skill: rip out baked-in category recipes and saturated-default motion tropes

Programmatic bias mining (impeccable-evals) traced four major defects
back to specific lines in this skill that contradicted SKILL.md's own
first-order-reflex warning:

- brand.md "Pairing and voice" prescribed four category→aesthetic
  recipes (editorial → serif+sans, tech/dev/fintech → tight tracking,
  consumer/food/travel → script/display serif, creative → rule-break).
  These directly drove OpenAI's 76% extreme-negative letter-spacing
  on tech briefs and Anthropic/Google's 28-34% italic-serif-display
  slop on editorial/food briefs. Replaced with one sentence: the
  shape depends on the brand, not on the brand's category.
- brand.md "Brand permissions" had "Typographic risk. Enormous
  display type, unexpected italic cuts, mixed cases, hand-drawn
  headlines, a single oversize word as a hero." — a four-for-one
  slop driver behind 97% OpenAI comically-large H1, 42% bad-SVG
  illustration, and the editorial-italic slop. Deleted outright.
- typeset.md and teach.md repeated the same category recipes;
  trimmed to the principle without the recipe.
- SKILL.md Typography: added a hard hero-H1 ceiling (clamp() max
  ≤ 6rem ≈ 96px), with a <codex> block to make it explicit since
  OpenAI over-indexes here (97% ≥128px vs 24% for Anthropic).
- animate.md, bolder.md, brand.md: removed "staggered reveals" and
  "scroll-triggered transitions" as the prescribed default ambitious
  motion. By 2026 that's the saturated AI tell, not a choreography.
  Reserved stagger for legitimate list-sibling rhythm.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

skill/SKILL.md

@@ -80,6 +80,11 @@ Before choosing, write one sentence of physical scene: who uses this, where, und
 
 - Cap body line length at 65–75ch.
 - Hierarchy through scale + weight contrast (≥1.25 ratio between steps). Avoid flat scales.
+- Hero / display heading ceiling: clamp() max ≤ 6rem (~96px). Above that the page is shouting, not designing.
+
+<codex>
+The hero ceiling is hard. Stop at 6rem max. 8–11rem (128–176px) clamp maxes read as comically loud, not bold.
+</codex>
 
 ### Layout
 

skill/reference/animate.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Add motion that conveys state, gives feedback, and clarifies hierarchy. Cut moti
 
 ## Register
 
-Brand: orchestrated page-load sequences, staggered reveals, scroll-driven animation. Motion is part of the voice; one well-rehearsed entrance beats scattered micro-interactions.
+Brand: motion is part of the voice; one well-rehearsed entrance beats scattered micro-interactions. The saturated AI default is fade-and-rise reveals on every scrolled section — that's a tell, not a choreography. Reserve scroll-triggered motion for moments that earn it.
 
 Product: 150–250 ms on most transitions. Motion conveys state: feedback, reveal, loading, transitions between views. No page-load choreography; users are in a task and won't wait for it.
 
@@ -49,10 +49,9 @@ Create a purposeful animation plan:
 Add motion systematically across these categories:
 
 ### Entrance Animations
-- **Page load choreography**: Stagger element reveals (100-150ms delays), fade + slide combinations
 - **Hero section**: Dramatic entrance for primary content (scale, parallax, or creative effects)
-- **Content reveals**: Scroll-triggered animations using intersection observer
 - **Modal/drawer entry**: Smooth slide + fade, backdrop fade, focus management
+- **List rhythm**: Sibling stagger is legitimate for cards-in-a-grid or list-items-appearing — cap total stagger time per [motion-design.md](motion-design.md). Whole-section fade-on-scroll is not a list and is not legitimate.
 
 ### Micro-interactions
 - **Button feedback**:

skill/reference/bolder.md

@@ -78,10 +78,10 @@ Systematically increase impact across these dimensions:
 - **Custom elements**: Illustrative elements, custom icons, decorative details that reinforce brand
 
 ### Motion & Animation
-- **Entrance choreography**: Staggered, dramatic page load animations with 50-100ms delays
-- **Scroll effects**: Parallax, reveal animations, scroll-triggered sequences
-- **Micro-interactions**: Satisfying hover effects, click feedback, state changes
-- **Transitions**: Smooth, noticeable transitions using ease-out-quart/quint/expo (not bounce or elastic, which cheapen the effect)
+- **Hero moment**: One signature entrance, once. Not on every visit and not on every section.
+- **Micro-interactions**: Satisfying hover effects, click feedback, state changes.
+- **Transitions**: Smooth, noticeable transitions using ease-out-quart/quint/expo (not bounce or elastic, which cheapen the effect).
+- **Bolder ≠ scroll-fade-rise on every section.** That's the saturated AI default, the opposite of bold.
 
 ### Composition Boldness
 - **Hero moments**: Create clear focal points with dramatic treatment

skill/reference/brand.md

@@ -43,12 +43,7 @@ The reflex-reject lists apply to **new design choices**. When the existing brand
 
 ### Pairing and voice
 
-Distinctive + refined is the goal. The specific shape depends on the brand:
-
-- **Editorial / long-form / luxury**: display serif + sans body (a magazine shape).
-- **Tech / dev tools / fintech**: one committed sans, usually; custom-tight tracking, strong weight contrast inside a single family.
-- **Consumer / food / travel**: warmer pairings, often a humanist sans plus a script or display serif.
-- **Creative studios / agencies**: rule-breaking welcome. Mono-only, or display-only, or custom-drawn type as voice.
+Distinctive + refined is the goal. The specific shape depends on the brand, not on the brand's category. A category — "restaurant", "dev tool", "magazine", "fintech" — is not a recipe; treating it as one is the first-order reflex SKILL.md warns against.
 
 Two families minimum is the rule *only* when the voice needs it. A single well-chosen family with committed weight/size contrast is stronger than a timid display+body pair.
 
@@ -93,7 +88,7 @@ Brand surfaces lean on imagery. A restaurant, hotel, magazine, or product landin
 
 ## Motion
 
-- One well-orchestrated page-load with staggered reveals beats scattered micro-interactions, when the brand invites it. Tech-minimal brands often skip entrance motion entirely; the restraint is the voice.
+- One well-orchestrated page-load beats scattered micro-interactions, when the brand invites it. Some brands skip entrance motion entirely; the restraint is the voice.
 - For collapsing/expanding sections, transition `grid-template-rows` rather than `height`.
 
 ## Brand bans (on top of the shared absolute bans)
@@ -111,8 +106,7 @@ Brand surfaces lean on imagery. A restaurant, hotel, magazine, or product landin
 
 Brand can afford things product can't. Take them.
 
-- Ambitious first-load motion. Reveals, scroll-triggered transitions, typographic choreography.
+- Ambitious first-load motion. Reveals and typographic choreography that earn their place; not fade-on-scroll for every section.
 - Single-purpose viewports. One dominant idea per fold, long scroll, deliberate pacing.
-- Typographic risk. Enormous display type, unexpected italic cuts, mixed cases, hand-drawn headlines, a single oversize word as a hero.
 - Unexpected color strategies. Palette IS voice; a calm brand and a restless brand should not share palette mechanics.
 - Art direction per section. Different sections can have different visual worlds if the narrative demands it. Consistency of voice beats consistency of treatment.

skill/reference/teach.md

@@ -84,8 +84,7 @@ If the signal is genuinely split (e.g. a product with a big marketing landing),
 ### Brand & Personality
 - How would you describe the brand personality in 3 words?
 - Reference sites or apps that capture the right feel? What specifically about them?
-  - For brand, push for real-world references in the right lane (tech-minimal, editorial-magazine, consumer-warm, brutalist-grid, etc.), not generic "modern" adjectives.
-  - For product, push for category best-tool references (Linear, Figma, Notion, Raycast, Stripe).
+  - Push for specific named references with the *specific* thing about them that fits this brand, not generic "modern" adjectives or category-bucket lanes.
 - What should this explicitly NOT look like? Any anti-references?
 
 ### Accessibility & Inclusion

skill/reference/typeset.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Typography carries most of the information on the page. Replace generic defaults
 
 ## Register
 
-Brand: run the font selection procedure in [brand.md](brand.md). Pairing follows the brand's lane (display serif + sans body for editorial/luxury, one committed sans for tech, etc.). Fluid `clamp()` scale, ≥1.25 ratio between steps.
+Brand: run the font selection procedure in [brand.md](brand.md). Fluid `clamp()` scale, ≥1.25 ratio between steps.
 
 Product: system fonts and familiar sans stacks are legitimate here. One well-tuned family typically carries the whole UI. Fixed `rem` scale, 1.125–1.2 ratio between more closely-spaced steps.