Stitch Design Taste

Stitch Design Taste — Semantic Design System Skill

0. NORTH STAR — Tier-1 Reference Canon & the claude.ai/design Taste Engine

Default output must read as a Linear/Vercel-tier clone, not a generic Tailwind template. The bar is linear.app and the 19-site canon; anything that reads "default shadcn / bootstrap / stock SaaS" has FAILED and must be raised, not shipped.

• Pass test: one accent + hairline structure + tight negative display tracking + dark-first (or fully-themed) depth + motion restraint — a designer should not be able to tell it apart from a Tier-1 reference at a glance.
• Pick ONE coherent dialect (a temperature + one or two signature deviations) and commit; never blend three sites' accents into a soup.
• Steal verified discipline, not hex blindly — never invent false precision (a curve/token a site does not actually ship).
• When unsure, return to the canon and measure against the Anchor before calling it done.

Default taste engine — distilled from claude.ai/design + the Linear-tier canon

Apply these unless the user overrides — a contrary brief wins, but absence of one does not; fall back to these defaults:

1. Restraint is the feature. Default to LESS — one accent, one type family, few elements per section. Suppress motion on high-frequency surfaces (nav hover, keyboard actions) entirely. If a flourish doesn't earn its place, cut it. The most-copied trait of every canon site is what they left out.
2. Single-accent color discipline. Exactly ONE accent hue carries brand + CTAs + focus; everything else is a neutral ramp. Reserve any second/third color for state (success/error) or data, never decoration. A near-black or near-white never goes pure #000/#FFF.
3. Warmth or cool — pick a temperature and commit. Choose ONE: cool (Linear indigo, Vercel blue, neutral-blue-black) OR warm (claude.ai cream + terracotta, Railway violet, PlanetScale/orange). Build the entire neutral ramp to match it (claude.ai runs warm ivory + warm-charcoal, never blue-black). Never mix warm and cool grays in one project.
4. Typographic confidence via weight + size + tracking, not theatrics. Display ≤600 weight (whisper, never 800-black). Apply size-proportional NEGATIVE tracking on large display (~-.02 to -.05em), neutral on body; the only positive tracking is a small uppercase eyebrow. Body never below ~14px. A neutral grotesk is the floor; a serif body (claude.ai) or a mono-as-second-voice (Vercel/PlanetScale/Oxide) is the anti-generic signature — never default to bare Inter for premium.
5. Hairline structure over heavy chrome. Build with 1px (or .5px) borders — solid neutral, or translucent white/black over a dark canvas so edges glow rather than cut. Snap everything to a 4px spacing ladder with a generous fixed section beat (96px), cap content width (1200–1280px), and keep a consistent small radius ladder (4/8/12px; pills only for chips/toggles).
6. Depth from surface + light, not drop-shadow glow. Prefer a near-black surface ladder + hairlines (Linear), a single colored glow/ring (Neon's 1px green ring, Clerk's halo), or a soft tinted shadow (claude.ai composer) — never a generic gray box-shadow or the "AI purple" neon glow. Ban shadow-glow as the default depth cue.
7. Motion discipline — short, eased, purposeful. Animate only transform/opacity. Keep interactive transitions snappy (treat ~150–200ms as a target, verify on the real site — don't assert a curve a site never ships). One easing family per project; differentiate reveals by staggered DELAY, not by switching curves. Reserve longer/ambient motion for one hero centerpiece. No bounce on chrome, no parallax-by-default, no scroll-jacking.
8. Dark-first depth as a first-class mode (and a real light mode). Default to a dark or dark-capable canvas with the surface-ladder/glow depth language; if light-first (Clerk/cal.com/WorkOS/claude.ai light), ship BOTH modes via a token swap — never leave a half-built theme.
9. Craft in the details — keyboard-first, honest content. Real :focus-visible rings (token-tinted, with offset), tactile press states (active:scale/translate-y), branded ::selection, IDE-tokenized inline code. Show real artifacts (actual config, real metrics) over stock imagery; no emojis, no filler chrome ("scroll to explore"), no fake round numbers.
10. The clone test as the bar. Output should be indistinguishable from a Tier-1 site (Linear/Vercel-tier): one accent, hairline structure, tight tracking, dark-first depth, motion restraint. "Generic Tailwind template" is a failure state — raise it until it reads canon.

The canonical reference set — anchor = linear.app

Build to this bar by default; the output should sit beside these.

Anchor

• linear.app — steal: near-black #08090A canvas, ONE desaturated indigo #5e6ad2, Inter at weight ≤600 with size-proportional NEGATIVE tracking, depth from a surface-ladder + 1px hairlines (NEVER shadow-glow), 96px section beat on a 4px grid, motion that suppresses itself on high-frequency surfaces.

Tier 1 — Quasi-identical to Linear

• vercel.com — steal: Geist Sans + Geist Mono, pure #000 / #EDEDED mono palette, ONE blue #0070F3 as punctuation, hairline rgba(255,255,255,.08) cards, and the morphing shared-layout nav (sliding pill + resizing panel).
• planetscale.com — steal: ZERO custom fonts (body in system MONO, sans is the exception), WARM orange #f35815, sharp 0-radius boxes via the dashed-box border + ASCII diagrams, and hover color-swaps that are 0ms instant.
• railway.app — steal: IBM Plex Serif display (weight 500) over Inter body, VIOLET-tinted neutrals (hue 246), magenta→violet accent (ring-pink-700, CTA #aa0aaa→#381dbd), glow-grows-not-box CTA, blueprint-grid hairlines, and the live split-flap board.
• resend.com — steal: Domaine + ABC Favorit display, achromatic Radix-gray on #000 with NO solid accent — color exists only as a traveling glow on a 1px divider; IDE-token inline code.
• cal.com — steal: Cal Sans display (POSITIVE tracking on small subheads) + Inter body, grayscale-as-brand (theme-flipping near-black #111827 ↔ white CTA), 4px radius, graded per-state button shadows, branded ::selection.

Tier 2 — Same energy

• clerk.com — steal: Suisse Int'l, body floor 15px, LIGHT-first with a warm violet primary #6c47ff + cyan #5de3ff demoted to a four-stop glow halo, .5px+1px hairlines with inset-rim shadows.
• trigger.dev — steal: Satoshi titles + Geist UI + Geist Mono, ONE acid-lime #a8ff53 (with a real lavender #7655fd second accent) on bespoke cool-charcoal, ONE easing only, and the moving-lines diagonal card-hover.
• turso.tech — steal: Inter display at -.03em, Bunker-black #0D1318 + mint Turso Aqua #4FF8D2, aqua-FILL/BLACK-text CTA, fuchsia second accent, hairline-flip-to-aqua hovers, near-invisible 5%-opacity light dot-grid.
• outstatic.com — steal: a giant leading-[0.9] SERIF hero + one achromatic gradient-clipped word, light-first monochrome zinc, full-bleed SVG line-bg layers, and the neo-brutalist hard-offset-shadow push button.
• supabase.com — steal: Circular Std at weight 500 (default tracking, NOT tight), 0°-saturation grayscale lit by ONE emerald #3ECF8E (green = success), neutral-gradient hairline cards, framer/anime/gsap motion at 400ms.
• neon.tech — steal: one-weight custom display ("esbuild") + Inter + GeistMono, pure-black + mint #00e599 shipped as a full alpha ladder, a 1px green RING instead of a drop-shadow on hover, 10%-green bloom gradients.

Tier 3 — A cut above on craft

• liveblocks.io — steal: Suisse Intl with JetBrains-Mono eyebrows, translucent-white hairlines (#fdfcfc21) that GLOW over #000, a multi-channel per-product semantic accent system locked to one lightness band, and CSS mask-sweep reveals.
• basehub.com — steal: Geist + Geist Mono (by Geist's makers), pure-gray near-black #040404 + warm orange #FF6C02, a five-layer rgba-orange ember glow as a scroll-progress pin, per-character 3D sin()-staggered list tumble.
• basement.studio — steal: Geist Sans + flauta display on TRUE-black brutalism, loud per-case-study accents (#ff4d00/#00FF9B), translucent white/.2 + #2E2E2E hairlines, and the steps() frame-stepped sprite mask reveal.
• rauno.me — steal: a private bespoke face at tiny 14px, PURE-achromatic hsl(0 0% N%) neutrals, matte soft 0.12-alpha shadows (no glow), a bounded OS-desktop canvas, and the hand-built right-edge minimap navigator.

Tier 4 — Style-defining

• oxide.computer — steal: SuisseIntl + a custom GT America Mono that DRAWS live ASCII diagrams, color authored in OKLCH (cool-black oklch(0.162 0.01 260) + oxide-green ≈#00D889, green=success), one unified stroke token for all 1px edges, low-bounce Framer springs.
• workos.com — steal: Untitled Sans with -.05em→-.07em display tracking, light↔dark-navy sandwich, indigo #6363f1 primary + a saturated spectrum reserved for the signature stacked-RGBA chromatic glow; pill buttons, 1px hairlines.
• claude.ai — steal: warm-cream ivory canvas (#faf9f5, never cold gray), a single terracotta #d97757 accent, longform body in a SERIF (anti-AI-slop), soft drop-shadow depth over hairlines, token-streaming text as the signature motion.

Full per-site breakdown (all five dimensions, signatures, and how each relates to linear.app) lives in skills/design/references/tier1-inspiration.md — read it for the canonical detail behind this taste layer.

Overview

This skill generates DESIGN.md files optimized for Google Stitch screen generation. It translates the battle-tested anti-slop frontend engineering directives into Stitch's native semantic design language — descriptive, natural-language rules paired with precise values that Stitch's AI agent can interpret to produce premium, non-generic interfaces.

The generated DESIGN.md serves as the single source of truth for prompting Stitch to generate new screens that align with a curated, high-agency design language. Stitch interprets design through "Visual Descriptions" supported by specific color values, typography specs, and component behaviors.

Single-voice craft (do NOT parallelize)

A design system is one coherent aesthetic voice, not a survey of opinions. Author the entire DESIGN.md yourself in one pass — never fan out to sub-agents, never merge multiple "design takes". Parallel authors produce token drift (warm vs cool grays, two type scales, conflicting motion intensities) — the exact incoherence this skill exists to prevent. One taste, one palette, one scale, end to end.

Three craft anchors when authoring:

1. Resolve the atmosphere first, then derive every token from it. Pin Density / Variance / Motion on the 1–10 spectrums (default Variance 8, Motion 6, Density 4) before writing a single hex. Every later choice — palette saturation, type scale, shadow depth, easing — must trace back to those three numbers. If a token can't be justified by the atmosphere, it doesn't belong.
2. Worked mini-example (the inline-image Hero): for a portfolio landing at Variance 8, the Hero headline reads "We build [▢] things that [▢] move" where each [▢] is a rounded, type-height inline photo acting as visual punctuation — never a centered headline, never a scroll-arrow chevron beneath it. That single decision encodes asymmetry + the signature inline-image technique + the no-filler-text ban in one stroke. Show choices at this resolution, not as abstract adjectives.
3. Self-edit for coherence before output. Re-read the draft once: every color named by purpose, one accent only (saturation < 80%, no purple/neon), one type scale, no banned font/serif, no #000000, no AI-cliché copy in examples. Inconsistency is the failure mode — hunt it.

Output contract & verify

• Produces: exactly one DESIGN.md following the "Output Format" structure below — all 7 sections populated (Atmosphere, Color, Typography, Components, Layout, Motion, Anti-Patterns), every color with a descriptive name + hex + functional role.
• Verify before declaring done: (1) every section present and non-empty; (2) exactly ≤1 accent color, saturation < 80%, no purple/neon, no #000000; (3) no banned fonts (Inter, generic serifs in dashboards); (4) anti-pattern list present and concrete; (5) no value invented to fill a gap — if the user gave no brand input, state the atmosphere assumption explicitly rather than fabricating a brand story or fake metrics.
• No-hallucination guardrail: invent no client name, no real-sounding metrics, no brand history. Placeholder names/images follow the anti-pattern rules (no "John Doe"/"Acme", picsum.photos over broken Unsplash). When a design choice is an inference (not user-stated), label it as a default so it can be overridden.

Prerequisites

• Access to Google Stitch via labs.google.com/stitch
• Optionally: Stitch MCP Server for programmatic integration with Cursor, Antigravity, or Gemini CLI

The Goal

Generate a DESIGN.md file that encodes:

1. Visual atmosphere — the mood, density, and design philosophy
2. Color calibration — neutrals, accents, and banned patterns with hex codes
3. Typographic architecture — font stacks, scale hierarchy, and anti-patterns
4. Component behaviors — buttons, cards, inputs with interaction states
5. Layout principles — grid systems, spacing philosophy, responsive strategy
6. Motion philosophy — animation engine specs, spring physics, perpetual micro-interactions
7. Anti-patterns — explicit list of banned AI design clichés

Analysis & Synthesis Instructions

1. Define the Atmosphere

Evaluate the target project's intent. Use evocative adjectives from the taste spectrum:

• Density: "Art Gallery Airy" (1–3) → "Daily App Balanced" (4–7) → "Cockpit Dense" (8–10)
• Variance: "Predictable Symmetric" (1–3) → "Offset Asymmetric" (4–7) → "Artsy Chaotic" (8–10)
• Motion: "Static Restrained" (1–3) → "Fluid CSS" (4–7) → "Cinematic Choreography" (8–10)

Default baseline: Variance 8, Motion 6, Density 4. Adapt dynamically based on user's vibe description.

2. Map the Color Palette

For each color provide: Descriptive Name + Hex Code + Functional Role.

Mandatory constraints:

• Maximum 1 accent color. Saturation below 80%
• The "AI Purple/Blue Neon" aesthetic is strictly BANNED — no purple button glows, no neon gradients
• Use absolute neutral bases (Zinc/Slate) with high-contrast singular accents
• Stick to one palette for the entire output — no warm/cool gray fluctuation
• Never use pure black (#000000) — use Off-Black, Zinc-950, or Charcoal

3. Establish Typography Rules

• Display/Headlines: Track-tight, controlled scale. Not screaming. Hierarchy through weight and color, not just massive size
• Body: Relaxed leading, max 65 characters per line
• Font Selection: Inter is BANNED for premium/creative contexts. Force unique character: Geist, Outfit, Cabinet Grotesk, or Satoshi
• Serif Ban: Generic serif fonts (Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond, Palatino) are BANNED. If serif is needed for editorial/creative contexts, use only distinctive modern serifs: Fraunces, Gambarino, Editorial New, or Instrument Serif. Serif is always BANNED in dashboards or software UIs
• Dashboard Constraint: Use Sans-Serif pairings exclusively (Geist + Geist Mono or Satoshi + JetBrains Mono)
• High-Density Override: When density exceeds 7, all numbers must use Monospace

4. Define the Hero Section

The Hero is the first impression and must be creative, striking, and never generic:

• Inline Image Typography: Embed small, contextual photos or visuals directly between words or letters in the headline. Images sit inline at type-height, rounded, acting as visual punctuation. This is the signature creative technique
• No Overlapping: Text must never overlap images or other text. Every element occupies its own clean spatial zone
• No Filler Text: "Scroll to explore", "Swipe down", scroll arrow icons, bouncing chevrons are BANNED. The content should pull users in naturally
• Asymmetric Structure: Centered Hero layouts BANNED when variance exceeds 4
• CTA Restraint: Maximum one primary CTA. No secondary "Learn more" links

5. Describe Component Stylings

For each component type, describe shape, color, shadow depth, and interaction behavior:

• Buttons: Tactile push feedback on active state. No neon outer glows. No custom mouse cursors
• Cards: Use ONLY when elevation communicates hierarchy. Tint shadows to background hue. For high-density layouts, replace cards with border-top dividers or negative space
• Inputs/Forms: Label above input, helper text optional, error text below. Standard gap spacing
• Loading States: Skeletal loaders matching layout dimensions — no generic circular spinners
• Empty States: Composed compositions indicating how to populate data
• Error States: Clear, inline error reporting

6. Define Layout Principles

• No overlapping elements — every element occupies its own clear spatial zone. No absolute-positioned content stacking
• Centered Hero sections are BANNED when variance exceeds 4 — force Split Screen, Left-Aligned, or Asymmetric Whitespace
• The generic "3 equal cards horizontally" feature row is BANNED — use 2-column Zig-Zag, asymmetric grid, or horizontal scroll
• CSS Grid over Flexbox math — never use calc() percentage hacks
• Contain layouts using max-width constraints (e.g., 1400px centered)
• Full-height sections must use min-h-[100dvh] — never h-screen (iOS Safari catastrophic jump)

7. Define Responsive Rules

Every design must work across all viewports:

• Mobile-First Collapse (< 768px): All multi-column layouts collapse to single column. No exceptions
• No Horizontal Scroll: Horizontal overflow on mobile is a critical failure
• Typography Scaling: Headlines scale via clamp(). Body text minimum 1rem/14px
• Touch Targets: All interactive elements minimum 44px tap target
• Image Behavior: Inline typography images (photos between words) stack below headline on mobile
• Navigation: Desktop horizontal nav collapses to clean mobile menu
• Spacing: Vertical section gaps reduce proportionally (clamp(3rem, 8vw, 6rem))

8. Encode Motion Philosophy

• Spring Physics default: stiffness: 100, damping: 20 — premium, weighty feel. No linear easing
• Perpetual Micro-Interactions: Every active component should have an infinite loop state (Pulse, Typewriter, Float, Shimmer)
• Staggered Orchestration: Never mount lists instantly — use cascade delays for waterfall reveals
• Performance: Animate exclusively via transform and opacity. Never animate top, left, width, height. Grain/noise filters on fixed pseudo-elements only

9. List Anti-Patterns (AI Tells)

Encode these as explicit "NEVER DO" rules in the DESIGN.md:

• No emojis anywhere
• No Inter font
• No generic serif fonts (Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond) — distinctive modern serifs only if needed
• No pure black (#000000)
• No neon/outer glow shadows
• No oversaturated accents
• No excessive gradient text on large headers
• No custom mouse cursors
• No overlapping elements — clean spatial separation always
• No 3-column equal card layouts
• No generic names ("John Doe", "Acme", "Nexus")
• No fake round numbers (99.99%, 50%)
• No AI copywriting clichés ("Elevate", "Seamless", "Unleash", "Next-Gen")
• No filler UI text: "Scroll to explore", "Swipe down", scroll arrows, bouncing chevrons
• No broken Unsplash links — use picsum.photos or SVG avatars
• No centered Hero sections (for high-variance projects)

Output Format (DESIGN.md Structure)

# Design System: [Project Title]

## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
(Evocative description of the mood, density, variance, and motion intensity.
Example: "A restrained, gallery-airy interface with confident asymmetric layouts
and fluid spring-physics motion. The atmosphere is clinical yet warm — like a
well-lit architecture studio.")

## 2. Color Palette & Roles
- **Canvas White** (#F9FAFB) — Primary background surface
- **Pure Surface** (#FFFFFF) — Card and container fill
- **Charcoal Ink** (#18181B) — Primary text, Zinc-950 depth
- **Muted Steel** (#71717A) — Secondary text, descriptions, metadata
- **Whisper Border** (rgba(226,232,240,0.5)) — Card borders, 1px structural lines
- **[Accent Name]** (#XXXXXX) — Single accent for CTAs, active states, focus rings
(Max 1 accent. Saturation < 80%. No purple/neon.)

## 3. Typography Rules
- **Display:** [Font Name] — Track-tight, controlled scale, weight-driven hierarchy
- **Body:** [Font Name] — Relaxed leading, 65ch max-width, neutral secondary color
- **Mono:** [Font Name] — For code, metadata, timestamps, high-density numbers
- **Banned:** Inter, generic system fonts for premium contexts. Serif fonts banned in dashboards.

## 4. Component Stylings
* **Buttons:** Flat, no outer glow. Tactile -1px translate on active. Accent fill for primary, ghost/outline for secondary.
* **Cards:** Generously rounded corners (2.5rem). Diffused whisper shadow. Used only when elevation serves hierarchy. High-density: replace with border-top dividers.
* **Inputs:** Label above, error below. Focus ring in accent color. No floating labels.
* **Loaders:** Skeletal shimmer matching exact layout dimensions. No circular spinners.
* **Empty States:** Composed, illustrated compositions — not just "No data" text.

## 5. Layout Principles
(Grid-first responsive architecture. Asymmetric splits for Hero sections.
Strict single-column collapse below 768px. Max-width containment.
No flexbox percentage math. Generous internal padding.)

## 6. Motion & Interaction
(Spring physics for all interactive elements. Staggered cascade reveals.
Perpetual micro-loops on active dashboard components. Hardware-accelerated
transforms only. Isolated Client Components for CPU-heavy animations.)

## 7. Anti-Patterns (Banned)
(Explicit list of forbidden patterns: no emojis, no Inter, no pure black,
no neon glows, no 3-column equal grids, no AI copywriting clichés,
no generic placeholder names, no broken image links.)

Best Practices

• Be Descriptive: "Deep Charcoal Ink (#18181B)" — not just "dark text"
• Be Functional: Explain what each element is used for
• Be Consistent: Same terminology throughout the document
• Be Precise: Include exact hex codes, rem values, pixel values in parentheses
• Be Opinionated: This is not a neutral template — it enforces a specific, premium aesthetic

Tips for Success

1. Start with the atmosphere — understand the vibe before detailing tokens
2. Look for patterns — identify consistent spacing, sizing, and styling
3. Think semantically — name colors by purpose, not just appearance
4. Consider hierarchy — document how visual weight communicates importance
5. Encode the bans — anti-patterns are as important as the rules themselves

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Using technical jargon without translation ("rounded-xl" instead of "generously rounded corners")
• Omitting hex codes or using only descriptive names
• Forgetting functional roles of design elements
• Being too vague in atmosphere descriptions
• Ignoring the anti-pattern list — these are what make the output premium
• Defaulting to generic "safe" designs instead of enforcing the curated aesthetic