* variant 2 */}
</div>
```
The wrap script already gives you a single-rooted JSX wrapper: a `<div data-impeccable-variants="…">` outer element with the marker comments tucked inside. Drop the variants block above into the "Variants: insert below this line" comment and the source stays valid TSX.
### 7. Parameters (composition-sized, 04 per variant)
Each variant can expose **coarse** knobs alongside the full HTML/CSS replacement. The browser docks a small panel to the right of the outline with one control per parameter. The user drags/clicks and sees instant feedback: there is zero regeneration cost because the knob toggles a CSS variable or data attribute that the variant's scoped CSS is already authored against.
**What “optional” does not mean.** Parameters are not nice-to-have decoration on large work. The word meant “omit controls that are redundant or cosmetic,” not “default to zero because three variants were enough work.”
**When to add.** As soon as the variants scoped CSS has a meaningful continuous or stepped axis: density, color amount, type scale, motion intensity, column weight, and so on. If you can imagine the user muttering “a bit tighter” or “a touch more accent” **without** wanting a full regeneration, wire that axis. **Not** micro-margins or one-off nudges; those are not parameters.
**Freeform (`action` is `impeccable`) bias.** You did not load a sub-command reference, so you must **choose** signature axes yourself. Match the budget table: for a hero or large composition, that means **23 axes per variant**, not 1. Prefer knobs that sit on the dimensions where your three variants actually differ (if density varies, expose it as a `steps` knob; if color commitment varies, expose it as a `range`). A hero that ships with **0** params is almost always a mistake, not a judgment call. A hero with exactly **1** param is underweight unless the design is genuinely a fixed-point comparison. Start from the budget table, not from zero.
**Budget scales with the element's visual weight, not token budget.** Knobs need real estate to read as tunable; three sliders on a single control are noise.
- **Leaf / tiny**: a single button, icon, input, bare heading, solitary paragraph: **0 params.**
- **Small composition**: labeled input, simple card, short callout (≤ ~5 visual children): **01** params when one dominant axis is obvious; otherwise **0.**
- **Medium composition**: section component, nav cluster, dense card, short feature block (615 visual children): **target 2**; **1** is acceptable if the block is simple; **0** only when variants are truly fixed points.
- **Large composition**: hero section, full page region, spread layout, strong internal structure (16+ visual children or multiple sub-sections): **target 23**; **up to 4** when several independent axes (e.g. structure `steps` + `density` + one accent) are all authored in scoped CSS.
**When in doubt, ask whether a dial exists before defaulting to zero.** The user can always request more variants, but the point of live mode is instant tuning without another Go. Crowding the panel is bad; **under-shipping** knobs on a dense composition is the more common failure for freeform. Count by **visual** children, not DOM depth; a shallow-but-wide hero is still large.
**Hard cap per variant**: at most **four** parameters so the panel stays legible; rare fifth only if the reference explicitly allows it.
**How to declare.** Put a JSON manifest on the variant wrapper (HTML/JSX path). **On the `svelte-component` path, do not use this attribute.** Declare params in `componentDir/params.json` keyed by variant number instead (see the component-preview paragraphs in the wrap section). The param schema below is identical for every path.
```html
<div data-impeccable-variant="1" data-impeccable-params='[
{"id":"color-amount","kind":"range","min":0,"max":1,"step":0.05,"default":0.5,"label":"Color amount"},
{"id":"density","kind":"steps","default":"snug","label":"Density","options":[
{"value":"airy","label":"Airy"},
{"value":"snug","label":"Snug"},
{"value":"packed","label":"Packed"}
]},
{"id":"serif","kind":"toggle","default":false,"label":"Serif display"}
]'>
...variant content...
</div>
```
**Three kinds:**
- `range`: smooth slider. Drives a CSS custom property `--p-<id>` on the variant wrapper. Author CSS with `var(--p-color-amount, 0.5)`. Fields: `min`, `max`, `step`, `default` (number), `label`.
- `steps`: segmented radio. Drives a data attribute `data-p-<id>` on the variant wrapper. Author CSS with `:scope[data-p-density="airy"] .grid { ... }`. Fields: `options` (array of `{value, label}`), `default` (string), `label`.
- `toggle`: on/off switch. Drives BOTH a CSS var (`--p-<id>: 0|1`) and a data attribute (present when on, absent when off). Use whichever is more convenient. Fields: `default` (boolean), `label`.
**Signature params per action.** For named sub-commands, read that actions `reference/<action>.md` for one or two **MUST** params (e.g. `layout``density`). Those are non-negotiable when the design can express them. **Freeform has no file-level MUST**; the **Freeform (`impeccable`) bias** in this section is the stand-in. If the users action is both stylized and sub-command (e.g. `colorize`), the sub-commands MUST list takes precedence for its axes; still respect the **Hard cap** and add no redundant duplicate knobs.
**Reset on variant switch.** User dials density on v1, flips to v2, v2 starts at v2's declared defaults. Known limitation; preservation across variants may land later.
**On accept**, the browser sends the user's current values in the accept event. `live-accept.mjs` writes them as a sibling comment:
```html
<!-- impeccable-param-values SESSION_ID: {"color-amount":0.7,"density":"packed"} -->
```
The carbonize cleanup step (see below) reads that comment and bakes the chosen values into the final CSS. For `steps`/`toggle` attribute selectors: keep only the branch matching the chosen value, drop the others, collapse `:scope[data-p-density="packed"] .grid` to a semantic class rule. For `range` vars: either substitute the literal or keep the var with the chosen value as its new default.
### 8. Signal done
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs --reply EVENT_ID done --file RELATIVE_PATH
```
`RELATIVE_PATH` is relative to project root (`public/index.html`, `src/App.tsx`, etc.); the browser fetches source directly if the dev server lacks HMR.
Then run `live-poll.mjs` again immediately.
### Aborting an in-flight session
If wrap or generation fails after the browser has flipped to GENERATING (e.g. wrap landed on the wrong source branch and you've already reverted it, or generation hit an unrecoverable error), tell the **browser** so its bar resets to PICKING:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs --reply EVENT_ID error "Short reason"
```
Don't run `live-accept --discard` for this; that's a pure file mutator, the browser doesn't see it, and the bar gets stuck on the GENERATING dots forever (the user has to refresh). `--discard` is only correct when the **browser** initiated the discard (user clicked ✕ during CYCLING) and the agent is just running source-side cleanup the browser already triggered.
## Handle fallback
When wrap returns `fallback: "agent-driven"`, the deterministic flow doesn't apply. Pick up here.
The goal is the same: give the user three variants to choose from AND persist the accepted one in a place the next build won't wipe. The difference is that you have to pick the right source file yourself.
### Step 1: Identify where the element actually lives
Use the error payload:
- `element_not_in_source` with `generatedMatch: "public/docs/foo.html"`: the served HTML is generated. Find the generator (grep for writers of that path, e.g. `scripts/build-sub-pages.js`, an Astro/Next template) and locate the template or partial that emits this element.
- `element_not_found`: the element is runtime-injected. Look for the component that renders it (React/Vue/Svelte), the JS that assembles it, or the data source that feeds it.
- `file_is_generated` with `file: "..."`: user pointed at a generated file explicitly. Same resolution as `element_not_in_source`.
Read the candidate source until you're confident where a change to the element would belong. If the change is purely visual, that source might be a shared stylesheet, not the template.
### Step 2: Show three variants in the DOM for preview
The browser bar is waiting for variants. Even without a wrapper in source, you still need to show something:
1. Manually write the wrapper scaffold into the **served** file (the one the browser actually loaded). Use the same structure `live-wrap.mjs` produces; `<!-- impeccable-variants-start ID --><div data-impeccable-variants="ID" data-impeccable-variant-count="3" style="display: contents">…</div><!-- end -->`.
2. Insert your three variant divs inside it, same shape as the deterministic path.
3. Signal done with `--reply EVENT_ID done --file <served file>`. The browser's no-HMR fallback will fetch and inject.
This served-file edit is **temporary**: next regen wipes it, and that's fine. The real work happens on accept.
### Step 3: On accept, write to true source
When the accept event arrives (`_acceptResult.handled` will usually be `false` here because accept also refuses to persist into generated files; see Handle accept for the carbonize branch), extract the accepted variant's content and write it into the source you identified in Step 1:
- Structural change → edit the template / component source.
- Visual-only change → add or update rules in the appropriate stylesheet; remove the inline `<style>` scope.
- Dynamic from data → update the data source or the render logic.
Then remove the temporary wrapper from the served file if it's still there.
### Step 4: On discard, clean up the served file
Remove the wrapper you inserted in Step 2. Nothing else to do.
## Handle `accept`
Event: `{id, variantId, _acceptResult, _completionAck}`. The poll script already ran `live-accept.mjs` to handle the file operation deterministically, then acknowledged event delivery to the helper. The browser DOM is already updated.
- The accept event includes `pageUrl`; the poll script must forward it to `live-accept.mjs --page-url PAGE_URL` so accept-time cleanup only scrubs staged copy edits for the current page.
- `_completionAck.ok !== true`: do not poll yet. Run `live-status.mjs` / `live-resume.mjs`, complete the cleanup manually if needed, then run `live-complete.mjs --id EVENT_ID`.
- `_acceptResult.handled: true` and `carbonize: false`: nothing to do. Poll again.
- `_acceptResult.handled: true` and `carbonize: true`: post-accept cleanup is required, but it must not stall Codex's control lane. See "Required after accept (carbonize)" below. The `event._acceptResult.todo` field, `_completionAck.requiresComplete`, and stderr banner all point at this required follow-up; none are decorative.
- `_acceptResult.handled: false, mode: "fallback"`: the session lived in a generated file and the script refused to persist there. You've already written the accepted variant into true source during Handle fallback Step 3; just clean up the temporary wrapper in the served file if any, and poll again.
- `_acceptResult.handled: false, mode: "error"`: the operation genuinely failed. **Do not hand-edit the file**; the source was not touched and editing it yourself would either double-apply or race whoever holds it.
- `error: "source_locked"`: a generation publish holds the file. Run the same `live-accept.mjs` command again; it is idempotent and will succeed once the publisher releases. Do not poll past it.
- `error: "accept_receipt_conflict"`: this session already resolved as `priorOperation` (on `priorVariantId` for an accept), so the request contradicts durable truth. Do not edit. Run `live-status.mjs` and tell the user what the session actually resolved to.
- anything else: report the error briefly and run `live-status.mjs` before continuing.
- `_acceptResult.handled: false` without `mode`: manual cleanup: read file, find markers, edit.
### Required after accept (carbonize)
When `_acceptResult.carbonize === true`, the accepted variant was stitched into source with helper markers and inline CSS so the browser can render it immediately with no visual gap. That stitch-in is **temporary**. The agent must rewrite it into permanent form before doing anything else. Skipping this leaves dead `@scope` rules for unaccepted variants, a pointless `data-impeccable-variant` wrapper, and `impeccable-carbonize-start/end` comment noise in the source file; all of which accumulate across sessions.
Do these five steps synchronously before the next poll. The source lock, generation epoch, and expected-source hash remain the final safety gates against a generator finishing concurrently with Accept.
1. **Locate the carbonize block** in the source file (`_acceptResult.file`). It's bracketed by `<!-- impeccable-carbonize-start SESSION_ID -->` and `<!-- impeccable-carbonize-end SESSION_ID -->` and contains a `<style data-impeccable-css="SESSION_ID">` element. If the variant declared parameters, an `<!-- impeccable-param-values SESSION_ID: {...} -->` comment sits alongside the style tag with the user's chosen values; read it first; it drives steps 3 and 4 below.
2. **Move the CSS rules** into the project's real stylesheet. Which stylesheet depends on the project (e.g. `site/styles/workflow.css` for an Astro project, or the component's co-located CSS file for a Vite/Next project; pick whichever already owns styling for the surrounding element).
3. **Bake in parameter values while rewriting selectors.** For `@scope ([data-impeccable-variant="N"])` wrappers: retarget to real, semantic classes on the accepted HTML (`.why-visual--v2 .v2-label { … }`). For `:scope[data-p-<id>="VALUE"]` selectors: keep only the branch matching the chosen value from the param-values comment; drop the others (they're dead after accept). For `var(--p-<id>, DEFAULT)` in the CSS: either substitute the literal value, or if the param is still useful as a knob going forward, leave the var and update its initial declaration to the chosen value.
4. **Unwrap the accepted content.** Delete the inner `<div data-impeccable-variant="N" style="display: contents">` that wraps it. On JSX/TSX, also delete the outer `<div data-impeccable-carbonize="SESSION_ID" style={{ display: 'contents' }}>` wrapper if present (accept adds it so ternary/`return` slots keep a single root). Drop `data-impeccable-params` and any `data-p-*` attributes; those are live-mode plumbing, not source.
5. **Delete the inline `<style>` block, the `<!-- impeccable-param-values -->` comment if present, and both `<!-- impeccable-carbonize-start/end -->` markers.** Also drop any `@scope` rules for variants other than the accepted one; those are dead code now.
After the file is clean, the cleanup owner runs `live-complete.mjs --id SESSION_ID` and verifies `phase: "completed"`. Poll again only after that verification.
## Handle `discard`
Event: `{id, _acceptResult, _completionAck}`. The poll script already restored the original, removed all variant markers, and acknowledged `discarded` durable completion. Nothing to do unless `_completionAck.ok !== true`; in that case run `live-complete.mjs --id EVENT_ID --discarded`, then poll again.
## Handle `steer`
Event: `{id, message, pageUrl}`. The user typed or spoke into the global bar **Steer** control: page-level direction without picking an element or launching variant generation.
The mic button uses the browser **Web Speech API** (MVP): click to start, speak, stop automatically when the utterance ends, then the transcript submits as a steer event. Click again while listening to cancel without submitting.
This is lighter than `generate`: no screenshot, no element context, no variant cycling. Read `message` and inspect the live page or project files as needed, then either make edits or answer in prose.
When finished:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs --reply EVENT_ID steer_done ["Optional short note for a browser toast"]
```
On failure:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs --reply EVENT_ID error "Short reason"
```
Then poll again immediately. Do not send a separate "picked up" reply. The Steer bar stays locked until `steer_done` or `error` arrives over SSE.
## Handle `prefetch`
Event: `{pageUrl}`. The browser fires this the first time the user selects an element on a given route, as a latency shortcut; it signals the user is likely about to Go on a page you haven't read yet.
Resolve `pageUrl` to the underlying file:
- Root `/` → the `pageFile` returned by `live.mjs` (usually `public/index.html` or equivalent).
- Sub-routes (e.g. `/docs`, `/docs/live`) → the generated or source file for that route. Use your knowledge of the project layout (multi-page static sites often resolve `/foo``public/foo/index.html`; SPAs may map all routes to a single entry).
Read the file into context, then poll again. No `--reply`: this is speculative pre-work; Go will come later. If you can't confidently resolve the route to a file, skip and poll again.
Dedupe is the browser's job (one prefetch per unique pathname per session); trust it. If the same file shows up twice from different routes mapping to the same file, the second Read is cached anyway.
## Handle `manual_edit_apply`
Event: `{id, pageUrl, batch: {entries}, evidencePath?, chunk?, repair?, deadlineMs}`.
The user already clicked Apply. Do not ask what to do, discard, or redirect to Go. The parent live thread keeps the foreground poll loop and sends the final `/poll --reply --data`.
When native subagents are available, delegate source edits to `impeccable_manual_edit_applier` / `impeccable-manual-edit-applier`. Pass cwd, scripts path, event id, page URL, chunk/deadline, `batch`, `evidencePath`, and the canonical JSON result schema. The subagent must not poll or reply. If unavailable, apply inline with the same contract.
If `repair` is present, the previous Apply changed source but final validation failed. Fix the current source and return the same canonical JSON result; do not roll files back yourself. The browser will ask the user before any rollback.
After source edits finish, reply exactly once with `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-poll.mjs --reply EVENT_ID done --data '{"status":"done","appliedEntryIds":["8hexid"],"failed":[],"files":["src/page.html"],"notes":[]}'`. Use `status:"partial"` or `status:"error"` with `failed[]` when not every entry applied. Then poll again. Never reply without the event id; `--reply done --file ...` is invalid for manual Apply.
## Exit
The user can stop live mode by:
- Saying "stop live mode" / "exit live" in chat
- Closing the browser tab (SSE drops, poll returns `exit` after 8s)
- The browser's exit button
When the poll returns `exit`, proceed to cleanup. If the poll is still running as a background task, kill it first.
## Cleanup
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/live-server.mjs stop
```
Stops the HTTP server and runs `live-inject.mjs --remove` to strip `localhost:…/live.js` from the HTML entry. To stop the server but keep the inject tag (for a quick restart), use `stop --keep-inject`. `.impeccable/live/config.json` persists as project config for future sessions.
Then:
- Remove any leftover variant wrappers (search for `impeccable-variants-start` markers).
- Remove any leftover carbonize blocks (search for `impeccable-carbonize-start` markers).
## First-time setup (config missing or invalid)
If `live.mjs` outputs `{ ok: false, error: "config_missing" | "config_invalid", path }`, write the live config at the reported path. By default this is `.impeccable/live/config.json`.
Schema:
```json
{
"files": ["<path-or-glob>", "<path-or-glob>", ...],
"exclude": ["<optional-glob>", ...],
"insertBefore": "</body>",
"commentSyntax": "html",
"cspChecked": true
}
```
`files` is the inject target; **the HTML files the browser actually loads**, not necessarily source. Each entry is either a literal path (`"public/index.html"`) or a glob pattern (`"public/**/*.html"`). Tracked or generated doesn't matter here; wrap has its own generated-file guard and routes accepts through the fallback flow.
`exclude` (optional) is a list of glob patterns matching files to skip, even if a `files` glob would have included them. Use for email templates, demo fixtures, or any HTML that isn't a live page.
`cspChecked` tracks whether the CSP detection step below has already run. Absent on first setup; set to `true` after CSP is checked (whether patched, declined, or not needed).
**Hard-excluded paths (cannot be overridden).** `**/node_modules/**` and `**/.git/**` are never matched regardless of what the user writes. These are vendor/metadata directories and injecting into them would silently instrument third-party code.
**Glob syntax.** `**` matches any number of path segments (including zero), `*` matches any characters except `/`, `?` matches a single character except `/`. Paths are always relative to the project root with forward slashes.
| Framework | `files` | `insertBefore` | `commentSyntax` |
|-----------|---------|----------------|-----------------|
| SPA with single shell (Vite / React / Plain HTML) | `["index.html"]` | `</body>` | `html` |
| Next.js (App Router) | `["app/layout.tsx"]` | `</body>` | `jsx` |
| Next.js (Pages) | `["pages/_document.tsx"]` | `</body>` | `jsx` |
| Nuxt | `["app.vue"]` | `</body>` | `html` |
| Svelte / SvelteKit | `["src/app.html"]` | `</body>` | `html` |
| TanStack Router (SPA, Vite) | `["index.html"]` | `</body>` | `html` |
| TanStack Start (SSR) | `["src/routes/__root.tsx"]` | `<Scripts` | `jsx` |
| Astro | `[" <root layout .astro>"]` | `</body>` | `html` |
| Multi-page (separate HTML per route) | `["public/**/*.html"]`: a glob covering the served directory | `</body>` | `html` |
Pick an anchor that exists in every file (`</body>` almost always works). Use `insertAfter` if the anchor should match **after** a specific line.
**Framework adapters (auto-detected at inject time).** SvelteKit, Nuxt, and TanStack Start server-render their document shell, so a raw `<script>` in the entry template will not execute reliably. `live-inject.mjs` detects these from the project and routes to a dedicated adapter instead of the literal `files` patch: SvelteKit mounts a dev-only root component from `+layout.svelte`; Nuxt writes a dev-only `.client.ts` plugin; TanStack Start (detected by `@tanstack/react-start` plus `src/routes/__root.tsx`) patches the `__root` document to render a generated dev-only `src/impeccable/ImpeccableLiveRoot` component that appends the bundle on mount. The `files` value stays a valid detection/CSP hint but is not the literal insertion site. A plain TanStack Router SPA (no `@tanstack/react-start`) has a static `index.html` and takes the baseline Vite path with no adapter.
For multi-page sites, **prefer a glob over a literal file list**. New pages added later are picked up automatically on the next `live-inject.mjs` run; no config maintenance needed.
For multi-page sites whose pages are *rebuilt* by a generator (Astro, static-site generators, custom scripts like `build-sub-pages.js`), the inject survives only until the next regeneration. Re-run `live.mjs` after each build. Accept is unaffected; it writes to true source via the fallback flow.
### Drift-heal warning
On every `live.mjs` boot, after inject, the project is scanned for HTML files under common page-source roots (`public/`, `src/`, `app/`, `pages/`). If any exist that aren't covered by the resolved `files` list, the output includes a `configDrift` field:
```json
{
"ok": true,
"serverPort": 8400,
"pageFiles": [ "..." ],
"configDrift": {
"orphans": ["public/new-section/index.html", "public/docs/new-command.html"],
"orphanCount": 2,
"hint": "2 HTML file(s) exist but aren't in config.files. Consider adding them, or use a glob pattern like \"public/**/*.html\"."
}
}
```
When `configDrift` is present, surface it to the user once per session before entering the poll loop:
> Noticed N HTML file(s) in the project that aren't in `config.files`:
>
> - `public/new-section/index.html`
> - `public/docs/new-command.html`
>
> Add them, or switch `files` to a glob like `["public/**/*.html"]` and let it track new pages automatically?
Don't auto-update the config; let the user decide. `configDrift` is `null` when there's no drift.
### CSP detection (first-time only)
If `config.cspChecked === true`, skip this entire section. You already asked this user once; the answer sticks.
Otherwise, run the detection helper:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/detect-csp.mjs
```
Output: `{ shape, signals }` where `shape` is one of `append-arrays`, `append-string`, `middleware`, `meta-tag`, or `null`. The shape is named by *patch mechanism*, so one template covers many frameworks.
- **`null`**: no CSP; skip to writing `.impeccable/live/config.json` with `cspChecked: true`.
- **`append-arrays`**: CSP defined as structured directive arrays. Auto-patchable. See *append-arrays* below. Covers:
- Monorepo helpers with `additionalScriptSrc` / `additionalConnectSrc` options (Next.js + shared config package)
- SvelteKit `kit.csp.directives`
- Nuxt `nuxt-security` module's `contentSecurityPolicy`
- **`append-string`**: CSP written as a literal value string. Auto-patchable. See *append-string* below. Covers:
- Inline `next.config.*` `headers()` with a CSP literal
- Nuxt `routeRules` / `nitro.routeRules` headers
- **`middleware`** or **`meta-tag`**: rarer. Detected but not auto-patched in v1. Show the user the detected files and ask them to add `http://localhost:8400` to `script-src` and `connect-src` manually, then mark `cspChecked: true` and proceed.
#### Consent prompt template
Use this phrasing so the experience is consistent across agents:
> **CSP patch needed.** I detected a Content Security Policy in your project that blocks `http://localhost:8400`: the live picker won't load without an allowance. Here's the change I'd make:
>
> ```diff
> [file: <patchTarget>]
> [exact diff, 25 lines]
> ```
>
> It's guarded by `NODE_ENV === "development"` so the extra entry only appears in dev and never reaches production. You can remove it any time by reverting this file. Apply? [y/n]
On "no": skip the patch, mention live won't work until the user adds the allowance manually, still write `cspChecked: true` (the question's been asked).
On "yes": apply the Shape-specific patch below, then write `cspChecked: true`.
#### append-arrays
CSP expressed as structured directive arrays. Patch mechanism: declare a dev-only array, spread it into the script-src and connect-src arrays.
**Declare near the top of the file that holds the CSP arrays:**
```ts
// Dev-only allowance so impeccable live mode can load. Guarded by NODE_ENV.
const __impeccableLiveDev =
process.env.NODE_ENV === "development" ? ["http://localhost:8400"] : [];
```
**Append `...__impeccableLiveDev` to the script-src and connect-src directive arrays.** Per-framework specifics:
- **Next.js + monorepo helper**: edit the *app's* `next.config.*` (not the shared helper), appending to `additionalScriptSrc` and `additionalConnectSrc` passed into `createBaseNextConfig` (or equivalent). Keeps the shared package clean.
- **SvelteKit**: edit `svelte.config.js`, appending to `kit.csp.directives['script-src']` and `kit.csp.directives['connect-src']`.
- **Nuxt + nuxt-security**: edit `nuxt.config.*`, appending to `security.headers.contentSecurityPolicy['script-src']` and `['connect-src']`.
Reference outputs:
- `tests/framework-fixtures/nextjs-turborepo/expected-after-patch.ts` (Next.js)
- `tests/framework-fixtures/sveltekit-csp/expected-after-patch.js` (SvelteKit)
Idempotency: if `__impeccableLiveDev` already exists in the file, the patch is already applied; skip asking and just mark `cspChecked: true`.
#### append-string
CSP built as a literal value string. Two-point patch: declare a dev-only string near the top, interpolate it into the CSP at the `script-src` and `connect-src` directives.
```ts
// Dev-only allowance so impeccable live mode can load.
const __impeccableLiveDev =
process.env.NODE_ENV === "development" ? " http://localhost:8400" : "";
```
Then in the CSP value string:
- `script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'` → `` `script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'${__impeccableLiveDev}` ``
- `connect-src 'self'` → `` `connect-src 'self'${__impeccableLiveDev}` ``
(Leading space on the dev string so it concatenates cleanly into the existing value. Convert the literal CSP directives into template strings as part of the edit if they aren't already.)
Per-framework specifics:
- **Next.js inline `headers()`**: edit `next.config.*`, splicing the variable into the CSP value.
- **Nuxt `routeRules`**: edit `nuxt.config.*`, splicing into the CSP in `routeRules['/**'].headers['Content-Security-Policy']`.
Reference outputs:
- `tests/framework-fixtures/nextjs-inline-csp/expected-after-patch.js` (Next.js)
- `tests/framework-fixtures/nuxt-csp/expected-after-patch.ts` (Nuxt)
### Troubleshooting
If a user says "no" to the CSP patch at setup time and later complains that live doesn't work: their dev CSP blocks `http://localhost:8400`. Fix: delete `cspChecked` from `.impeccable/live/config.json` and re-run `live.mjs`: setup will ask again.
Then re-run `live.mjs`.

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# New visual work
Use this flow when making a new surface or replacing a visual identity. PRODUCT.md owns product truth. DESIGN.md owns durable visual decisions. A surface brief keeps strategy that belongs only to one route or artifact. Complete [init.md](init.md) first when PRODUCT.md is missing; a missing DESIGN.md does not route back to init.
## 1. Decide what is already true
Read DESIGN.md, representative code, tokens, components, and assets.
- **Redesign:** preserve product truth, content, function, constraints, and explicit brand commitments; replace the old visual world rather than polishing it. The old look is evidence of what the subject is, not authority over what it becomes.
- **Established world:** inherit it. A missing DESIGN.md does not erase a coherent identity already present in code; document that identity instead of inventing a replacement.
- **Incomplete brand:** preserve confirmed assets and recognizable traits, then help the user expand the system for this new surface.
- **No visual authority:** create a new world with the user.
A section, component, feature, or state inside an established surface inherits that surface. Do not turn a local addition into a new identity exercise.
## 2. Ask what will change the work
Ask one round of two or three related questions through the structured question tool when available. Skip settled facts; a precise request may need only a compact confirmation.
- **Persuade:** clarify who must act, what they should believe, and which real proof, content, or assets can earn that belief.
- **Operate:** clarify the task, information, important states, frequency, and constraints.
- **Read:** clarify the reader's question, source material, structure, and wayfinding.
- **Experience:** clarify what leads, how exploration unfolds, and which interaction or transition matters.
Across modes, ask what success looks like, what must remain untouched, and what would make a polished result feel wrong. Do not ask for CSS values or canned aesthetic lanes.
## 3. Choose the right amount of invention
### Extend an existing surface
Inherit its world and composition. Resolve only the new purpose, content, hierarchy, states, interaction, and how the addition joins the surrounding experience. Do not run a concept tournament or change DESIGN.md unless the user approves a durable system change.
### Create a whole surface inside an established world
Keep the visual system fixed. Derive five to seven materially different structures from the content, task, and user behavior, ordered by resonance. For a genuinely open whole page, screen, or flow, run:
`node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/concept-seed.mjs --scope surface --mode <mode>`
The script assigns which structure gets built: your top-ranked structure is what every run would ship, and a single ranking is deterministic, so the dice come from outside. Dress its staging challengers in the committed identity and weigh them against your list before building. Never run the script for a local extension or a precisely specified narrow request; shape those directly.
### Create or replace the visual world
1. Name the product's unique mechanism in one sentence, the audience's real scene, its cultural home, and what this first surface must prove. Note the page this category always ships and its predictable opposite; name both as the rut and keep them out of the seven-candidate list, so no die face is spent on the page the category already ships.
2. From that cultural world, list seven concrete visual systems, artifacts, places, or rituals the audience knows by heart, each with one line on why it resonates and can carry the mechanism, ordered by resonance. The audience's world includes its graphic and screen traditions, the notation, publications, identity programs, data graphics, and interfaces it reads daily, not only its physical objects; a nameable abstract system (a school of poster, a documentation standard, a data-graphic tradition) is as concrete a candidate as any artifact. What would this thing look like as a physical object; what did its world look like before the web? Near-duplicates count once. When more than three of the seven share one material family, the derivation stopped at the subject's most obvious artifact; the audience's world is larger than that, so dig until the list spans at least three families.
3. Turn that material into complete directions: each joins a reusable visual world to a concrete first-surface experience.
4. Run `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/concept-seed.mjs --scope direction --mode <mode>` and follow what it prints. The script assigns which direction gets built and deals catalog challengers. Fuse each challenger before judging it: the challenger supplies the form and its system grammar, the product supplies every fact, and clarity wins conflicts. Weigh fused challengers against the assigned direction on exactly two axes, audience identification and product clarity; losing to strong grounded material is a valid outcome, and beating a thin or tool-monoculture list is the point.
5. Present one direction, fully committed: its world, first viewport, visitor path, signature interaction, cross-surface reach, and honest risk. Alongside it, offer the one or two fused challengers that survived the weighing as named alternates with a one-line case each, plus re-roll with an optional one-line steer. What you never present is a ranked menu of your own grounded candidates; a lineup of those invites the safest card, while dealt challengers carry no such rut. The two channels share this structure and differ only in richness: cards and boards on the decision page, names and one-liners through the structured tool; the structured tool's option list also carries the standing exit as its last option.
The standing exit: every direction round offers one quiet, permanent alternative, the category standard, played straight. It is the user's door, never yours: never recommend it, never weigh it against the roll, never let it soften the dealt directions; the counterweights bind the unchosen default, not the chosen one. When the user takes it, in the canon action, a safer-steer, or plain words asking for the familiar or competitor-like path, convention becomes the commitment: ask once for two or three products this should sit alongside, make their craft level the bar, and execute the canon at full fidelity, without irony or smuggled quirk. A standing preference gets recorded as a brand commitment in PRODUCT.md. Re-roll eliminates every direction already shown, grounded and challenger alike; after two consecutive re-rolls, ask what quality is missing. You may re-roll on your own only on named factual grounds, when the assigned direction cannot carry the product's truth or task; taste is never grounds. The user may re-roll freely, and a user- or brief-pinned direction beats the roll, always. Present the decision visually: write an options payload with the assigned direction leading, the dealt challengers as alternates carrying their QUALITY BAR cards, and re-roll, steer, plus canon enabled; a degraded roll with no challengers still uses the page, as a single text-only card with re-roll. Run `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/serve-question.mjs --start --payload <file>` (run it with `--schema` first for the exact payload shape). It daemonizes, prints the page URL and a key, and exits immediately; now open that URL for the user, in-app browser first, then the system opener, then showing the URL. Collect the choice with `--wait --key <key>`, repeating while it exits 3; the ANSWER prints as JSON. Exit 4 means the page was closed without an answer: re-present once through the structured question tool, and with no answer there either, proceed unattended with the assigned direction and state the assumptions. A harness that can leave a shell blocked in the background may instead run the script without `--start` and let it auto-open and block. Only a session where no browser can open at all, headless, CI, an eval worker, a remote shell with no display, puts the same decision through the structured question tool instead; the script self-detects these environments and exits 2 with that advice, so treat exit 2 as this fallback, never as an error to retry.
Catalog worlds are working systems, not mood references. When one survives, carry its palette and material, type and composition, topology, controls and state, and responsive rules into the product. When the source is itself an interface language, commit to its native grammar across navigation, content, controls, and states. Open the QUALITY BAR board and hero for the world you build the moment the choice lands, even if you viewed another card earlier; the ANSWER line names the chosen card's images for exactly this reason (when the harness only reads files or runs sandboxed, download them into the workspace and open the relative path; sandboxed viewers reject absolute paths outside it). They set the craft level the build must reach, a rendered reference's finish, commitment, and art direction, never the composition; your surface serves this product.
Every direction the roll can land on must already be viable: every relationship and claim it visualizes true, a real palette and component family, a distinctive composition with one product-specific experience, workable at full-surface scale within the available assets, tools, and performance budget. A candidate that fails on truth is replaced before the roll, never rescued by it. Truth binds claims, not demonstrations: in greenfield work, author whatever illustrative material the concept needs at full fidelity, label it synthetic wherever a visitor could mistake it for the real thing, and hand the user the list of what to replace with real material. What stays uninventable are commercial and factual claims: prices, customers, benchmarks, endpoints, capabilities the product does not have. Refusing a bold direction because its demonstration data does not exist yet is the timidity reflex wearing honesty's clothes.
For **Persuade**, the opening must make the offer intelligible and desirable, expose a clear action, and demonstrate something only this product can prove. Conversion lives inside the form's own vocabulary: a hook that lands in one line, a visible primary action, a legible reading order. A committed form that hides the offer or the action has not finished translating. For **Operate**, expression may never obscure the task, state, or familiar affordance. For **Read**, comprehension and wayfinding remain intact. For **Experience**, the work itself leads from the first viewport.
## 4. Commit the world
Pick a color strategy before picking colors: Restrained (neutrals plus one accent; the default when the visitor came to operate or read), Committed (one saturated color carries 30-60% of the surface), Full palette (3-4 named roles), or Drenched (the surface IS the color). Persuade and Experience surfaces have permission for the bolder strategies; take them when the brief allows. Color commits at page scale: fields that own whole regions, not accents scattered over a neutral ground. Dark or light is never a default: write one sentence of physical scene (who uses this, where, under what light) and let it force the answer.
Choose faces like objects from the subject's world, in the mode's register. Operate and Read surfaces are well served by system stacks and workhorse UI faces; Persuade and Experience surfaces want faces with a point of view, and these training-data defaults mean you stopped looking: Fraunces, Playfair Display, Cormorant, Lora, Crimson, Newsreader, Syne, Space Grotesk, Space Mono, IBM Plex, Inter-as-display, DM Sans, DM Serif, Outfit, Plus Jakarta Sans, Instrument Sans. Naming one of these faces anyway requires a reason no other face could satisfy, and a subject association is never that reason: books wanting a serif, bookshops wanting hand-lettering, and tech wanting a mono are the associations the list exists to break.
Calibration: AI-generated interfaces cluster around a few looks regardless of subject: warm cream ground, high-contrast serif display, and a terracotta or signal-red accent; near-black with one neon accent and glowing edges; broadsheet-editorial hairlines, italic display serif, and small tracked mono labels. All are legitimate when the brief calls for them; the brief always wins. Where the brief leaves the aesthetic free, landing in one of them means the self-check failed: if someone could guess your aesthetic from the category alone, or from category-plus-avoidance, rework until neither answer is obvious. Energy is not the enemy of trust: a brief's negative constraints (no gamification, no hype) rule out those devices, not exuberance, and adjectives describing the product's behavior (quiet support, calm coaching) do not dictate the surface's energy. A bookish, warm, or child-facing subject does not soften the calibration: book cloth, thread, jackets, endpapers, and shelf ephemera span the whole saturated spectrum, and cream paper is the smallest corner of that world; landing on cream plus serif for a book subject is the default wearing the subject's clothes. A brief-pinned world pins the world, not its softest rendition: the pinned world's full material range stays in play, and a rendition that matches what any model ships for that world failed the self-check at execution rather than selection.
## 5. Record the decision
Before code, state the chosen direction as a contract in the artifact's opening comment, five short blocks, 150 words at most. THESIS: the one idea this surface owns and the category-default arrangement it refuses. OWN-WORLD: the palette and component language, specific enough to be recognizable with all content removed. STORY: what the visitor understands, believes, and does. FIRST VIEWPORT: the exact composition, what is where and at what scale, and where the primary action sits. FORM: the chosen form, its position on your ordered list, the staging chosen for it, and the seed key the script printed; when the seed dealt stagings, choosing the world does not silently discharge the staging decision, so name the one you commit to. If a block reads like a mood, the direction is not decided yet; the finishing review audits the render against this contract.
When a new or replacement world is chosen, DESIGN.md is part of recording the decision, not an aftercare step: write it at the appropriate project or app boundary using [document.md](document.md) before the first build edit lands, in the same working stretch as the direction contract. Record only durable system rules; exact tokens may remain provisional until the first build establishes them, and you update the file when the build settles them. A new world shipped with no DESIGN.md is an incomplete run, exactly as a missing PRODUCT.md is; the finishing review checks the file exists and matches the built world. An ordinary extension does not rewrite DESIGN.md.
Two observed ways a DESIGN.md rule goes wrong: a prohibition that bans a device the world itself uses natively (arcade lettering lives on its offset shadow), and a token added so a hook finding stops firing. Check every prohibition against the world's own materials; a value earns its place by the world and by legibility, never by silencing a check.
If the work establishes durable strategy for a route or artifact, read its existing surface brief, then update it:
`node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/surface-brief.mjs read <primary-target>`
`node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/surface-brief.mjs write <primary-target> <body-file> [related-target ...]`
Keep the brief small: scope and visitor mode; audience, job, action/task, proof/content, and constraints; chosen direction and memorable moment; unresolved decisions. Do not copy global product truth or DESIGN.md tokens into it.
Whenever any image generation is available, a harness-native tool or the API fallback context.mjs reports, the locked direction is visualized before it is built, never skipped: load [visualize.md](visualize.md) and follow it, three compositional options rendered and put before the user for approval. This step is proven to produce the most compositional and ambitious work. One exception: under a hard harness turn or budget cap the full flow cannot fit, the shipped page outranks optional imagery; cut to one comp or skip generation, say so, and make certain the build lands.
For `shape`, return the selected direction to [shape.md](shape.md) and stop before persistence or implementation.
## 6. Build with full commitment
Build the assigned direction, not a safer interpretation of it. The form supplies structure, reading order, component conventions, and native motion; the product supplies every fact. Commit every atom: nav, buttons, inputs, and links are rebuilt in the form's vocabulary, and a stock component inside a committed form is a lapse. Land the first build fully committed; committing is the hard part, and the passes that follow exist to make the committed thing clear and effective, never to dilute it. In unattended work, the safe rendition is the known risk.
- **The first viewport is a thesis, not a header.** Demonstrate the mechanism immediately, at the scale the form has in life; do not trap the concept inside a standard hero or card shell. The memory test: if someone left after one viewport, what would they describe an hour later? If the honest answer is a mood, the concept has not committed yet.
- **Prove, don't claim.** Show the subject doing its job: the interface at work, the mechanism dramatized, specifics a competitor could not copy-paste. Sections that restate a claim in different words add length, not substance. Demonstration data is design material: author it at full fidelity and label it synthetic; never invent prices, customers, benchmarks, or capabilities.
- **Author the assets; never substitute chrome.** Great surfaces live on carefully made content: names, entries, copy, covers, thumbnails, textures. In greenfield work every blank the ask round left open is yours to author at production fidelity; content is authorable, claims are labelable, no section is omittable. An unanswered commercial claim ships as a clearly marked placeholder on the user's replacement list. When image generation exists, producing the design's imagery is part of building, at the scale the composition needs: a viewport that wants atmosphere gets a full-bleed layered scene, and a library of small centered subjects standardized for tidiness forecloses that before a line of code exists. Gradients, glass, and generic icon tiles where an authored asset belongs are the gap wearing chrome; icons drawn in the world's own grammar are the remedy, not the target.
- **Build the form's web leverage.** When the chosen world names a technique (canvas, WebGL, view transitions, generative motion), build the technique itself, not a static imitation of it; the graceful fallback serves constrained clients, it is not the default experience.
- **Pace the scroll like a studio.** Vary density, scale, image, motion, and quiet inside one grammar; a dense passage earns a quiet one, and the page ends anchored by a real close. One spacing rhythm throughout, with more space above a heading than below it.
- **Use real, verified imagery when the brief implies it.** Search for the subject's physical object rather than the category; one decisive photo beats five mediocre ones. Verify stock URLs resolve.
- **Author motion as material.** The form has native motion, what it does in life between states; give the page that motion once, orchestrated, rather than scattered hover effects. Bound expensive effects and keep content visible by default.
Preserve semantics, accessibility, performance, responsiveness, project conventions, and working behavior.
## 7. Inspect and finish
Inspect desktop and mobile, critique the render against the user's request, the direction contract, and DESIGN.md, fix material gaps, and re-inspect. On a Persuade surface, verify the mode did its job: a first-time visitor should know what this is, why it matters, and what to do within seconds, in the form's own vocabulary. After a first implementation of a new world, update DESIGN.md with the exact tokens and behaviors that survived the build.
Spawn the shipped finish reviewer, `impeccable-finish-reviewer` (`impeccable_finish_reviewer` in codex), and give it the original request, confirmed answers, the artifact path, its direction contract, DESIGN.md, existing hook findings, and the QUALITY BAR card and approved comp paths. This review never runs inside the build thread. Only a harness whose tool surface has no subagent capability at all substitutes a fresh in-thread pass after stepping fully out of the build context, and a substituted review is disclosed in one line at finish, never silently. The reviewer's first check is persistence: on a new or replacement world, PRODUCT.md and DESIGN.md exist and DESIGN.md matches the built world; a missing file fails the review before any craft point is scored. Its second check is the ceiling: against the chosen world's QUALITY BAR card and the approved comp, name the native devices the build left unused, frame, depth, lettering, ornament density; floor rigor is very good at disguising an unreached card. Then ask for a short list of material fixes, promise by promise against the contract, apply them, and finish. Do not run a second detector.

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> **Additional context needed**: the "aha moment" you want users to reach, and users' experience level.
Get users to first value as fast as possible. Onboarding's job is not to teach the product. Its job is to get people to the moment that proves the product is worth their time.
## Assess Onboarding Needs
Understand what users need to learn and why:
1. **Identify the challenge**:
- What are users trying to accomplish?
- What's confusing or unclear about current experience?
- Where do users get stuck or drop off?
- What's the "aha moment" we want users to reach?
2. **Understand the users**:
- What's their experience level? (Beginners, power users, mixed?)
- What's their motivation? (Excited and exploring? Required by work?)
- What's their time commitment? (5 minutes? 30 minutes?)
- What alternatives do they know? (Coming from competitor? New to category?)
3. **Define success**:
- What's the minimum users need to learn to be successful?
- What's the key action we want them to take? (First project? First invite?)
- How do we know onboarding worked? (Completion rate? Time to value?)
**CRITICAL**: Onboarding should get users to value as quickly as possible, not teach everything possible.
## Onboarding Principles
Follow these core principles:
### Show, Don't Tell
- Demonstrate with working examples, not just descriptions
- Provide real functionality in onboarding, not separate tutorial mode
- Use progressive disclosure, teach one thing at a time
### Make It Optional (When Possible)
- Let experienced users skip onboarding
- Don't block access to product
- Provide "Skip" or "I'll explore on my own" options
### Time to Value
- Get users to their "aha moment" ASAP
- Front-load most important concepts
- Teach 20% that delivers 80% of value
- Save advanced features for contextual discovery
### Context Over Ceremony
- Teach features when users need them, not upfront
- Empty states are onboarding opportunities
- Tooltips and hints at point of use
### Respect User Intelligence
- Don't patronize or over-explain
- Be concise and clear
- Assume users can figure out standard patterns
## Design Onboarding Experiences
Create appropriate onboarding for the context:
### Initial Product Onboarding
**Welcome Screen**:
- Clear value proposition (what is this product?)
- What users will learn/accomplish
- Time estimate (honest about commitment)
- Option to skip (for experienced users)
**Account Setup**:
- Minimal required information (collect more later)
- Explain why you're asking for each piece of information
- Smart defaults where possible
- Social login when appropriate
**Core Concept Introduction**:
- Introduce 1-3 core concepts (not everything)
- Use simple language and examples
- Interactive when possible (do, don't just read)
- Progress indication (step 1 of 3)
**First Success**:
- Guide users to accomplish something real
- Pre-populated examples or templates
- Celebrate completion (but don't overdo it)
- Clear next steps
### Feature Discovery & Adoption
**Empty States**:
Instead of blank space, show:
- What will appear here (description + screenshot/illustration)
- Why it's valuable
- Clear CTA to create first item
- Example or template option
Example:
```
No projects yet
Projects help you organize your work and collaborate with your team.
[Create your first project] or [Start from template]
```
**Contextual Tooltips**:
- Appear at relevant moment (first time user sees feature)
- Point directly at relevant UI element
- Brief explanation + benefit
- Dismissable (with "Don't show again" option)
- Optional "Learn more" link
**Feature Announcements**:
- Highlight new features when they're released
- Show what's new and why it matters
- Let users try immediately
- Dismissable
**Progressive Onboarding**:
- Teach features when users encounter them
- Badges or indicators on new/unused features
- Unlock complexity gradually (don't show all options immediately)
### Guided Tours & Walkthroughs
**When to use**:
- Complex interfaces with many features
- Significant changes to existing product
- Industry-specific tools needing domain knowledge
**How to design**:
- Spotlight specific UI elements (dim rest of page)
- Keep steps short (3-7 steps max per tour)
- Allow users to click through tour freely
- Include "Skip tour" option
- Make replayable (help menu)
**Best practices**:
- Interactive over passive (let users click real buttons)
- Focus on workflow, not features ("Create a project" not "This is the project button")
- Provide sample data so actions work
### Interactive Tutorials
**When to use**:
- Users need hands-on practice
- Concepts are complex or unfamiliar
- High stakes (better to practice in safe environment)
**How to design**:
- Sandbox environment with sample data
- Clear objectives ("Create a chart showing sales by region")
- Step-by-step guidance
- Validation (confirm they did it right)
- Graduation moment (you're ready!)
### Documentation & Help
**In-product help**:
- Contextual help links throughout interface
- Keyboard shortcut reference
- Search-able help center
- Video tutorials for complex workflows
**Help patterns**:
- `?` icon near complex features
- "Learn more" links in tooltips
- Keyboard shortcut hints (`⌘K` shown on search box)
## Empty State Design
Every empty state needs:
### What Will Be Here
"Your recent projects will appear here"
### Why It Matters
"Projects help you organize your work and collaborate with your team"
### How to Get Started
[Create project] or [Import from template]
### Visual Interest
Illustration or icon (not just text on blank page)
### Contextual Help
"Need help getting started? [Watch 2-min tutorial]"
**Empty state types**:
- **First use**: Never used this feature (emphasize value, provide template)
- **User cleared**: Intentionally deleted everything (light touch, easy to recreate)
- **No results**: Search or filter returned nothing (suggest different query, clear filters)
- **No permissions**: Can't access (explain why, how to get access)
- **Error state**: Failed to load (explain what happened, retry option)
## Implementation Patterns
### Technical approaches:
**Tooltip libraries**: Tippy.js, Popper.js
**Tour libraries**: Intro.js, Shepherd.js, React Joyride
**Modal patterns**: Focus trap, backdrop, ESC to close
**Progress tracking**: LocalStorage for "seen" states
**Analytics**: Track completion, drop-off points
**Storage patterns**:
```javascript
// Track which onboarding steps user has seen
localStorage.setItem('onboarding-completed', 'true');
localStorage.setItem('feature-tooltip-seen-reports', 'true');
```
**IMPORTANT**: Don't show same onboarding twice (annoying). Track completion and respect dismissals.
**NEVER**:
- Force users through long onboarding before they can use product
- Patronize users with obvious explanations
- Show same tooltip repeatedly (respect dismissals)
- Block all UI during tour (let users explore)
- Create separate tutorial mode disconnected from real product
- Overwhelm with information upfront (progressive disclosure!)
- Hide "Skip" or make it hard to find
- Forget about returning users (don't show initial onboarding again)
## Verify Onboarding Quality
Test with real users:
- **Time to completion**: Can users complete onboarding quickly?
- **Comprehension**: Do users understand after completing?
- **Action**: Do users take desired next step?
- **Skip rate**: Are too many users skipping? (Maybe it's too long or not valuable)
- **Completion rate**: Are users completing? (If low, simplify)
- **Time to value**: How long until users get first value?
When users hit the aha moment fast and don't drop off, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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# Operate mode depth (and Read notes)
When design SERVES the product: app UIs, admin dashboards, settings panels, data tables, tools, authenticated surfaces, anything where the user is in a task. The essentials live in SKILL.md's modes and [craft-floor.md](craft-floor.md); this file is extended depth, written for Operate surfaces. Read surfaces (docs, guides, long-form) take SKILL.md's Read mode plus this file's typography and consistency rules; their prose measure and navigation matter more than component density.
## The product slop test
Familiarity is often a feature here. The test is whether a category-fluent user can trust the interface immediately or must pause at every subtly-off component.
Product UI's failure mode isn't flatness, it's strangeness without purpose: over-decorated buttons, mismatched form controls, gratuitous motion, display fonts where labels should be, invented affordances for standard tasks. The bar is earned familiarity. The tool should disappear into the task.
## Typography
- **One family is often right.** Product UIs don't need display/body pairing. A well-tuned sans carries headings, buttons, labels, body, data.
- **Fixed rem scale, not fluid.** Clamp-sized headings don't serve product UI. Users view at consistent DPI, and a fluid h1 that shrinks in a sidebar looks worse, not better.
- **Tighter scale ratio.** 1.1251.2 between steps is typical. More type elements here than on brand surfaces; exaggerated contrast creates noise.
- **Line length still applies for prose** (6575ch). Data and compact UI can run denser; tables at 120ch+ are fine.
## Color
Product defaults to Restrained. A single surface can earn Committed (a dashboard where one category color carries a report, an onboarding flow with a drenched welcome screen), but Restrained is the floor.
- State-rich semantic vocabulary: hover, focus, active, disabled, selected, loading, error, warning, success, info. Standardize these.
- Accent color used for primary actions, current selection, and state indicators only, not decoration.
- A second neutral layer for sidebars, toolbars, and panels (slightly cooler or warmer than the content surface).
## Layout
- Responsive behavior is structural (collapse sidebar, responsive table, breakpoint-driven columns), not fluid typography.
## Components
Every interactive component has: default, hover, focus, active, disabled, loading, error. Don't ship with half of these.
- Skeleton states for loading, not spinners in the middle of content.
- Empty states that teach the interface, not "nothing here."
- Consistent affordances across the surface. Same button shape. Same form-control vocabulary. Same icon style.
- Overlays escape their container. An absolutely positioned dropdown inside an `overflow: hidden` or `overflow: auto` ancestor gets clipped; reach for `<dialog>`, the popover API, `position: fixed`, or a portal.
## Motion
- 150250 ms on most transitions. Users are in flow; don't make them wait for choreography.
- Motion conveys state, not decoration. State change, feedback, loading, reveal: nothing else.
- No orchestrated page-load sequences. Product loads into a task; users don't want to watch it load.
## Product constraints
- Decorative motion that doesn't convey state.
- Inconsistent component vocabulary across screens. If the "save" button looks different in two places, one is wrong.
- Display fonts in UI labels, buttons, data.
- Reinventing standard affordances for flavor (custom scrollbars, weird form controls, non-standard modals).
- Heavy color or full-saturation accents on inactive states.
- Modal as first thought. Modals are usually laziness. Exhaust inline / progressive alternatives first.
## Product permissions
Product can afford things brand surfaces can't.
- System fonts and familiar sans defaults.
- Standard navigation patterns: top bar + side nav, breadcrumbs, tabs, command palettes.
- Density. Tables with many rows, panels with many labels, dense information when users need it.
- Consistency over surprise. The same visual vocabulary screen to screen is a virtue; delight is saved for moments, not pages.

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Performance is a feature. Identify the actual bottleneck for THIS interface, fix it, then measure. Don't optimize what isn't slow.
## Assess Performance Issues
Understand current performance and identify problems:
1. **Measure current state**:
- **Core Web Vitals**: LCP, FID/INP, CLS scores
- **Load time**: Time to interactive, first contentful paint
- **Bundle size**: JavaScript, CSS, image sizes
- **Runtime performance**: Frame rate, memory usage, CPU usage
- **Network**: Request count, payload sizes, waterfall
2. **Identify bottlenecks**:
- What's slow? (Initial load? Interactions? Animations?)
- What's causing it? (Large images? Expensive JavaScript? Layout thrashing?)
- How bad is it? (Perceivable? Annoying? Blocking?)
- Who's affected? (All users? Mobile only? Slow connections?)
**CRITICAL**: Measure before and after. Premature optimization wastes time. Optimize what actually matters.
## Optimization Strategy
Create systematic improvement plan:
### Loading Performance
**Optimize Images**:
- Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF)
- Proper sizing (don't load 3000px image for 300px display)
- Lazy loading for below-fold images
- Responsive images (`srcset`, `picture` element)
- Compress images (80-85% quality is usually imperceptible)
- Use CDN for faster delivery
```html
<img
src="hero.webp"
srcset="hero-400.webp 400w, hero-800.webp 800w, hero-1200.webp 1200w"
sizes="(max-width: 400px) 400px, (max-width: 800px) 800px, 1200px"
loading="lazy"
alt="Hero image"
/>
```
**Reduce JavaScript Bundle**:
- Code splitting (route-based, component-based)
- Tree shaking (remove unused code)
- Remove unused dependencies
- Lazy load non-critical code
- Use dynamic imports for large components
```javascript
// Lazy load heavy component
const HeavyChart = lazy(() => import('./HeavyChart'));
```
**Optimize CSS**:
- Remove unused CSS
- Critical CSS inline, rest async
- Minimize CSS files
- Use CSS containment for independent regions
**Optimize Fonts**:
- Use `font-display: swap` or `optional`
- Subset fonts (only characters you need)
- Preload critical fonts
- Use system fonts when appropriate
- Limit font weights loaded
```css
@font-face {
font-family: 'CustomFont';
src: url('/fonts/custom.woff2') format('woff2');
font-display: swap; /* Show fallback immediately */
unicode-range: U+0020-007F; /* Basic Latin only */
}
```
**Optimize Loading Strategy**:
- Critical resources first (async/defer non-critical)
- Preload critical assets
- Prefetch likely next pages
- Service worker for offline/caching
- HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 for multiplexing
### Rendering Performance
**Avoid Layout Thrashing**:
```javascript
// ❌ Bad: Alternating reads and writes (causes reflows)
elements.forEach(el => {
const height = el.offsetHeight; // Read (forces layout)
el.style.height = height * 2; // Write
});
// ✅ Good: Batch reads, then batch writes
const heights = elements.map(el => el.offsetHeight); // All reads
elements.forEach((el, i) => {
el.style.height = heights[i] * 2; // All writes
});
```
**Optimize Rendering**:
- Use CSS `contain` property for independent regions
- Minimize DOM depth (flatter is faster)
- Reduce DOM size (fewer elements)
- Use `content-visibility: auto` for long lists
- Virtual scrolling for very long lists (react-window, react-virtualized)
**Reduce Paint & Composite**:
- Use `transform` and `opacity` for reliable movement, but allow blur, filters, masks, clip paths, shadows, and color shifts when they create meaningful polish
- Avoid casual animation of layout-driving properties (`width`, `height`, `top`, `left`, margins)
- Use `will-change` sparingly for known expensive operations
- Bound expensive paint areas for blur/filter/shadow effects (smaller and isolated is faster)
### Animation Performance
**GPU Acceleration**:
```css
/* ✅ GPU-accelerated (fast) */
.animated {
transform: translateX(100px);
opacity: 0.5;
}
/* ❌ CPU-bound (slow) */
.animated {
left: 100px;
width: 300px;
}
```
**Smooth 60fps**:
- Target 16ms per frame (60fps)
- Use `requestAnimationFrame` for JS animations
- Debounce/throttle scroll handlers
- Use CSS animations when possible
- Avoid long-running JavaScript during animations
**Intersection Observer**:
```javascript
// Efficiently detect when elements enter viewport
const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries) => {
entries.forEach(entry => {
if (entry.isIntersecting) {
// Element is visible, lazy load or animate
}
});
});
```
### React/Framework Optimization
**React-specific**:
- Use `memo()` for expensive components
- `useMemo()` and `useCallback()` for expensive computations
- Virtualize long lists
- Code split routes
- Avoid inline function creation in render
- Use React DevTools Profiler
**Framework-agnostic**:
- Minimize re-renders
- Debounce expensive operations
- Memoize computed values
- Lazy load routes and components
### Network Optimization
**Reduce Requests**:
- Combine small files
- Use SVG sprites for icons
- Inline small critical assets
- Remove unused third-party scripts
**Optimize APIs**:
- Use pagination (don't load everything)
- GraphQL to request only needed fields
- Response compression (gzip, brotli)
- HTTP caching headers
- CDN for static assets
**Optimize for Slow Connections**:
- Adaptive loading based on connection (navigator.connection)
- Optimistic UI updates
- Request prioritization
- Progressive enhancement
## Core Web Vitals Optimization
### Largest Contentful Paint (LCP < 2.5s)
- Optimize hero images
- Inline critical CSS
- Preload key resources
- Use CDN
- Server-side rendering
### First Input Delay (FID < 100ms) / INP (< 200ms)
- Break up long tasks
- Defer non-critical JavaScript
- Use web workers for heavy computation
- Reduce JavaScript execution time
### Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS < 0.1)
- Set dimensions on images and videos
- Don't inject content above existing content
- Use `aspect-ratio` CSS property
- Reserve space for ads/embeds
- Avoid animations that cause layout shifts
```css
/* Reserve space for image */
.image-container {
aspect-ratio: 16 / 9;
}
```
## Performance Monitoring
**Tools to use**:
- Chrome DevTools (Lighthouse, Performance panel)
- WebPageTest
- Core Web Vitals (Chrome UX Report)
- Bundle analyzers (webpack-bundle-analyzer)
- Performance monitoring (Sentry, DataDog, New Relic)
**Key metrics**:
- LCP, FID/INP, CLS (Core Web Vitals)
- Time to Interactive (TTI)
- First Contentful Paint (FCP)
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
- Bundle size
- Request count
**IMPORTANT**: Measure on real devices with real network conditions. Desktop Chrome with fast connection isn't representative.
**NEVER**:
- Optimize without measuring (premature optimization)
- Sacrifice accessibility for performance
- Break functionality while optimizing
- Use `will-change` everywhere (creates new layers, uses memory)
- Lazy load above-fold content
- Optimize micro-optimizations while ignoring major issues (optimize the biggest bottleneck first)
- Forget about mobile performance (often slower devices, slower connections)
## Verify Improvements
Test that optimizations worked:
- **Before/after metrics**: Compare Lighthouse scores
- **Real user monitoring**: Track improvements for real users
- **Different devices**: Test on low-end Android, not just flagship iPhone
- **Slow connections**: Throttle to 3G, test experience
- **No regressions**: Ensure functionality still works
- **User perception**: Does it *feel* faster?
When the user-facing numbers move, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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Start your response with:
```
──────────── ⚡ OVERDRIVE ─────────────
》》》 Entering overdrive mode...
```
Push an interface past conventional limits. This isn't just about visual effects. It's about using the full power of the browser to make any part of an interface feel extraordinary: a table that handles a million rows, a dialog that morphs from its trigger, a form that validates in real-time with streaming feedback, a page transition that feels cinematic.
**EXTRA IMPORTANT FOR THIS COMMAND**: Context determines what "extraordinary" means. A particle system on a creative portfolio is impressive. The same particle system on a settings page is embarrassing. But a settings page with instant optimistic saves and animated state transitions? That's extraordinary too. Understand the project's personality and goals before deciding what's appropriate.
### Propose Before Building
This command has the highest potential to misfire. Do NOT jump straight into implementation. You MUST:
1. **Think through 2-3 different directions**: consider different techniques, levels of ambition, and aesthetic approaches. For each direction, briefly describe what the result would look and feel like.
2. **STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer.** to present these directions and get the user's pick before writing any code. Explain trade-offs (browser support, performance cost, complexity).
3. Only proceed with the direction the user confirms.
Skipping this step risks building something embarrassing that needs to be thrown away.
### Iterate with Browser Automation
Technically ambitious effects almost never work on the first try. You MUST actively use browser automation tools to preview your work, visually verify the result, and iterate. Do not assume the effect looks right, check it. Expect multiple rounds of refinement. The gap between "technically works" and "looks extraordinary" is closed through visual iteration, not code alone.
---
## Assess What "Extraordinary" Means Here
The right kind of technical ambition depends entirely on what you're working with. Before choosing a technique, ask: **what would make a user of THIS specific interface say "wow, that's nice"?**
### For visual/marketing surfaces
Pages, hero sections, landing pages, portfolios: the "wow" is often sensory: a scroll-driven reveal, a shader background, a cinematic page transition, generative art that responds to the cursor.
### For functional UI
Tables, forms, dialogs, navigation: the "wow" is in how it FEELS: a dialog that morphs from the button that triggered it via View Transitions, a data table that renders 100k rows at 60fps via virtual scrolling, a form with streaming validation that feels instant, drag-and-drop with spring physics.
### For performance-critical UI
The "wow" is invisible but felt: a search that filters 50k items without a flicker, a complex form that never blocks the main thread, an image editor that processes in near-real-time. The interface just never hesitates.
### For data-heavy interfaces
Charts and dashboards: the "wow" is in fluidity: GPU-accelerated rendering via Canvas/WebGL for massive datasets, animated transitions between data states, force-directed graph layouts that settle naturally.
**The common thread**: something about the implementation goes beyond what users expect from a web interface. The technique serves the experience, not the other way around.
## The Toolkit
Organized by what you're trying to achieve, not by technology name.
### Make transitions feel cinematic
- **View Transitions API** (same-document: all browsers; cross-document: no Firefox): shared element morphing between states. A list item expanding into a detail page. A button morphing into a dialog. This is the closest thing to native FLIP animations.
- **`@starting-style`** (all browsers): animate elements from `display: none` to visible with CSS only, including entry keyframes
- **Spring physics**: natural motion with mass, tension, and damping instead of cubic-bezier. Libraries: motion (formerly Framer Motion), GSAP, or roll your own spring solver.
### Tie animation to scroll position
- **Scroll-driven animations** (`animation-timeline: scroll()`): CSS-only, no JS. Parallax, progress bars, reveal sequences all driven by scroll position. (Chrome/Edge/Safari; Firefox: flag only; always provide a static fallback)
### Render beyond CSS
- **WebGL** (all browsers): shader effects, post-processing, particle systems. Libraries: Three.js, OGL (lightweight), regl. Use for effects CSS can't express.
- **WebGPU** (Chrome/Edge; Safari partial; Firefox: flag only): next-gen GPU compute. More powerful than WebGL but limited browser support. Always fall back to WebGL2.
- **Canvas 2D / OffscreenCanvas**: custom rendering, pixel manipulation, or moving heavy rendering off the main thread entirely via Web Workers + OffscreenCanvas.
- **SVG filter chains**: displacement maps, turbulence, morphology for organic distortion effects. CSS-animatable.
### Make data feel alive
- **Virtual scrolling**: render only visible rows for tables/lists with tens of thousands of items. No library required for simple cases; TanStack Virtual for complex ones.
- **GPU-accelerated charts**: Canvas or WebGL-rendered data visualization for datasets too large for SVG/DOM. Libraries: deck.gl, regl-based custom renderers.
- **Animated data transitions**: morph between chart states rather than replacing. D3's `transition()` or View Transitions for DOM-based charts.
### Animate complex properties
- **`@property`** (all browsers): register custom CSS properties with types, enabling animation of gradients, colors, and complex values that CSS can't normally interpolate.
- **Web Animations API** (all browsers): JavaScript-driven animations with the performance of CSS. Composable, cancellable, reversible. The foundation for complex choreography.
### Push performance boundaries
- **Web Workers**: move computation off the main thread. Heavy data processing, image manipulation, search indexing: anything that would cause jank.
- **OffscreenCanvas**: render in a Worker thread. The main thread stays free while complex visuals render in the background.
- **WASM**: near-native performance for computation-heavy features. Image processing, physics simulations, codecs.
### Interact with the device
- **Web Audio API**: spatial audio, audio-reactive visualizations, sonic feedback. Requires user gesture to start.
- **Device APIs**: orientation, ambient light, geolocation. Use sparingly and always with user permission.
**NOTE**: This command is about enhancing how an interface FEELS, not changing what a product DOES. Adding real-time collaboration, offline support, or new backend capabilities are product decisions, not UI enhancements. Focus on making existing features feel extraordinary.
## Implement with Discipline
### Progressive enhancement is non-negotiable
Every technique must degrade gracefully. The experience without the enhancement must still be good.
```css
@supports (animation-timeline: scroll()) {
.hero { animation-timeline: scroll(); }
}
```
```javascript
if ('gpu' in navigator) { /* WebGPU */ }
else if (canvas.getContext('webgl2')) { /* WebGL2 fallback */ }
/* CSS-only fallback must still look good */
```
### Performance rules
- Target 60fps. If dropping below 50, simplify.
- Lazy-initialize heavy resources (WebGL contexts, WASM modules) only when near viewport.
- Pause off-screen rendering. Kill what you can't see.
- Test on real mid-range devices, not just your development machine.
### Polish is the difference
The gap between "cool" and "extraordinary" is in the last 20% of refinement: the easing curve on a spring animation, the timing offset in a staggered reveal, the subtle secondary motion that makes a transition feel physical. Don't ship the first version that works; ship the version that feels inevitable.
**NEVER**:
- Ship effects that cause jank on mid-range devices
- Use bleeding-edge APIs without a functional fallback
- Add sound without explicit user opt-in
- Use technical ambition to mask weak design fundamentals; fix those first with other commands
- Layer multiple competing extraordinary moments. Focus creates impact, excess creates noise
## Verify the Result
- **The wow test**: Show it to someone who hasn't seen it. Do they react?
- **The removal test**: Take it away. Does the experience feel diminished, or does nobody notice?
- **The device test**: Run it on a phone, a tablet, a Chromebook. Still smooth?
- **The context test**: Does this make sense for THIS brand and audience?
"Technically extraordinary" isn't about using the newest API. It's about making an interface do something users didn't think a website could do.

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> **Additional context needed**: quality bar and shipping constraints.
Polish is refinement, never concealed redesign. Preserve the incumbent visual world, content, behavior, and everything outside scope. If the concept itself is wrong, say so and recommend redesign or `bolder` instead of smuggling in a replacement.
A detector result is defect evidence, not proof of quality. Inspect the rendered experience and real interaction path.
## 1. Establish the system
Read DESIGN.md and representative tokens, shared components, patterns, and neighboring flows. If no formal system exists, use coherent project conventions.
Classify each drift before fixing it:
- **missing token:** the system needs a reusable value;
- **one-off implementation:** an existing shared component or pattern should replace it;
- **conceptual mismatch:** the flow, information architecture, or hierarchy differs from comparable product areas;
- **local defect:** the implementation is simply incomplete or inconsistent.
Fix the cause at the narrowest correct level. Ask when a binding system principle cannot be inferred.
## 2. Gather the evidence
Use the feature yourself at representative desktop and mobile sizes. Determine:
- whether the path is functionally complete;
- the intended quality bar and time available;
- known constraints or deliberately unfinished work;
- the states, content lengths, roles, and input methods users will actually encounter.
If a prior critique exists, use it as one input:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/critique-storage.mjs latest "<resolved target>"
```
Exit 0 returns the latest snapshot; incorporate relevant P0/P1 findings and name the snapshot read. Exit 2 means none exists. Perform an independent pass either way.
## 3. Triage
Separate functional defects from cosmetic ones and fix in this order:
1. broken or blocked tasks, data loss, misleading state, and inaccessible paths;
2. missing loading, empty, error, success, disabled, and permission states;
3. flow, hierarchy, responsive, and design-system drift;
4. visual and motion inconsistencies;
5. code and asset cleanup.
Do not perfect one corner while leaving the rest below the same quality bar.
## 4. Polish the whole path
### Flow and hierarchy
- Match neighboring mental models, terminology, disclosure, routing, save behavior, and optimistic or pessimistic patterns.
- Make the primary task and current state obvious without flattening every element to equal weight.
- Ensure arrival, transition, empty, and recovery paths connect instead of behaving as isolated screens.
### Layout and type
- Align to the project's grid and spacing scale; fix optical as well as mathematical alignment.
- Group related content tightly and separate distinct groups generously.
- Keep same-role typography consistent; test measure, wrapping, localization expansion, zoom, and font loading.
- Verify every supported viewport rather than correcting only the current screenshot.
### Color, imagery, and icons
- Use semantic tokens and stable color meanings across themes.
- Verify text, control, and focus contrast in every state.
- Keep icon families, stroke/weight, sizing, and optical alignment coherent.
- Prevent image layout shift; use correct aspect ratios, responsive sources, and useful alt text.
### Interaction and state
- Every control needs appropriate default, hover, focus, active, disabled, loading, error, and success behavior.
- Preserve visible keyboard focus, logical tab order, labels, and platform-appropriate touch targets.
- Keep motion coherent, interruptible, and performant. Do not add animation merely to make polish visible.
- Validate long, missing, localized, offline, slow, and permission-limited content where the product can encounter it.
### Content and code
- Keep terminology, capitalization, punctuation, and factual copy consistent. Ask before changing claims.
- Remove debug output, dead code, unused imports, obsolete styles, and polish-created duplication.
- Replace custom implementations with shared components where the system owns the pattern.
- Promote genuinely reusable values to tokens; do not create a system abstraction for one local exception.
## 5. Verify and finish
Walk the complete path again with mouse, keyboard, and touch where applicable. Check:
- mobile, intermediate, and wide layouts;
- loading, empty, error, success, disabled, long-content, and missing-content states;
- zoom, contrast, focus, semantics, and screen-reader names;
- console errors, layout shift, interaction latency, image loading, and supported browsers;
- agreement with DESIGN.md, neighboring features, and the user's scope.
Follow the quality guidance supplied by `context.mjs` and hooks, then run any other relevant QA commands. Context requests a manual scan only when no automatic detector is active; never add another detector pass. Fix real defects and document only narrow intentional exceptions. A clean scan does not replace visual judgment.
Finish with a source diff: remove accidental churn, orphaned code, redundant values, and temporary artifacts. Ship only when the feature is functionally complete and consistently finished across the path.

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Quiet design is harder than bold design. Subtlety needs precision. Reduce visual intensity in designs that are too loud, aggressive, or overstimulating without losing personality or making the result generic.
---
## Visitor mode
Persuade + Experience: "quieter" means more restrained palette, more whitespace, more typographic air. Drama is reduced, not eliminated; the POV stays intact.
Operate + Read: "quieter" means reducing visual noise. Fewer background accents, flatter cards, less color, less motion. The tool should disappear more completely into the task.
---
## Assess Current State
Analyze what makes the design feel too intense:
1. **Identify intensity sources**:
- **Color saturation**: Overly bright or saturated colors
- **Contrast extremes**: Too much high-contrast juxtaposition
- **Visual weight**: Too many bold, heavy elements competing
- **Animation excess**: Too much motion or overly dramatic effects
- **Complexity**: Too many visual elements, patterns, or decorations
- **Scale**: Everything is large and loud with no hierarchy
2. **Understand the context**:
- What's the purpose? (Marketing vs tool vs reading experience)
- Who's the audience? (Some contexts need energy)
- What's working? (Don't throw away good ideas)
- What's the core message? (Preserve what matters)
If any of these are unclear from the codebase, STOP and use Codex's structured user-input/question tool when available; if unavailable, ask directly in chat to clarify what you cannot infer.
**CRITICAL**: "Quieter" doesn't mean boring or generic. It means refined and easier on the eyes. Think luxury, not laziness.
## Plan Refinement
Create a strategy to reduce intensity while maintaining impact:
- **Color approach**: Desaturate or shift to more restrained tones?
- **Hierarchy approach**: Which elements should stay bold (very few), which should recede?
- **Simplification approach**: What can be removed entirely?
- **Sophistication approach**: How can we signal quality through restraint?
**IMPORTANT**: Subtlety requires precision. Quiet without intent collapses to generic.
## Refine the Design
Systematically reduce intensity across these dimensions:
### Color Refinement
- **Reduce saturation**: Shift from fully saturated to 70-85% saturation
- **Soften palette**: Replace bright colors with muted tones
- **Reduce color variety**: Use fewer colors more thoughtfully
- **Neutral dominance**: Let neutrals do more work, use color as accent (10% rule)
- **Gentler contrasts**: High contrast only where it matters most
- **Tinted grays**: Use warm or cool tinted grays instead of pure gray. Adds depth without loudness
- **Never gray on color**: If you have gray text on a colored background, use a darker shade of that color or transparency instead
### Visual Weight Reduction
- **Typography**: Reduce font weights (900 → 600, 700 → 500), decrease sizes where appropriate
- **Hierarchy through subtlety**: Use weight, size, and space instead of color and boldness
- **White space**: Increase breathing room, reduce density
- **Borders & lines**: Reduce thickness, decrease opacity, or remove entirely
### Simplification
- **Remove decorative elements**: Gradients, shadows, patterns, textures that don't serve purpose
- **Simplify shapes**: Reduce border radius extremes, simplify custom shapes
- **Reduce layering**: Flatten visual hierarchy where possible
- **Clean up effects**: Reduce or remove blur effects, glows, multiple shadows
### Motion Reduction
- **Reduce animation intensity**: Shorter distances (10-20px instead of 40px), gentler easing
- **Remove decorative animations**: Keep functional motion, remove flourishes
- **Subtle micro-interactions**: Replace dramatic effects with gentle feedback
- **Refined easing**: Use ease-out-quart for smooth, understated motion. Never bounce or elastic
- **Remove animations entirely** if they're not serving a clear purpose
### Composition Refinement
- **Reduce scale jumps**: Smaller contrast between sizes creates calmer feeling
- **Align to grid**: Bring rogue elements back into systematic alignment
- **Even out spacing**: Replace extreme spacing variations with consistent rhythm
**NEVER**:
- Make everything the same size/weight (hierarchy still matters)
- Remove all color (quiet ≠ grayscale)
- Eliminate all personality (maintain character through refinement)
- Sacrifice usability for aesthetics (functional elements still need clear affordances)
- Make everything small and light (some anchors needed)
## Verify Quality
Ensure refinement maintains quality:
- **Still functional**: Can users still accomplish tasks easily?
- **Still distinctive**: Does it have character, or is it generic now?
- **Better reading**: Is text easier to read for extended periods?
- **Restrained, not absent**: Does the POV survive the cuts?
When the result feels right, hand off to `$impeccable polish` for the final pass.

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# No-argument routing: the context-aware menu
Read this when the user invokes `$impeccable` with no argument. They are asking "what should I do?" Make the menu context-aware instead of static.
Setup has already run `context.mjs`. If that reported `NO_PRODUCT_MD`, the project has no captured context yet: lead the menu with `$impeccable init` as the top recommendation (one line on why) and still show the rest below; don't silently jump into init. Otherwise run `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/context-signals.mjs` once and read its JSON, then lead with the **2-3 highest-value next commands**, each with a one-line reason pulled from the signals, followed by the full menu (the Commands table in SKILL.md, grouped by category). **Never auto-run a command; the recommendation is a suggestion the user confirms.**
Reason over the signals; there is no score to obey:
- `setup.hasDesign` false while `setup.hasCode` true → `document` (capture the visual system).
- `critique.latest` is `null` → the project has never been critiqued; for a set-up project with a real surface, offering `$impeccable critique <surface>` is a strong default.
- `critique.latest` with a low `score` or non-zero `p0` / `p1``polish` (it reads that snapshot as its backlog), or re-run `critique` if the snapshot looks stale.
- `git.changedFiles` pointing at one surface → scope `audit` or `polish` to those files specifically, naming them.
- `devServer.running` true → `live` is available for in-browser iteration; if false, don't lead with `live`. **`live` and the bundled `detect.mjs` are web-only.** If `setup.platform` is `ios`, `android`, or `adaptive`, don't lead with either; the browser overlay and the HTML rule engine don't apply to native app code.
- Otherwise group by intent (build new / improve what's there / iterate visually), tailored to the current surface and `setup.platform`.
**If `scan.targets` is non-empty and `setup.platform` is not `ios`/`android`/`adaptive`, run `node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/detect.mjs --json <scan.targets joined by spaces>` once** (the bundled detector over local files: no network, no npx; it reads HTML/CSS, so skip it for native projects). `scan.via` tells you what they are: `git-changes` (the markup/style files in your dirty tree, the most relevant set), `source-dir` (e.g. `src`, `app`), `html`, or `root`. Fold the hits into your picks: many quality / contrast hits → `audit` or `polish`; a specific slop family → the matching command (gradient text or eyebrows → `quieter` / `typeset`, flat or gray palette → `colorize`, and so on). It's a real, current signal that beats guessing. If detect errors or the tree is large and slow, skip it and recommend the user run `audit` themselves; never block the suggestion on it.
Keep it to 2-3 pointed picks with the exact command to type. The menu stays the fallback; the recommendation is the lede.

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# Shape
Discover what should be made and how it should work, then return a confirmed design brief without code.
## Phase 1: Discovery interview
Do not write code or choose visual direction yet.
### Cadence
- Use the structured question tool when available; otherwise ask and stop.
- Ask two or three related questions per round, then wait. One round is the default; add a second only when the answers expose a material gap.
- Do not dump a questionnaire, repeat settled facts, or turn obvious facts into menus. Assert the likely reading and invite correction.
- A sparse prompt requires at least one answer round. A precise prompt may need only a compact confirmation.
### Round 1: purpose, people, and outcome
Choose the two or three questions that most change the result:
- What is this surface or feature for, and what problem must it solve?
- Who specifically reaches it, in what situation and state of mind?
- What is the primary thing they must understand or do? What would success look like?
- What is uniquely true here that a neighboring product or generic template could not claim?
### Round 2: material, behavior, and boundaries
Run only for material unresolved decisions:
- What real content, evidence, data, and assets must the experience carry? What are realistic minimum, typical, and maximum ranges?
- Which states and transitions matter: first-run, empty, loading, error, success, permissions, overflow, or expert use?
- What is the intended fidelity, breadth, and interactivity: exploration, production-ready screen, full flow, or broader surface?
- What must remain untouched? What would make the result feel wrong even if it looked polished?
- Which platform, framework, performance, accessibility, localization, or delivery constraints are binding?
Never ask for CSS values or canned aesthetic lanes. New-work owns visual-world and concept choices.
## Phase 2: Resolve the design direction
For new surfaces, brand expansion, or replacement, follow [new-work.md](new-work.md) through visual authority, any world workshop, and concept choice. Reuse discovery, then return before its contract, persistence, or implementation. Inside an established world, use its concept process only when composition or interaction remains materially open.
## Phase 3: Write the brief
Write the smallest useful brief:
1. **Job and audience:** who arrives, their context, need, and visitor mode.
2. **Outcome and proof:** primary task/action, success, real evidence, and product-specific truth.
3. **Selected direction:** visual authority, structural/interaction thesis, sequence, focal moment, and implementation consequence.
4. **Scope and boundaries:** fidelity, breadth, interactivity, named target, what remains untouched, and explicit anti-goals.
5. **States and ranges:** realistic content/data ranges and material states.
6. **Interaction and layout:** hierarchy, topology, responsiveness, affordances, feedback, and transitions; intent, not CSS.
7. **Constraints and open decisions:** platform, delivery, accessibility, localization, reusable components, and choices a builder must not invent.
Use three to five bullets when the task is settled; use the full structure only for ambiguous, multi-screen, or standalone planning. Do not restate the conversation.
## Confirm and stop
Present the brief for explicit confirmation or one correction round, then stop: shape never writes code or a direction contract.
When no human or structured answer mechanism exists, mark assumptions plainly, return the brief, and stop.

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Typography carries information, hierarchy, and voice. Improve it inside the established visual world; do not replace the identity unless the user asked to.
---
## Visitor mode
- **Persuade + Experience:** display type may carry the voice. Use decisive contrast and responsive scale when the composition benefits.
- **Operate + Read:** stability, scanability, and measure come first. A single well-tuned family and fixed role scale are often right.
- **Native:** follow [ios.md](ios.md) or [android.md](android.md), including platform scaling and accessibility behavior.
If typography replacement would create a new identity, route through [new-work.md](new-work.md) and update DESIGN.md. Otherwise preserve confirmed families and improve their use.
## Two isolated assessments
When a sub-agent tool is available and permitted, run these independently; otherwise run them yourself in this order. Do not let detector findings anchor the design assessment.
1. **Typographic assessment:** inspect representative pages and styles. Answer every question below with a file, selector, or computed value:
- **Authority and fit:** Which faces, weights, and roles are established? Do they fit the product and selected world, or are they unexamined defaults? Is every family necessary?
- **Hierarchy:** Can heading, body, label, metadata, and data roles be distinguished at a glance? Are adjacent sizes or weights too close to carry different jobs?
- **Scale and consistency:** Is there a deliberate role scale, or a collection of arbitrary values? Do repeated roles stay identical across screens and states?
- **Reading:** Does body copy stay within a comfortable 4575 character measure? Are line height, paragraph rhythm, contrast, and tracking tuned to the actual face, width, language, and surface?
- **Stress:** What happens with long headings, localization expansion, zoom, narrow containers, missing weights, and font fallback?
- **Delivery:** Are only used assets loaded? Do fallback metrics, loading strategy, and variable-font settings avoid invisible text and disruptive reflow?
2. **Mechanical scan:** run:
```bash
node .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/detect.mjs --json --scope type [target files or dirs]
```
Also inspect dynamic or arbitrary font values the detector cannot interpret. Synthesize both assessments before editing, noting what each caught alone. A clean scan is a floor, not proof of good typography.
## Set the system
Before editing, state:
- the roles the interface needs;
- the intended contrast between those roles;
- the reading measure and density;
- which existing faces and weights are authoritative;
- any performance, localization, or accessibility constraints.
Use the fewest roles and families that make the hierarchy unmistakable. Combine size, weight, space, and tone deliberately instead of asking size alone to do all the work. Role names and tokens should describe purpose rather than values.
## Apply
- Keep body copy comfortably readable and zoomable. Use 1rem / 16px as the ordinary web body floor unless a dense role, platform convention, or user setting justifies otherwise.
- Keep prose in the 4575ch range. Tune line height inversely with measure: wider lines generally need more leading.
- Compensate light text on dark surfaces on all three perceptual axes: slightly more line height, a touch more tracking, and one step more weight when the face needs it.
- Tune line height to the face, width, language, and contrast, not a universal ratio.
- Keep repeated roles consistent across screens and states.
- Use numeric, tabular, code, and label features when their content benefits.
- Load only used font assets and weights. Provide metric-compatible fallbacks and avoid blocking text.
- Let marketing display type respond to available space when useful; keep dense product and reading surfaces spatially predictable.
- Preserve browser zoom, user font settings, Dynamic Type, and platform text scaling.
- Use paragraph spacing or first-line indentation as the primary paragraph rhythm; combining both usually double-marks the boundary.
Do not make type decorative at the expense of comprehension, or introduce a second family without a clear role it alone can perform.
## Verify
- Primary, secondary, body, and metadata roles are recognizable without reading the copy.
- Long text remains comfortable across relevant widths and languages.
- The typography belongs to the product and its established world.
- Loading does not create disruptive reflow or invisible text.
- Zoom, text scaling, focus, contrast, and reduced viewport paths remain usable.
- The final mechanical scan has no unexplained findings.
Answer each item with rendered or source evidence, then rerun the scan. Do not substitute a bare “yes” for verification.
When the hierarchy holds, hand off to `$impeccable polish`.
## Live-mode signature params
Every variant declares a coarse `scale` parameter and authors its type ramp against `var(--p-scale, 1)`.
```json
{"id":"scale","kind":"range","min":0.85,"max":1.3,"step":0.05,"default":1,"label":"Scale"}
```
Add at most one pairing or weight parameter when it represents a real system choice. Follow [live.md](live.md)'s parameter contract.

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# Visualize: Direction Comps & Asset Production
Load this from [new-work.md](new-work.md) whenever any image generation is available, a harness-native tool or the API fallback context.mjs reports. PRODUCT.md and DESIGN.md are preconditions. New-work has already resolved the visual world; this file must not reopen it.
The purpose of a probe is to test composition, narrative, hierarchy, density, focal moment, signature use, and image requirements. It is not a second identity workshop. Keep DESIGN.md's palette, typography direction, material language, component character, imagery stance, and motion grammar fixed.
## Generate three compositional options
Render three distinct high-fidelity north-star comps of the requested surface, with whatever generation capability exists. Base them on the real content and the surface concepts already developed with the user. Three is the number: one comp invites rubber-stamping, and the spread between three is what surfaces the composition worth building.
- When the user shortlisted multiple concepts, spread the three across them.
- When one direction is committed, vary the structural uncertainty an image can resolve: topology, sequence, density, hierarchy, focal composition, or interaction framing.
- Show enough beyond the opening moment to prove the concept can govern the whole requested surface.
- Do not generate a palette artifact, ask new atmosphere questions, introduce a different type voice, or invent a new motif. If the committed world cannot support the concept, return to the concept shortlist rather than changing the world.
Treat each comp as a direction test, not a screenshot specification. Core UI text, responsive behavior, accessibility, semantics, and interaction states remain implementation responsibilities.
## One approval point
Show the three together: in the harness when it can display images, otherwise on the decision page (`serve-question.mjs`, one option per comp with the comp as its hero). Ask what should carry forward, what feels false to the world, and whether the selected surface concept should be approved, combined, revised, or rejected. Then stop and wait. A structured simulated user counts as attended and receives the same question.
Do not begin code until the user approves a direction or explicitly delegates the choice. If they delegate, choose using the task brief, PRODUCT.md, and DESIGN.md, and state the evidence. Approval refines the task concept; it does not modify DESIGN.md.
After approval, summarize the composition and the parts of the comp that must not be literalized. Return to new-work.md, record the direction contract from the approved surface concept, then build.
## Inventory implementation fidelity
Before building, inventory the approved comp's major visible ingredients and choose an implementation medium for each: semantic HTML/CSS/SVG, existing project asset, generated raster, sourced raster, icon library, canvas/WebGL, or accepted omission.
Pay special attention to the dominant composition, signature use, image-native content, second-fold system, and any interaction the still image only implies. If the concept depends on a photograph, architectural scene, product object, portrait, or other raster-native material, do not silently replace it with generic CSS scenery.
Treat the comp as a north star, not something to trace. Do not rasterize core UI text or controls. Do not substitute a different visual driver after approval without asking.
## Produce only the assets the build needs
When clean raster ingredients are required and the harness runs subagents, use the shipped asset producer, `impeccable-asset-producer` (`impeccable_asset_producer` in codex): give it the approved comp, output paths, required dimensions and formats, transparency needs, crop notes, and what must remain semantic code. Otherwise produce the minimum required assets in the current thread with whatever generation exists, the native tool or generate-image.mjs.
Return to [new-work.md](new-work.md) for the direction contract, implementation, and the finishing pass.