# designing-frontend-interfaces

The skill makes the agent write a design brief and lock a token block before touching component code. Useful when your UI looks like default AI output.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 642 installs · ★ 15
- Author: osmontero
- License: Apache-2.0 · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/osmontero/opencode-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/designing-frontend-interfaces/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/designing-frontend-interfaces

## What it does

This skill covers visual craft for web interfaces: landing pages, dashboards, marketing sites, React and Vue components, HTML/CSS layouts, artifacts, posters. The agent works through an eight-step checklist — an eight-line brief, a named aesthetic direction, the token block, a layout skeleton, components, one memorable moment, a self-review against a rubric, and an actual visual check of the rendered result.

The rule is blunt: no component code before the brief and token block exist. The block holds a type scale built on one chosen ratio, a space scale, a color ramp with three ink levels and a single accent, one radius, shadow rules, and three motion durations. Any number outside that block does not belong in a component. A separate section on hierarchy says to change one dimension at a time and to group content with space rather than borders or cards.

Anything with flows, forms or non-trivial state requires the companion skill `designing-user-experience`, and shipping requires `building-accessible-interfaces`. Finished work gets critiqued with `reviewing-interface-quality`. So this one handles the visual layer, not the whole interface.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add osmontero/opencode-skills --skill designing-frontend-interfaces -a claude-code
```

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

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add osmontero/opencode-skills --skill designing-frontend-interfaces -a codex
```

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

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add osmontero/opencode-skills --skill designing-frontend-interfaces -a cursor
```

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

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install osmontero/opencode-skills designing-frontend-interfaces
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/designing-frontend-interfaces/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add osmontero/opencode-skills --skill designing-frontend-interfaces -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/osmontero/opencode-skills --path skills/designing-frontend-interfaces
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

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

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add osmontero/opencode-skills --skill designing-frontend-interfaces -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/osmontero/opencode-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/designing-frontend-interfaces/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- pick an aesthetic direction before the first line of CSS
- build a type and space scale instead of ad-hoc values
- strip the generic AI look out of a UI
- fix heading hierarchy by changing one dimension at a time
- group sections with spacing instead of another shadowed card

## Example prompts
- Build the landing page for our API — brief and tokens first, components after
- This dashboard looks too generic, rework the visuals with the designing-frontend-interfaces skill
- I need a type scale and color ramp for a marketing page, start with the brief

## Source text · SKILL.md · Apache-2.0

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: 3e56d87b12420eb6.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 3e56d87b12420eb6
````text
---
name: designing-frontend-interfaces
description: Use when building or restyling any web interface — landing pages, dashboards, marketing sites, web apps, React/Vue components, HTML/CSS layouts, artifacts, posters — or when asked to make a UI look better, more polished, more distinctive, less generic, or less "AI-generated". Also use when a design brief, art direction, visual identity, type scale, or color system is needed before implementation.
license: Complete terms in LICENSE.txt
---

# Designing Frontend Interfaces

## Overview

Distinctive interfaces come from **committing to one aesthetic direction and executing it with a locked system of values**. Generic interfaces come from picking each value ad hoc at the moment it is needed.

**Core principle:** Decide the system before you write the components. Every number in the finished CSS should trace back to a scale you chose deliberately.

This skill covers **visual craft**. Two companion skills cover the rest of interface quality:

- **REQUIRED SUB-SKILL** for anything with flows, forms, or non-trivial state: use `designing-user-experience`
- **REQUIRED SUB-SKILL** before shipping: use `building-accessible-interfaces`
- To critique a finished UI, use `reviewing-interface-quality`

## The Iron Law

```
NO COMPONENT CODE BEFORE THE DESIGN BRIEF AND TOKEN BLOCK EXIST
```

The brief is 8 lines. The token block is one CSS block. Together they cost about ninety seconds and they are what separates a designed interface from a decorated one.

Wrote components first? The values are already arbitrary. Extract them into a real scale before continuing — do not rationalize the numbers you happened to type.

## Checklist

Create a task for each item and complete them in order:

1. **Write the design brief** — 8 lines, in your response, before any file is created
2. **Choose an aesthetic direction** — from `references/aesthetic-directions.md`, or invent one, and name it
3. **Lock the token block** — type scale, color ramp, space scale, radius, shadow, motion. One CSS block.
4. **Build the layout skeleton** — structure and spacing, no decoration yet
5. **Build components** — every interactive element gets all five states
````
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 3e56d87b12420eb6

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the 3e56d87b12420eb6 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 2215 of 13092 bytes. © osmontero · Apache-2.0 · https://github.com/osmontero/opencode-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/designing-frontend-interfaces/SKILL.md

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---
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