Design Skill

Use $design to discover product and UI evidence, close only design-critical context gaps, and create or refresh the repository’s durable DESIGN.md contract. It is a maintained design brief, not a pixel-matching loop or one-off critique.

Shared operating, delegation, state, hook, team, cancellation, and verification invariants live in templates/AGENTS.md. Follow that source instead of duplicating its rules here.

Use when

• Product, UX, frontend, or design-system decisions need a repo-local source of truth.
• A feature needs a design brief before $ralph, a designer lane, or implementation.
• Existing UI, assets, screenshots, or constraints need an actionable design summary.

Do not use it for visual-reference implementation matching (use $visual-ralph), screenshot comparison alone, or backend/infrastructure work without user-facing design impact.

Relationship to $visual-ralph

$design owns product goals, users, information architecture, visual language, components, accessibility, constraints, and open questions in DESIGN.md. $visual-ralph owns implementation against an approved visual reference or live-URL baseline, measured verdicts, and pixel-diff evidence. Run $design first when both are needed; DESIGN.md supports but does not replace the visual verdict target.

Workflow

1. Discover local evidence

Inspect and cite existing DESIGN.md, design/UX/frontend docs, README/specs/issues, routes/pages/layouts/components/stories, theme and token files, assets, screenshots/mockups, Storybook or Playwright baselines, and accessibility/responsive/i18n/platform constraints. Separate observations from inferences; note absent evidence.

2. Interview only missing context

Ask concise questions only for gaps the repository cannot resolve: users/jobs, goals/non-goals, brand personality and forbidden aesthetics, primary flows, accessibility/device/browser targets, or unavailable assets/references. If answers are unavailable, record explicit assumptions and open questions rather than blocking.

3. Create or refresh DESIGN.md

Preserve useful content, remove contradictions, mark unknowns, and keep decisions actionable. The root file must contain these sections:

Design

Source of truth

Status (Draft | Active | Needs refresh), date, product surfaces, evidence reviewed.

Brand

Personality, trust signals, avoid.

Product goals

Goals, non-goals, success signals.

Personas and jobs

Primary personas, user jobs, contexts of use.

Information architecture

Navigation, routes/screens, content hierarchy.

Design principles

Principles and tradeoffs.

Visual language

Color, typography, spacing, shape/elevation, motion, imagery/iconography.

Components

Existing/new components, variants/states, token ownership.

Accessibility

Target standard, keyboard/focus, contrast, semantics, reduced motion/sensory concerns.

Responsive behavior

Breakpoints/devices, layout adaptations, touch/hover differences.

Interaction states

Loading, empty, error, success, disabled, offline/slow network where applicable.

Content voice

Tone, terminology, microcopy rules.

Implementation constraints

Framework/styling, tokens, performance, compatibility, test/screenshot expectations.

Open questions

[ ] question, owner, and impact.

4. Apply the contract

Before UI decisions, cite relevant DESIGN.md sections, reuse documented components/tokens, and update the file or add an open question when implementation exposes a contradiction. Do not invent a parallel design-system layer.

5. Handoff

For normal frontend work, provide the relevant sections, repo evidence, and acceptance criteria. For visual-reference, image, or live-URL matching, hand off to $visual-ralph with the approved baseline and identify DESIGN.md as supporting context only.

Evidence and completion

Complete only when design docs/assets/components/screenshots were inspected or noted absent; missing context is answered, assumed, or listed; root DESIGN.md contains every required section; recommendations cite it; and any Visual Ralph handoff is clearly separated from design governance.

Task: {{ARGUMENTS}}