Aesthetic Dreaming

aesthetic-dreaming Skill

Purpose: Create aesthetic templates before implementing any plugins. Capture visual design systems through adaptive questioning, generate structured aesthetic.md, and optionally create test previews demonstrating the aesthetic across different plugin types.

Solves: The friction of needing to create a full plugin just to design and save an aesthetic template. Build a library of visual design systems first, apply them later.

Phase Flow:

1. Phase 1: Free-form collection - Gather initial aesthetic vision
2. Phase 2: Gap analysis - Identify missing visual elements
3. Phase 3: Question batch - Ask 4 contextual questions via AskUserQuestion
4. Phase 3.5: Decision gate - Finalize / Continue / Add context
5. Phase 3.7: Name aesthetic (if finalizing)
6. Phase 4: Test preview selection
7. Phase 5: Generate files
8. Phase 6: Decision menu

Loop Structure: Phases 2-3-3.5 repeat until user chooses "finalize" at decision gate.

Critical Rules:

• Do NOT skip phases
• Do NOT execute phases out of order
• Do NOT proceed to finalization before decision gate approval
• NEVER auto-proceed past decision gates

Describe the visual design system you want to create—share as much or as little as you want. I'll ask follow-ups for anything missing.

Consider: overall vibe, color palette, control styling, spacing, textures, typography, and plugin types this would suit.

You can reference existing designs, describe feelings, or provide technical specifics.

Instead focus on uncovered gaps: typography, spacing, textures, plugin types.

1. Yes, finalize it - Create aesthetic.md and optional previews
2. Ask me 4 more questions - Continue refining the design
3. Let me add more context first - Provide additional details before questions

Choose (1-3): _

See references/file-generation.md for complete Phase 5 implementation protocol.

What's next?

1. Open test previews - View mockups in browser
2. Refine aesthetic - Adjust and regenerate aesthetic.md
3. Create another aesthetic - Start new aesthetic
4. Apply to existing plugin - Choose plugin from PLUGINS.md
5. Done

Choose (1-5): _

Anti-pattern: Never ask about concepts already provided. Never repeat questions in different words.

Tier Priority: Tier 1 (Critical: vibe, color philosophy, control style) → Tier 2 (Visual Core: specific colors, typography, spacing, textures) → Tier 3 (Context: plugin types, inspirations, special features)

See references/aesthetic-questions.md for detailed gap analysis strategies and question banks. See references/workflow-examples.md for complete examples showing adaptive questioning across different input scenarios.

Success Criteria

Skill is successful when:

• Aesthetic concept captured through adaptive questions
• No redundant questions asked (respects already-provided info)
• aesthetic.md generated with all 12 sections filled
• Test previews generated for selected plugin types (if any)
• Files stored in correct locations (.claude/aesthetics/[id]/)
• Aesthetic immediately available in ui-mockup skill
• User feels creative flow, not interrogated
• Clear next steps presented

Design Rationale

See references/design-rationale.md for detailed explanation of design decisions, format consistency rules, and quality control procedures.

Reference Documentation

See also:

• ui-template-library skill - Apply and save operations
• ui-mockup skill - Integration with Phase 0 aesthetic selection
• plugin-ideation skill - Adaptive questioning pattern reference
• assets/test-plugin-specs.json - Test plugin parameter definitions
• references/aesthetic-questions.md - Question bank and strategies
• references/question-examples.md - AskUserQuestion formatting examples
• references/test-preview-protocol.md - Test preview generation protocol
• references/error-handling.md - Error handling and edge cases