Taste Layer
This is the anti-slop mechanism. Its job is not to add taste — it's to force the human to declare theirs, then hold every output to it. The kit supplies the mechanism; the user supplies the taste. Nothing here encodes one person's preferences as a default.
Why this exists
AI produces the average by default: coherent, competent, and anonymous. What marks work as "made by AI" isn't that AI helped — it's that no human decision is visible in it. This skill makes the human decision a required, recorded step so it can't be skipped.
Part 1 — Elicit the taste (before any generation)
Do NOT generate visuals, copy, or design until TASTE.md exists for the project. Interview the user to fill it. Ask in small batches, never all at once. Cover:
- References they love — 2-5 specific examples (sites, brands, products, artists) and, for each, what specifically they admire. "I like Linear" is useless; "Linear's restraint — one accent, tons of whitespace, no decoration" is signal.
- Anti-references — what they refuse. What looks cheap, generic, or "AI-made" to them. This is often more discriminating than what they like.
- The feeling — three adjectives the finished thing should evoke, and three it must NOT.
- Non-negotiables — a color, a font, a rule, a constraint that is theirs and fixed.
- Their contribution — the key question: "What will you bring to this that a generic tool wouldn't think of?" Even a rough answer. This is where their signature enters.
Write it all to TASTE.md at project root, tagged as the user's own words where possible. Keep it short and rule-based.
Part 2 — Enforce the taste (during and after generation)
- Before producing anything, re-read
TASTE.md. Every choice must trace to it. (Check for and open these with your Read/Glob tools, not shell commands — OS portability.)
- After producing, run the confrontation: does this reflect the references and avoid the anti-references? Does a human decision show, or is this the AI average? Name anything generic and redo it — don't wait to be asked.
- When a request would break a stated rule, flag it instead of silently overriding.
- If
TASTE.md is silent on something that matters, ask the user to decide rather than defaulting.
Principle
The kit never says "this is good taste." It says "you haven't decided yet — decide." Rien par défaut, tout par décision.
1---2name: taste-layer3description: Capture the human point of view for a project before any generation happens, and enforce it afterwards. Use this skill at the start of any creative or product work — design, brand, UI, copy, content, naming — and whenever a request would otherwise be answered with a generic default. Trigger when the user starts a project, asks for design/brand/content, or says things like "make it good", "not generic", "with taste". Produces and maintains a TASTE.md the whole stack reads.4---56# Taste Layer78This is the anti-slop mechanism. Its job is not to add taste — it's to force the *human* to declare theirs, then hold every output to it. The kit supplies the mechanism; the user supplies the taste. Nothing here encodes one person's preferences as a default.910## Why this exists1112AI produces the *average* by default: coherent, competent, and anonymous. What marks work as "made by AI" isn't that AI helped — it's that no human decision is visible in it. This skill makes the human decision a required, recorded step so it can't be skipped.1314## Part 1 — Elicit the taste (before any generation)1516Do NOT generate visuals, copy, or design until `TASTE.md` exists for the project. Interview the user to fill it. Ask in small batches, never all at once. Cover:17181. **References they love** — 2-5 specific examples (sites, brands, products, artists) and, for each, *what specifically* they admire. "I like Linear" is useless; "Linear's restraint — one accent, tons of whitespace, no decoration" is signal.192. **Anti-references** — what they refuse. What looks cheap, generic, or "AI-made" to them. This is often more discriminating than what they like.203. **The feeling** — three adjectives the finished thing should evoke, and three it must NOT.214. **Non-negotiables** — a color, a font, a rule, a constraint that is theirs and fixed.225. **Their contribution** — the key question: "What will *you* bring to this that a generic tool wouldn't think of?" Even a rough answer. This is where their signature enters.2324Write it all to `TASTE.md` at project root, tagged as the user's own words where possible. Keep it short and rule-based.2526## Part 2 — Enforce the taste (during and after generation)2728- Before producing anything, re-read `TASTE.md`. Every choice must trace to it. (Check for and open these with your Read/Glob tools, not shell commands — OS portability.)29- After producing, run the confrontation: does this reflect the references and avoid the anti-references? Does a human decision show, or is this the AI average? Name anything generic and redo it — don't wait to be asked.30- When a request would break a stated rule, flag it instead of silently overriding.31- If `TASTE.md` is silent on something that matters, ask the user to decide rather than defaulting.3233## Principle3435The kit never says "this is good taste." It says "you haven't decided yet — decide." Rien par défaut, tout par décision.
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