pbakaus_impeccable/README.md

Impeccable

Design guidance for AI coding agents. 1 skill, 23 commands, live browser iteration, and 41 deterministic detector rules for AI-generated frontend design.

Quick start: From your project root, run npx impeccable skills install, then run /impeccable init inside your AI coding tool. Full docs: impeccable.style.

Why Impeccable?

Anthropic's frontend-design was the first widely-used design skill for Claude. Impeccable started from there.

Every model trained on the same SaaS templates. Skip the guidance and you get the same handful of tells on every project: Inter for everything, purple-to-blue gradients, cards nested in cards, gray text on colored backgrounds, the rounded-square icon tile above every heading.

Impeccable adds:

• One setup flow. /impeccable init writes PRODUCT.md and offers DESIGN.md, so later commands know the audience, brand/product lane, voice, anti-references, colors, type, and components.
• 23 commands. A shared design vocabulary with your AI: polish, audit, critique, distill, animate, bolder, quieter, and more.
• 41 deterministic detector rules plus LLM-only critique checks. The CLI and browser extension run the deterministic rules with no LLM and no API key.

What's Included

The Skill: impeccable

The skill installs as one command:

/impeccable <command> <target>

Start every new project with:

/impeccable init

init asks whether the surface is brand (marketing, landing, portfolio) or product (app UI, dashboard, tool), then writes project context that every later command reads.

23 Commands

All commands are accessed through /impeccable:

Command	What it does
/impeccable craft	Full shape-then-build flow with visual iteration
/impeccable init	One-time setup: gather design context, write PRODUCT.md and DESIGN.md, configure live mode, recommend next steps
/impeccable document	Generate root DESIGN.md from existing project code
/impeccable extract	Pull reusable components and tokens into the design system
/impeccable shape	Plan UX/UI before writing code
/impeccable critique	UX design review: hierarchy, clarity, emotional resonance
/impeccable audit	Run technical quality checks (a11y, performance, responsive)
/impeccable polish	Final pass, design system alignment, and shipping readiness
/impeccable bolder	Amplify boring designs
/impeccable quieter	Tone down overly bold designs
/impeccable distill	Strip to essence
/impeccable harden	Error handling, i18n, text overflow, edge cases
/impeccable onboard	First-run flows, empty states, activation paths
/impeccable animate	Add purposeful motion
/impeccable colorize	Introduce strategic color
/impeccable typeset	Fix font choices, hierarchy, sizing
/impeccable layout	Fix layout, spacing, visual rhythm
/impeccable delight	Add moments of joy
/impeccable overdrive	Add technically extraordinary effects
/impeccable clarify	Improve unclear UX copy
/impeccable adapt	Adapt for different devices
/impeccable optimize	Performance improvements
/impeccable live	Visual variant mode: iterate on elements in the browser

Use /impeccable pin <command> to create standalone shortcuts (e.g., pin audit creates /audit).

Usage Examples

/impeccable audit blog           # Audit blog hub + post pages
/impeccable critique landing     # UX design review
/impeccable polish settings      # Final pass before shipping
/impeccable harden checkout      # Add error handling + edge cases

Or use /impeccable directly with a description:

/impeccable redo this hero section

Anti-Patterns

The skill includes explicit guidance on what to avoid:

• Don't use overused fonts (Arial, Inter, system defaults)
• Don't use gray text on colored backgrounds
• Don't use pure black/gray (always tint)
• Don't wrap everything in cards or nest cards inside cards
• Don't use bounce/elastic easing (feels dated)

See It In Action

Visit impeccable.style to see before/after case studies of real projects transformed with Impeccable commands.

Installation

Option 1: CLI installer (Recommended)

From the root of your project, run:

npx impeccable skills install

This auto-detects your harness and writes the build compiled for it to the right location (.claude/skills/, .cursor/skills/, etc.). On Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex, it also installs the provider-native hook manifest. Works with Cursor, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, and every other supported tool. Reload your harness afterward.

To refresh an existing install, run:

npx impeccable skills update

Codex users should open /hooks after install or update and approve the project hook when prompted. Codex tracks trust by hook definition, so updates that change .codex/hooks.json can require approval again.

Option 2: Git Submodule

For teams that want to keep Impeccable vendored and updated through Git, add this repo as a submodule and link the compiled provider build into your harness folders:

git submodule add https://github.com/pbakaus/impeccable .impeccable
npx impeccable skills link --source=.impeccable --providers=claude,cursor
git add .gitmodules .impeccable .claude .cursor
git commit -m "Add Impeccable skills"

Use the providers your project needs, for example claude, cursor, gemini, codex, github, opencode, pi, qoder, trae, trae-cn, or rovo-dev. The command links individual skill folders from .impeccable/dist/universal/ and leaves existing real skill directories untouched unless you pass --force.

To update later:

git submodule update --remote .impeccable
npx impeccable skills link --source=.impeccable --providers=claude,cursor

Option 3: Download from Website

Visit impeccable.style, download the ZIP for your tool, and extract to your project.

Option 4: Copy from Repository

Cursor:

cp -r dist/cursor/.cursor your-project/

Note: Cursor skills require setup:

1. Switch to Nightly channel in Cursor Settings → Beta
2. Enable Agent Skills in Cursor Settings → Rules

Learn more about Cursor skills

Claude Code:

# Project-specific
cp -r dist/claude-code/.claude your-project/

# Or global (applies to all projects)
cp -r dist/claude-code/.claude/* ~/.claude/

OpenCode:

cp -r dist/opencode/.opencode your-project/

Pi:

cp -r dist/pi/.pi your-project/

Gemini CLI:

cp -r dist/gemini/.gemini your-project/

Note: Gemini CLI skills require setup:

1. Install preview version: npm i -g @google/gemini-cli@preview
2. Run /settings and enable "Skills"
3. Run /skills list to verify installation

Learn more about Gemini CLI skills

Codex CLI:

# Project-local
cp -r dist/agents/.agents your-project/
mkdir -p your-project/.codex
cp dist/codex/.codex/hooks.json your-project/.codex/hooks.json

# Or install the skill user-wide. Copy .codex/hooks.json into each project
# where you want the design hook to run.
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills
cp -r dist/agents/.agents/skills/* ~/.agents/skills/

The asset-producer subagent ships nested inside the skill's own agents/ folder, which Codex auto-discovers. No separate .codex/agents/ copy is needed. The hook is project-local because Codex discovers hooks from .codex/hooks.json next to trusted project config.

GitHub Copilot:

cp -r dist/github/.github your-project/

Trae:

# Trae China (domestic version)
cp -r dist/trae/.trae-cn/skills/* ~/.trae-cn/skills/

# Trae International
cp -r dist/trae/.trae/skills/* ~/.trae/skills/

Note: Trae has two versions with different config directories:

• Trae China: ~/.trae-cn/skills/
• Trae International: ~/.trae/skills/

After copying, restart Trae IDE to activate the skills.

Rovo Dev:

# Project-specific
cp -r dist/rovo-dev/.rovodev your-project/

# Or global (applies to all projects)
cp -r dist/rovo-dev/.rovodev/skills/* ~/.rovodev/skills/

Qoder:

# Project-specific
cp -r dist/qoder/.qoder your-project/

# Or global (applies to all projects)
cp -r dist/qoder/.qoder/skills/* ~/.qoder/skills/

Usage

Once installed, every command runs through the single /impeccable skill:

/impeccable audit        # Find issues
/impeccable polish       # Final cleanup
/impeccable distill      # Remove complexity
/impeccable critique     # Full design review

Type /impeccable alone to see the full command list.

Most commands accept an optional argument to focus on a specific area:

/impeccable audit the header
/impeccable polish the checkout form

If you reach for one command often, pin it with /impeccable pin audit to get /audit as a standalone shortcut.

Note: Codex uses skills here, not /prompts: commands. Open /skills or type $impeccable. Repo-local installs live in .agents/skills/; user-wide installs live in ~/.agents/skills/. GitHub Copilot uses .github/skills/. Restart the tool if a newly installed skill does not appear.

Design hook

On Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor, npx impeccable skills install and npx impeccable skills update install a provider-native hook manifest along with the skill payload. The hook runs the Impeccable design detector on direct UI file edits and surfaces findings back into the agent flow. Claude Code and Codex surface findings after the edit. Cursor blocks bad proposed writes before they land.

Installed hook surfaces:

• Claude Code: .claude/settings.json runs ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/.claude/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook.mjs.
• Cursor: .cursor/hooks.json runs .cursor/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook-before-edit.mjs.
• Codex: .codex/hooks.json runs .agents/skills/impeccable/scripts/hook.mjs.

The installer preserves unrelated hook entries and settings. If a hook manifest is malformed, install/update aborts by default; rerun with --force to back up the malformed file as .bak and replace it.

If you want skills without hook manifests, pass --no-hooks to npx impeccable skills install or npx impeccable skills update.

For debugging, set IMPECCABLE_HOOK_LOG=/path/to/hook.ndjson to write one NDJSON line per hook invocation. Leave it unset for normal use.

Codex requires one platform step that Impeccable cannot safely skip: open /hooks after install or update and approve the project hook. There is no Codex marketplace/plugin install flow for this hook.

Manual copy commands are fallback/debug instructions. The normal path is:

npx impeccable skills install
npx impeccable skills update

CLI

Impeccable includes a standalone CLI for detecting anti-patterns without an AI harness:

npx impeccable detect src/                   # scan a directory
npx impeccable detect index.html             # scan an HTML file
npx impeccable detect https://example.com    # scan a URL (Puppeteer)
npx impeccable detect --fast --json .        # regex-only, JSON output

The detector catches 41 deterministic issues across AI slop (side-tab borders, purple gradients, bounce easing, dark glows) and general design quality (line length, cramped padding, small touch targets, skipped headings, and more).

Supported Tools

• Cursor
• Claude Code
• OpenCode
• Pi
• Gemini CLI
• Codex CLI
• VS Code Copilot
• Kiro
• Trae
• Rovo Dev
• Qoder

Community & Ecosystem

Join the community and ecosystem conversations:

• GitHub Discussions: file bugs, request features, and help newcomers.
• Impeccable on npm: grab the CLI, follow releases, and star the package.
• Follow @pbakaus on Twitter for release notes, sample lint reports, and video highlights of new rules.

Contributing

See DEVELOP.md for contributor guidelines and build instructions.

License

Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.

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Created by Paul Bakaus