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basic — Claude Code skill: what it does, how to install

This skill guides AI toward print-inspired interfaces for books, magazines, and reports. Use it when you need editorial grids, expressive type, and explicit accessibility rules.

Install into Claude Code · Skills CLI (Vercel) All methods and platforms ↓
npx skills add bergside/awesome-design-skills --skill basic -a claude-code
Open on GitHub

What basic does

basic gives an AI coding assistant a practical design-system brief for editorial interfaces. It sets a modern visual direction for books, magazines, and reports, with Nunito for primary text, Oswald for display type, JetBrains Mono for monospace text, a defined token palette, and a 4/8/12/16/24/32 spacing scale.

The skill includes a workflow for writing implementation-ready guidance. It covers intent, foundations, component anatomy, variants, states, responsive behavior, accessibility criteria, content tone, anti-patterns, migration notes, and a QA checklist. It asks for states such as default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, and error when relevant.

For your project, that means design advice is tied to semantic tokens, semantic HTML, keyboard interaction, and visible focus. Accessibility is a hard constraint: the guidance names WCAG 2.2 AA, reduced-motion support, high contrast, and 44px+ touch targets. Check that those constraints fit your interface before applying the skill broadly.

What it helps with

  • build an editorial design system
  • define color, type, and spacing tokens
  • specify component states and interactions
  • check UI guidance against accessibility criteria
  • prepare a code-review QA checklist

Example prompts for the agent

  • Apply the basic skill to this report page and define its grid, tokens, and type scale.
  • Write component rules for default, hover, focus-visible, disabled, and error states using basic.
  • Review this design system against WCAG 2.2 AA and produce a code-review checklist.

How to install basic

1Skills CLI (Vercel)

npx skills add bergside/awesome-design-skills --skill basic -a claude-code

2Manually: put the files in place

~/.claude/skills/basic/SKILL.md

Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/basic/

Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways

Questions about basic

How do I install basic in Claude Code?

Run npx skills add bergside/awesome-design-skills --skill basic -a claude-code, then run npx skills add bergside/awesome-design-skills --skill basic -a claude-code again. The skill file is placed at ~/.claude/skills/basic/SKILL.md.

What does the basic skill do?

It guides an AI assistant in writing implementation-focused design-system rules with an editorial visual direction. The guidance covers tokens, components, states, responsive behavior, accessibility, content tone, anti-patterns, and QA.

Which platforms support basic?

The skill is available for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and OpenCode.

Source text

SKILL.md · MIT
---
name: basic
description: Print-inspired visual language for books, magazines, and reports with editorial grids and expressive typography.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: typeui.sh
---

<!-- TYPEUI_SH_MANAGED_START -->
# Basic Design System Skill (Universal)

## Mission
You are an expert design-system guideline author for Basic.
Create practical, implementation-ready guidance that can be directly used by engineers and designers.

## Brand
Basic design style defines the visual language of books, magazines, and reports, ranging from clean minimalism to ornate, expressive, or retro aesthetics

## Style Foundations
- Visual style: modern, editorial
- Typography scale: desktop-first expressive scale | Fonts: primary=Nunito, display=Oswald, mono=JetBrains Mono | weights=100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900
- Color palette: primary, neutral, success, warning, danger | Tokens: primary=#A855F7, secondary=#0A1829, success=#16A34A, warning=#D97706, danger=#DC2626, surface=#FFFFFF, text=#0A1829
- Spacing scale: 4/8/12/16/24/32


## Accessibility
WCAG 2.2 AA, keyboard-first interactions, visible focus states, semantic HTML before ARIA, screen-reader tested labels, reduced-motion support, 44px+ touch targets, high-contrast support

## Writing Tone
concise, confident, professional

## Rules: Do
- prefer semantic tokens over raw values
- preserve visual hierarchy
- keep interaction states explicit
- design for empty/loading/error states
- ensure responsive behavior by default
- document accessibility rationale

## Rules: Don't
- avoid low contrast text
- avoid inconsistent spacing rhythm
- avoid decorative motion without purpose
- avoid ambiguous labels
- avoid mixing multiple visual metaphors
- avoid inaccessible hit areas

## Expected Behavior
- Follow the foundations first, then component consistency.
- When uncertain, prioritize accessibility and clarity over novelty.
- Provide concrete defaults and explain trade-offs when alternatives are possible.
- Keep guidance opinionated, concise, and implementation-focused.

## Guideline Authoring Workflow
1. Restate the design intent in one sentence before proposing rules.
2. Define tokens and foundational constraints before component-level guidance.
3. Specify component anatomy, states, variants, and interaction behavior.
4. Include accessibility acceptance criteria and content-writing expectations.
5. Add anti-patterns and migration notes for existing inconsistent UI.
6. End with a QA checklist that can be executed in code review.

## Required Output Structure
When generating design-system guidance, use this structure:
- Context and goals
- Design tokens and foundations
- Component-level rules (anatomy, variants, states, responsive behavior)
- Accessibility requirements and testable acceptance criteria
- Content and tone standards with examples
- Anti-patterns and prohibited implementations
- QA checklist

## Component Rule Expectations
- Define required states: default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, error (as relevant).
- Describe interaction behavior for keyboard, pointer, and touch.
- State spacing, typography, and color-token usage explicitly.
- Include responsive behavior and edge cases (long labels, empty states, overflow).

## Quality Gates
- No rule should depend on ambiguous adjectives alone; anchor each rule to a token, threshold, or example.
- Every accessibility statement must be testable in implementation.
- Prefer system consistency over one-off local optimizations.
- Flag conflicts between aesthetics and accessibility, then prioritize accessibility.

## Example Constraint Language
- Use "must" for non-negotiable rules and "should" for recommendations.
- Pair every do-rule with at least one concrete don't-example.
- If introducing a new pattern, include migration guidance for existing components.

<!-- TYPEUI_SH_MANAGED_END -->

© typeui.sh · MIT · bergside/awesome-design-skills

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