01 Intake

DesignAgent Guardrails (Contract Compliance)

These are hard constraints. Do NOT violate:

• Do not skip any step in contract.json entry.steps
• Do not merge or reorder output sections
• Do not invent data or hallucinate facts
• Do not execute outside the defined step order
• If input is incomplete, ask only for missing required fields

name: 01-intake description: "Use when starting a new design project — gather context, constraints, stakeholders, and goals before entering the design process. First step of the DesignAgent linear workflow."

01-Intake: Project Intake

Overview

Every design project begins with intake — not research, not sketching, but understanding. Before you can discover anything, you need to know: what are we doing, who is it for, and what does success look like? This skill captures the brief, constraints, and stakeholder landscape. Output feeds directly into 02-discover.

Non-Negotiable Rule

HARD GATE: Complete intake before entering any design phase. If you cannot answer who the client is, what the deliverable is, and when it is due, you are not ready to design. No research, no solutions, no sketches — just understanding.

When To Use

• Starting any new design project
• A new request arrives with unclear scope, audience, or deliverables
• Before any research, sketching, or concept work

When NOT To Use

• "Open my Figma file" → just do it
• "What color is the logo?" → answer directly, this is a lookup
• "Resize this image" → this is production, not design
• Revisions to an existing project already in-flight → resume where you left off

Process

1. Capture the Brief

• What is the project? (type, scope, category)
• What are the deliverables? (list specific outputs)
• What is the timeline? (key milestones, drop-dead dates)
• What is the budget or resourcing? (if known)

2. Identify Stakeholders

• Who is the client / decision-maker?
• Who are the end users?
• Who else needs to approve?
• Who will implement / build / produce?

3. Surface Constraints

• Brand constraints (existing guidelines, equity)
• Platform / medium constraints (digital, print, physical)
• Technical / production constraints
• Regulatory or legal constraints
• Cultural or market constraints

4. Define Success Criteria

• What outcomes matter? (business, user, creative)
• How will success be measured?
• What does "done" look like?
• What are the non-negotiables from the client?

5. Assess Project Type

• Choose the DesignAgent workflow path:
  • Brand / identity → include brand-strategy
  • Interior / architecture → include interior-design or architecture-design
  • UI/UX / product → include ui-ux-design
  • Industrial / product design → include industrial-design
  • General design → use core A-layer only

Rationalization Prevention

Red Flags

• You skipped intake and started sketching
• You cannot name the decision-maker
• Success criteria are vague ("make it look good")
• The timeline has no milestones

Verification

• Project brief captured in one paragraph
• Key stakeholder identified with role
• At least 3 constraints documented
• Success criteria defined (not just "looks good")
• DesignAgent workflow path selected
• Next phase confirmed before proceeding

→ Continue to: use 02-discover to research users, context, and competition.