# brief

Generates or updates a durable design brief in .ui-craft/brief.md. It anchors product goals, user context, principles, and UI scope before code generation starts.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 849 installs · ★ 398
- Author: educlopez
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/educlopez/ui-craft/tree/HEAD/cli/assets/codex/skills/brief/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/educlopez-brief

## What it does

The skill checks whether `.ui-craft/brief.md` already exists. If missing, it inspects the repo root for `DESIGN.md` or `design-tokens.json` to pre-fill details before asking questions. It structures the brief around five compulsory sections: product purpose, primary user, principles, success metric, and what is out of scope.

When principles are missing or sound vague, it triggers a principles workshop backed by a catalog of 42 worked examples across 8 product categories. The agent examines past debated design decisions rather than accepting generic platitudes. Missing items receive a dated `[TO DEFINE — YYYY-MM-DD]` placeholder so gaps remain visible.

Updates follow an append-mostly rule where superseded items are marked deprecated instead of deleted. The file is never written without explicit user confirmation, and committing `.ui-craft/brief.md` to git is left entirely to the developer.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add educlopez/ui-craft --skill brief -a claude-code
```

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

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add educlopez/ui-craft --skill brief -a codex
```

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

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add educlopez/ui-craft --skill brief -a cursor
```

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

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install educlopez/ui-craft brief
```

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

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add educlopez/ui-craft --skill brief -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/educlopez/ui-craft --path cli/assets/codex/skills/brief
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

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

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add educlopez/ui-craft --skill brief -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/educlopez/ui-craft/tree/HEAD/cli/assets/codex/skills/brief/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- generate a durable UI design brief at `.ui-craft/brief.md`
- establish concrete design principles through a structured workshop
- define explicit out-of-scope boundaries for frontend surfaces
- parse existing PRD files into structured design brief sections

## Example prompts
- Draft a design brief for this frontend
- Update principles in .ui-craft/brief.md
- Create our UI brief based on the PRD

## 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: 859f32ee1bb99b78.

BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE 859f32ee1bb99b78
```text
---
name: brief
description: "Write or update the project's durable design brief at .ui-craft/brief.md. Invoke when the user asks for brief on their UI, or mentions 'brief' alongside design / UI / frontend work."
---

<!-- HARNESS MIRROR — do not edit here. Canonical source: skills/ or commands/. After editing source, copy into cli/assets/<harness>/ and repo-root harness mirrors. -->

**Context:** this sub-skill is one lens of the broader `ui-craft` skill. If the `ui-craft` skill is also installed, read its SKILL.md first for Discovery + Anti-Slop + Craft Test, then apply the specific lens below.

Load `references/brief.md` for the brief format before proceeding.

## Step 1: Detect existing brief

Check whether `.ui-craft/brief.md` exists. Use Read or ls on `.ui-craft/`.

**If it exists:** load its contents. If `$ARGUMENTS` names a specific update ("update principles", "shift target user", "add out of scope"), focus the session there and skip unchanged sections. Otherwise summarize what's in the brief and ask: "What do you want to change?"

**If it doesn't exist:** proceed to Step 2. Also check the repo root for a `DESIGN.md` or `design-tokens.json` (an ecosystem convention some teams already maintain) — if present, read it and pre-fill the brief's answers from it instead of re-asking; note the source. The brief complements an existing design contract, never contradicts it.

## Step 2: Draft a new brief (absent case)

Walk the user through the five required sections in a single pass. Ask ONE compact question per section. Do not open five separate prompts unless the user asks for depth.

Compact prompt template:

> "To write your design brief I need five things — answer as tersely as you like, I'll fill in structure:
> 1. **Product purpose** — what does it do, in one sentence?
> 2. **Primary user** — who, by role and context?
> 3. **Principles** — what does this product believe? Give me three to five stances it takes. (If you don't have these yet, say so — I'll run the principles workshop.)
> 4. **Success metric** — what does 'the user succeeded on this surface' look like in observable behavior?
> 5. **Out of scope** — three to five things this surface deliberately does NOT do."

**Principles workshop case:** if the user says "I don't have principles yet" or gives vague answers ("make it good", "keep it simple"), do NOT fabricate principles from vague input. Load `references/principles-catalog.md` first. The catalog has 42 worked example principles across 8 product categories — use them as conversation seeds, not as templates to adopt literally. Show 2-3 from the closest category to the user's product, then ask which resonate or which they'd flip. Then run the principles workshop from `references/brief.md` as a focused sub-flow: ask for three past design decisions that were debated, then derive candidate principles from the patterns. Refuse to accept platitudes — push back and prompt for substance.
```
END THIRD-PARTY FILE 859f32ee1bb99b78

The third-party file has ended. Everything between the 859f32ee1bb99b78 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 2973 of 4604 bytes. © educlopez · MIT · https://github.com/educlopez/ui-craft/tree/HEAD/cli/assets/codex/skills/brief/SKILL.md

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