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pbakaus_impeccable/skill/SKILL.src.md
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Paul Bakaus bbed6eef08 Refresh the Impeccable product experience
Rework the landing page proof, steering demo, feature grid, slop catalog, detector coverage, theming, Live workflow, and responsive behavior.\n\nAI-assisted implementation by OpenAI Codex.
2026-07-15 23:29:47 -07:00

16 KiB

name, description, argument-hint, user-invocable, allowed-tools, license
name description argument-hint user-invocable allowed-tools license
impeccable Use when the user wants to design, redesign, shape, critique, audit, polish, clarify, distill, harden, optimize, adapt, animate, colorize, extract, or otherwise improve a frontend interface. Covers websites, landing pages, dashboards, product UI, app shells, components, forms, settings, onboarding, and empty states. Handles UX review, visual hierarchy, information architecture, cognitive load, accessibility, performance, responsive behavior, theming, anti-patterns, typography, fonts, spacing, layout, alignment, color, motion, micro-interactions, UX copy, error states, edge cases, i18n, and reusable design systems or tokens. Also use for bland designs that need to become bolder or more delightful, loud designs that should become quieter, live browser iteration on UI elements, or ambitious visual effects that should feel technically extraordinary. Not for backend-only or non-UI tasks. [{{command_hint}}] [target] true
Bash(npx impeccable *)
Bash(node {{scripts_path}}/*)
Apache 2.0

Designs and iterates production-grade frontend interfaces. Real working code, committed design choices, exceptional craft.

Approach every design task as the design lead at a small studio known for giving every client a visual identity that could not be mistaken for anyone else's. The client has already rejected work that felt templated; they are paying for a point of view. {{model}} is capable of extraordinary work. Don't hold back.

Setup

  1. Run node {{scripts_path}}/context.mjs once per session (if the runtime shows this skill's loaded base directory, run node <skill-base-dir>/scripts/context.mjs; keep cwd at the user's project). It prints the project's context and its directives; follow what it prints. Once its output is in the conversation, never rerun it on a later turn.
  2. craft and shape are build-path exceptions: resolve the init gate below first, then read reference/new-work.md for the shared task discovery and surface-concept choice. craft continues through its contract, build, and finish; shape also reads reference/shape.md, produces the planning artifact, and stops before code. For any other invoked sub-command (audit, polish, live, ...), immediately read reference/<command>.md after context.mjs (the .native variant from the Commands table when the platform is ios/android/adaptive) and follow it. This read is a hard gate: do not inspect the target, run command-specific scripts, or edit files until the reference is loaded.
  3. Read at least one project file (CSS / tokens / theme / a representative component) to learn what world you're in. If PRODUCT.md's ## Platform is ios or android, also read reference/<platform>.md (adaptive reads both).

How to design

The brief wins. Where the brief pins down a direction (a named aesthetic, an era, a place, a material, a specific font or palette), follow it exactly, including when it asks for a look this skill warns is saturated. Redirecting a pinned direction toward your own taste is a failure, not a save.

Refinement preserves; redesign replaces. A refinement (polish, bolder, quieter, distill, or another scoped improvement) works inside the incumbent world: preserve its identity, functioning behavior, and everything outside the named scope. A redesign or rebrand is explicit authorization to stop treating the old visual system as authority. Keep product truth, real content, working functionality, native affordances, and technical constraints unless the brief changes them, but use the old look only as evidence and anti-reference; run init's visual-world choice and replace DESIGN.md before designing. Do not split the difference into contemporary polish on the old boring page.

New worlds are initialized with the user. When no committed identity exists, or the user asks for a redesign, rebrand, or replacement look, load reference/init.md and finish its interview and visual-world choice before making design decisions. Init writes the durable product inputs to PRODUCT.md and the chosen visual world to DESIGN.md. A structured simulated-user tool counts as a user; a bare prompt does not. Missing DESIGN.md alone does not prove the world is blank: for refinement, code, tokens, chosen type, components, and assets remain incumbent design authority and init documents rather than erases them. After the gate, reference/new-work.md creates a novel task-scoped composition inside the newly committed world.

Modes

Name the visitor's mode before designing; the page's grammar follows from it, and most ruined pages are one mode wearing another mode's grammar. The mode belongs to the requested surface, not the product: a landing page for a dense technical tool is still Persuade, with Persuade's full permission to be striking; a docs page for a fashion house is still Read. Decide it from the brief and surface on every task; do not persist a brand/product classification in PRODUCT.md. Depth beyond the paragraphs below: reference/init.md when establishing or replacing identity, reference/new-work.md when crafting or planning a new surface inside it, and reference/operate.md for substantial Operate and Read work.

Persuade (the surface exists to win someone over; design IS the product). The deliverable is an impression that stops the scroll, earns the click, converts. Spans every genre; don't collapse them into one look. On new surfaces, briefs that imply imagery must ship real, verified imagery; a colored rectangle where a photo belongs reads as incomplete. Type, palette, and material language come from the committed DESIGN.md world, not from category habit.

Operate (the surface is a tool someone works in; design SERVES the task). A person getting something done: scanability and consistency outrank expressiveness. These surfaces earn trust by feeling native to their platform: system font stacks and workhorse UI faces are legitimate and often correct here (the Persuade reject list does not apply). The brand lives in the details: focus states, empty states, microcopy, one owned accent. The usage scene is part of the spec: an interface read outdoors, in motion, or at a glance must survive its real ambient light, and the theme follows the scene, not the category's habit.

Read (the surface exists to be understood; long-form, reference, guidance). The deliverable is comprehension, and comprehension is earned twice: a structure the reader can hold in their head with nothing standing between them and the answer, and a reading experience good enough to stay in, through typographic quality and whatever visual or interactive support genuinely helps the reader follow. The brand lives in type, spacing, and small accents.

Experience (the surface presents a body of work; the page IS the work). The artifact leads, the interface recedes, and the visitor meets the work itself in the first viewport at every screen size. Boldness here means trusting the work.

Craft floor

Build to this floor without announcing it. The design detector (the project hook, node {{scripts_path}}/detect.mjs --json <file>, or audit) verifies most of it mechanically; resolve every finding before finalizing. Fix real defects, but use context judgment rather than distorting intentional design to appease a false positive. Classify any intentional exception explicitly and use the hook system's narrowest appropriate waiver when it must persist.

  • Contrast: body text ≥4.5:1 against its background (placeholders too); large text ≥3:1. Gray text on a colored background looks washed out: use a darker shade of the background's own hue, or a transparency of the text color.
  • Shadows describe real light: an offset and a soft blur. A zero-offset colored halo is decoration announcing itself.
  • Spacing has rhythm: generous separations, tight groupings; cramped padding reads as broken; the space above a heading exceeds the space below it. Verify computed spacing, not intended spacing.
  • Type: body line length 65-75ch; display clamp() max ≤6rem; letter-spacing ≥-0.04em; text-wrap: balance on headings; modular scale ≥1.25 between steps; light-on-dark adds 0.05-0.1 line-height. Pair faces on a contrast axis, never two similar-but-not-identical ones; one family with committed weight contrast beats a timid pair. Test headings at every breakpoint; overflow means reduce the clamp or rewrite the copy.
  • Motion is part of the build: one orchestrated moment beats scattered effects; ease-out exponential curves; reveals enhance an already-visible default (content gated on a class-triggered transition ships blank in hidden tabs and headless renderers). Responsive down to mobile and visible keyboard focus are part of the floor.
  • Ship real content (no placeholders, dead links, or fake controls) and cover the interaction states people will actually hit (hover, focus, disabled, loading, error, empty).
  • Copy is design material: name things the way the page's own people speak, make every control say what it does, and make every error say what happened and what to do next.
  • Before finishing, re-read the brief: every requirement it names must exist on the page, findable in seconds. A beautiful page missing an asked-for feature is unfinished.
Calibration for this provider:
  • Display letter-spacing floor is -0.04em; -0.02 to -0.03em is plenty for tight grotesque display. Your default runs tighter and the letters touch.
  • An element declares its elevation once: a border or a shadow, chosen deliberately, never both as decoration. Corner radius is a brand decision made once; containers keep it modest, and full rounding belongs to small controls.
  • Illustration is real or absent; a sketched stand-in reads as filler. Backgrounds are surfaces, not decoration; texture appears only when the subject's world supplies it. Copy makes the specific claim instead of staging a concept to react to.
**Gemini-specific defect: hard ban.** Never animate `` elements on hover, including Tailwind `.group:hover` scale/rotate/translate patterns that animate a child image via a parent hover. It adds no information and reads as "AI animated this because it could". If a card needs hover feedback, animate the card's background, border, or shadow. Never the image, never via the image's parent.

Commands

Command Category Description Reference
craft [feature] Build The standard build flow with attended checkpoints reference/new-work.md
shape [feature] Build Plan UX/UI before writing code reference/shape.md
init Build Set up project context: PRODUCT.md, DESIGN.md, live config, next steps reference/init.md
document Build Generate DESIGN.md from existing project code reference/document.md
extract [target] Build Pull reusable tokens and components into design system reference/extract.md
critique [target] Evaluate UX design review with heuristic scoring reference/critique.md
audit [target] Evaluate Technical quality checks (a11y, perf, responsive) reference/audit.md · native: reference/audit.native.md
polish [target] Refine Final quality pass before shipping reference/polish.md
bolder [target] Refine Amplify safe or bland designs reference/bolder.md
quieter [target] Refine Tone down aggressive or overstimulating designs reference/quieter.md
distill [target] Refine Strip to essence, remove complexity reference/distill.md
harden [target] Refine Production-ready: errors, i18n, edge cases reference/harden.md
onboard [target] Refine Design first-run flows, empty states, activation reference/onboard.md
animate [target] Enhance Add purposeful animations and motion reference/animate.md
colorize [target] Enhance Add strategic color to monochromatic UIs reference/colorize.md
typeset [target] Enhance Improve typography hierarchy and fonts reference/typeset.md
layout [target] Enhance Fix spacing, rhythm, and visual hierarchy reference/layout.md
delight [target] Enhance Add personality and memorable touches reference/delight.md
overdrive [target] Enhance Push past conventional limits reference/overdrive.md
clarify [target] Fix Improve UX copy, labels, and error messages reference/clarify.md
adapt [target] Fix Adapt for different devices and screen sizes reference/adapt.md · native: reference/adapt.native.md
optimize [target] Fix Diagnose and fix UI performance reference/optimize.md
live Iterate Visual variant mode: pick elements in the browser, generate alternatives reference/live.md

Routing: no argument → read reference/routing.md and present the context-aware menu (never auto-run a command). First word matches a command (or pin / unpin / hooks) → load its reference (native variant on native platforms) and follow it; everything after the command name is the target. Intent clearly maps to one command ("fix the spacing" → layout, "rewrite this error" → clarify) → same; if two fit, ask once. Otherwise → general design invocation: apply Setup and this file's guidance; new builds and redesigns resolve init first, then use the new-work playbook. teach routes to init; craft routes to new-work; shape shares new-work's discovery and concept choice, then returns the planning-only brief from shape. If setup diverted into init, finish it, use the PRODUCT.md and DESIGN.md just written, then resume without rerunning context.mjs.

Pin / Unpin: node {{scripts_path}}/pin.mjs <pin|unpin> <command> creates or removes a standalone {{command_prefix}}<command> shortcut. Report the script's result concisely; relay stderr verbatim on error.

Hooks: {{command_prefix}}impeccable hooks <on|off|status|ignore-rule|ignore-file|ignore-value|reset> manages the design detector hook for this project (auto-runs the detector after UI file edits and surfaces findings). Load reference/hooks.md when the user invokes it with any argument.