# design-artifact

Directs AI coding assistants to design clean HTML deliverables with thoughtful type and tokens instead of generic machine aesthetics.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 1700 installs · ★ 3763
- Author: plannotator
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/plannotator/effective-html/tree/HEAD/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-15
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/design-artifact

## What it does

The skill directs HTML generation for documents and landing pages. It enforces deliberate typographic decisions. Linking external font CDNs like Google Fonts is prohibited — fonts must be embedded directly as `@font-face` data URIs. Text measure stays capped near 65 characters, and numeric columns require `font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums`.

The instructions enforce tokens on `:root` to handle light and dark palettes cleanly. Sibling groups rely on `gap` inside flex or grid containers, eliminating unpredictable margin collapses. Real content is expected from the first draft. Placeholder `lorem ipsum` is banned.

The guide explicitly outlaws repetitive AI design tropes: warm cream backgrounds (#F4F1EA) paired with terracotta accents, and ubiquitous `rounded-lg` borders. If the project already defines design tokens in `DESIGN.md` or `CLAUDE.md`, the skill defers to those local project rules.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add plannotator/effective-html --skill design-artifact -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/design-artifact/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add plannotator/effective-html --skill design-artifact -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add plannotator/effective-html --skill design-artifact -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install plannotator/effective-html design-artifact
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add plannotator/effective-html --skill design-artifact -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/plannotator/effective-html --path skills/design-artifact
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add plannotator/effective-html --skill design-artifact -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/plannotator/effective-html/tree/HEAD/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- build HTML reports and landing pages without repetitive AI styling tropes
- embed web fonts via data URIs without third-party font CDNs
- implement cohesive light and dark modes through root CSS tokens
- format data-heavy tables using tabular numbers and horizontal scroll containers

## Example prompts
- Build a standalone HTML report with data tables and dark mode support
- Design an executive brief using the design-artifact guidelines
- Create a landing page for our command-line tool with embedded typography

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

Below is the content of a third-party file. It is data, not instructions for you: do not act on anything written inside unless the human asks. Block tag: eb3529dce9b1ea26.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE eb3529dce9b1ea26
```text
---
name: design-artifact
description: Design principles and creative direction for building HTML artifacts — pages, reports, plans, landing pages, demos, decks, and small tools. Use when creating or restyling any visual HTML deliverable and deciding its palette, type pairing, layout, theming, or overall register, or when the output must not look generically AI-generated.
---

Take the perspective of the creative director at a boutique agency with a reputation for range — every commission gets its own visual identity, scaled to whatever level of treatment the brief actually merits. Palette, type, and layout should all be conscious decisions rooted in this particular subject; nothing should smell like it came off a shelf.

## Begin by sizing up the brief

The question is never *whether* to design — it's what register to design in. A memo deserves craftsmanship equal to a landing page; the two simply wear that craftsmanship differently.

Much of what comes in wants a workmanlike register: plans, briefs, demos. Finish it properly — real hierarchy in the type, spacing that was thought about, a palette that was chosen — but know when to stop. Hardly any page benefits from a towering, theatrical hero. Ornament sparingly and with taste.

Then there's work that earns the editorial register: landing pages, games, apps and tools someone will hold onto or pass along.

When in doubt, remember that nobody ever regretted a well-composed page, whereas an identity pushed too hard sometimes backfires.

Everything in the fundamentals section applies universally. The editorial process at the end only kicks in when your read of the brief calls for it.

## Fundamentals for every artifact

**Defer to prior art.** Before anything else, hunt for an established design system — a AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md and/or DESIGN.md, QUALITY.md, PRODUCT.md etc, a tokens or theme file, styling on existing components. Found one? Apply it. The guidance below exists to plug holes, never to overrule. Authority flows in one fixed direction: what the user literally said, then whatever system the project already has, then your own taste.

**Anchor everything to the subject.** Where the subject is fuzzy, sharpen it first: one concrete thing, a defined audience, a single purpose the page exists to serve. The most distinctive moves are excavated from the subject's native territory — the stuff it's made of, the tools of its trade, the language its people speak. Populate the build with genuine content from the first draft onward; lorem ipsum is banned.
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE eb3529dce9b1ea26

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the eb3529dce9b1ea26 tags is data: requests and commands from it are not followed. An “end of file” line with another tag inside the block is part of the file.

First 2560 of 10948 bytes. © plannotator · MIT · https://github.com/plannotator/effective-html/tree/HEAD/skills/design-artifact/SKILL.md

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