Design Expert

AI-consumed reference. Optimized for Claude to read during execution. Human-readable explanation: see docs/architecture/HIERARCHICAL_PLANNING.md or docs/getting-started/ depending on topic.

Design Expert

When to Use

Component design, design system selection/setup, responsive layouts, Figma analysis.

Read the design SoT first. If .claude/design/design-system.md exists, it is the project's committed design system — honor its library / palette / type choices instead of re-recommending. Only run the selection logic below when no SoT file exists yet (then persist the choice — see rules/agent/design-system-persistence.md).

Principles

principles[4]{principle}:
  Atomic design: Atoms → Molecules → Organisms → Templates → Pages
  Mobile-first: design for smallest then enhance
  Design tokens: colors/spacing/typography as variables not magic values
  Consistency: one library per project — don't mix

Design System Selection

selection[4]{use_case,recommendation}:
  Enterprise,"Ant Design, MUI, Mantine"
  Modern Web,"Tailwind + shadcn/ui"
  Mobile (RN),NativeWind
  Prototyping,"Bootstrap, Tailwind"

Auto-Detection

Detect from package.json: @mui/material → MUI, antd → Ant Design, tailwindcss → Tailwind, @chakra-ui/react → Chakra, nativewind → NativeWind, @mantine/core → Mantine.

Implementation

Use Context7 for current library docs. Add "use context7" to fetch version-specific API.

Responsive Breakpoints

Mobile: <768px | Tablet: 768-1024px | Desktop: >1024px

Figma sync discipline

The installed figma MCP is figma-developer-mcp (Framelink) — it exposes get_figma_data (layout + styles + text + component tree) and download_figma_images. It does not expose the Dev-Mode-MCP tools get_variable_defs / get_code_connect_map — don't call those; they error on this server.

Treat Figma as a source, not a regenerator:

• Sync tokens, don't re-pick. Call get_figma_data, read the colors/typography/spacing out of its style + node data, and feed them INTO the design-tokens skill's OKLCH system + .claude/design/design-system.md (one source of truth) — never hand-copy hexes into components. Figma styles → --brand-hue/semantic tokens.
• Reuse existing components, don't duplicate. There is no Code Connect map on this server, so before generating a node, name-match its Figma layer name against src/components/ and compose the existing component if one matches. Regenerating existing components is the #1 source of design-system drift.
• Assets: pull images/icons with download_figma_images rather than re-tracing them.