Website Building

Website Building

Build distinctive, production-grade websites where every site looks DIFFERENT. Every choice — type, color, motion, layout — must be derived from the subject matter. Run the palette generator (bun run shared/generate-palette.ts "keywords") to create a unique color scheme for each project. NEVER reuse the same palette across sites.

This skill covers everything for web projects. Read the sub-files in this directory as needed based on your project type. For web applications, also read skills/webapp/SKILL.md.

Universal design principles (color philosophy, default palette, font selection) are shared with other skills via design-foundations. This skill's shared files extend those foundations with web-specific implementation (CSS variables, responsive tokens, base stylesheets). You don't need to load design-foundations separately — the web-specific versions in shared/ are comprehensive.

Use read with the full path, e.g. skills/website-building/shared/01-design-tokens.md

Project Type Routing

Step 1: Identify project type and load domain-specific guidance:

Step 2: Read shared files — read skills/website-building/shared/01-design-tokens.md and skills/website-building/shared/02-typography.md first (mandatory for ALL project types, including webapp). These establish the Kortix design system defaults and typography rules that apply universally. For web applications and dashboards, skip files marked with † below — those contain implementation details pre-configured in the fullstack template.

If the user says just "website" or "site" with no detail, ask what type or default to informational.

Sub-File Reference

Shared (shared/) — Every project

All paths are relative to skills/website-building/.

† Skip for webapp and dashboards — implementation details pre-configured in the fullstack template. Design-tokens and typography are NOT skipped — they provide the authoritative design system defaults and font selection guidance for all project types.

Domain-Specific — Load one

Interactive QA: Read skills/website-building/shared/12-playwright-interactive.md for persistent browser automation with Playwright (screenshots, functional testing, visual QA). Required for game testing, useful for any complex site.

Workflow

Step 0: Load ALL mandatory files (do this FIRST, in parallel)

Read ALL of these in one batch — they are mandatory for every project:

read("skills/website-building/shared/01-design-tokens.md")
read("skills/website-building/shared/02-typography.md")
read("skills/website-building/shared/04-layout.md")
read("skills/website-building/shared/05-taste.md")
read("skills/website-building/shared/08-standards.md")

Then load the domain-specific file (informational, webapp, or game) from Step 1 below.

Step 1: Generate unique palette

Run the palette generator with keywords describing the subject:

bun run skills/website-building/shared/generate-palette.ts "subject keywords here"

Pick the best harmony, customize if needed.

Step 2: Design & Build

Build the site with the generated palette, following all the loaded design guidance.

Step 3: Preview

Start a local server with pty_spawn, then show its plain URL:

# static site (no build step)
python3 -m http.server 3000 --directory /workspace/project
# app: run its dev server instead, e.g. npm run dev

Then show(type: "url", url: "http://localhost:3000/"). The platform auto-detects and proxies any localhost port — no special URL format needed.

Use Every Tool

• Research first. Search the web for reference sites, trends, and competitor examples before designing. Browse award-winning examples of the specific site type. Fetch any URLs the user provides.
• Generate real assets — generously. Generate images for heroes, section illustrations, editorial feature visuals, atmospheric backgrounds — not just one hero image. Every long page should have visual rhythm with generated images that match the site's art direction. No placeholders. Generate a custom SVG logo for every project (see below) — SVG is for logos only unless the user specifically requests SVG output. Save web reference images that inform direction.
• Screenshot via Playwright. Read skills/website-building/shared/12-playwright-interactive.md to screenshot at desktop (1280px+) and mobile (375px). Compare against references. This is mandatory, not optional. See Visual QA below.
• Write production code directly. HTML, CSS, JS, SVG. Use bash for build tools and file processing.

SVG Logo Generation

Every project gets a custom inline SVG logo. Never substitute a styled text heading.

1. Understand the brand — purpose, tone, one defining word
2. Write SVG directly — geometric shapes, letterforms, or abstract marks. One memorable shape.
3. Principles: Geometric/minimal (Paul Rand, Vignelli). Works at 24px and 200px. Monochrome first — add color as enhancement. Use currentColor for dark/light mode.
4. Implement inline with aria-label, viewBox, fill="none", currentColor strokes
5. Generate a favicon — simplified 32x32 version if needed

For SVG animation (DrawSVG, MorphSVG), see shared/03-motion.md. For SVG patterns/filters, see shared/07-toolkit.md.

Visual QA Testing Process

Every deployment must pass visual QA. Screenshots are quality gates.

Read skills/website-building/shared/12-playwright-interactive.md for all visual QA. Playwright provides a persistent browser session for screenshots, interaction testing, and viewport verification.

Cycle: Build → Playwright QA → Evaluate → Fix → Repeat → Deploy when ready

Stage 1: Page-by-Page QA

After building each page:

1. Screenshot at desktop (1280px+) and mobile (375px) via Playwright
2. Evaluate critically: Does it look professionally designed (not AI-generated)? Is typography distinctive? Is whitespace generous? Is there one clear visual hierarchy?
3. Fix every issue before moving on. No visual debt.

Stage 2: Final QA (before publishing)

1. Screenshot every page at desktop and mobile
2. Check cross-page consistency (spacing, color, type treatment)
3. Verify dark mode (screenshot both themes for homepage minimum)
4. Check interactive states: hover, focus, active, loading, empty, error
5. Cold-open first impression test: does it feel polished and intentional?

QA failures: text overflow, inconsistent spacing, off-token colors, missing dark mode, squished mobile, generic AI look, placeholder content, missing logo.

Step 1: Art Direction — Infer Before You Ask, Ask Before You Default

Every site should have a visual identity derived from its content. Do not skip to the Kortix fallback palette. The Kortix palette is a last resort for when both inference and asking have failed — not a convenient default.

1. Infer from the subject. A coffee roaster site → earthy browns, warm cream, hand-drawn feel. A fintech dashboard → cool slate, sharp sans-serif, data-dense. A children's learning app → bright primaries, rounded type, playful motion. The content itself tells you the palette, typography, and spacing before the user says a word.
2. Check the Art Direction tables. Each domain file (informational.md, webapp/SKILL.md, game/game.md) has an Art Direction table mapping site/product types to concept-driven directions and token starting points. Use these as a springboard.
3. Derive the five pillars: Color (warm/cool, accent from subject), Typography (serif/sans, display personality), Spacing (dense/generous), Motion (minimal/expressive), Imagery (photo/illustration/type-only).
4. If the subject is genuinely ambiguous, ask — "What mood are you going for?" and "Any reference sites?" One question is enough.
5. Kortix fallback — only when inference AND asking yield nothing. If the user has been asked and gave no direction, AND the subject matter gives no clear signal, then fall back to Kortix/Swiss defaults.

The Fallback: Clean & Swiss (Last Resort)

When inference yielded no clear direction AND the user was asked but gave no style guidance, use defaults from skills/website-building/shared/01-design-tokens.md with:

• Typography: Satoshi or General Sans body (Fontshare — preferred), or Inter/DM Sans. Weight contrast over font contrast. 3-4 sizes max. Keep text compact — --text-3xl/--text-hero are for informational site heroes only.
• Color: Kortix palette. Neutral surfaces + one teal accent for CTAs only.
• Layout: Grid-aligned. Generous margins. Asymmetric where interesting.
• Motion: Minimal, functional. Smooth state transitions only.
• Imagery: Generate clean, relevant visuals. No stock photos.

Art Direction — Avoid the AI Aesthetic

See skills/website-building/shared/08-standards.md for the full anti-patterns list.

Step 2: Publish

Use real local preview commands first and only publish with the target project's actual deployment workflow. See skills/website-building/shared/09-technical.md for the recommended preview and delivery flow.

Before taking a site live, load the web-publishing-and-deployments skill. It owns the whole publish path: the guardrail (explicit user opt-in — never publish unprompted), runtime-only dependencies that won't survive a standalone deployment, the mandatory pre-publish security review, and the provider mechanics.

Delivery

• Always verify the site locally first.
• Use pty_spawn for the preview or dev server.
• If the target repo already has a deployment workflow, use that exact workflow.
• If there is no established deploy target, deliver the files and a verified local preview instead of inventing a platform-specific deployment story.