Truth binds claims not demonstrations; conversion lives inside the form

Paul's probe review (recovery-ab): the no-invention rule was blocking
bold greenfield directions whose demonstration data does not exist yet;
kids-reading amplified the product's "quiet support" adjectives into a
whole-page aesthetic; and nothing guaranteed a Persuade surface still
sells once the form commits (a prior generation shipped zero nav and
zero CTA in the first viewport).

- Truth split in two: commercial and factual claims stay uninventable;
  illustrative material is authored at full fidelity, labeled synthetic,
  with a replace-with-real list for the user. Mirrored in the build
  section so execution-only sessions get it too.
- Persuade floor restored from a22: conversion lives inside the form's
  own vocabulary (one-line hook, visible primary action, legible reading
  order); a committed form that hides the offer has not finished
  translating. The contract's FIRST VIEWPORT block now names where the
  primary action sits, and the finishing review verifies the mode did
  its job.
- Calibration: negative constraints rule out devices, not exuberance;
  product-behavior adjectives do not dictate surface energy.
- Web leverage: when the chosen world names a technique (canvas, WebGL,
  view transitions), build the technique, not a static imitation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Paul Bakaus
2026-07-21 11:39:46 -07:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 555ae81b81
commit 25e438c3af
+7 -6
View File
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ The script assigns which structure gets built: your top-ranked structure is what
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.
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.
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. <!-- rule:skill-truth-binds-claims -->
For **Persuade**, the opening must make the offer intelligible and desirable, expose a clear action, and demonstrate something only this product can prove. 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.
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. <!-- rule:skill-persuade-conversion-in-form --> 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
@@ -58,11 +58,11 @@ Pick a color strategy before picking colors: Restrained (neutrals plus one accen
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. <!-- rule:skill-typo-reflex-faces -->
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. <!-- rule:skill-calibration-saturated-looks -->
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. <!-- rule:skill-calibration-saturated-looks --> 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. <!-- rule:skill-constraints-rule-out-devices-not-energy -->
## 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. FORM: the chosen form, its position on your ordered list, and the seed key the script printed. If a block reads like a mood, the direction is not decided yet; the finishing review audits the render against this contract. <!-- rule:skill-decide-then-build -->
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, and the seed key the script printed. If a block reads like a mood, the direction is not decided yet; the finishing review audits the render against this contract. <!-- rule:skill-decide-then-build -->
When a new or replacement world is chosen, write DESIGN.md at the appropriate project or app boundary using [document.md](document.md). Record only durable system rules; exact tokens may remain provisional until the first build establishes them. An ordinary extension does not rewrite DESIGN.md.
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ For `shape`, return the selected direction to [shape.md](shape.md) and stop befo
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. <!-- rule:skill-commit-every-atom -->
- **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.
- **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.
- **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.
@@ -92,6 +93,6 @@ Preserve semantics, accessibility, performance, responsiveness, project conventi
## 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. After a first implementation of a new world, update DESIGN.md with the exact tokens and behaviors that survived the build.
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.
When the harness can run a separate agent, this review belongs there, not in the build thread: give it the original request, confirmed answers, the artifact path, its direction contract, DESIGN.md, and existing hook findings. Ask for a short list of material fixes, promise by promise against the contract, apply them, and finish. Do not run a second detector. <!-- rule:skill-finish-separate-reviewer -->