Claude Design Adaptation

Claude-Design Adaptation

When to use

• After receiving a Claude-Design export zip and before writing any production JSX.
• When a design audit finds mock data, invented metrics, or inline-styled clone components in a shipped page.
• NOT during the design generation phase — invoke claude-design first to produce the export, then this skill to adapt it.
• Pairs with claude-design (produces the export this skill adapts).

P1: Study the zip before touching code

Open manifest.json, tokens/, and design.html before writing a line. Identify:

• Token names that collide with or duplicate existing var(--*) design tokens — map them, don't add new variables.
• Existing components in the app that cover the same pattern under a different name.
• Which sections belong on the EXISTING route vs an implied new route that doesn't exist yet.

Adapt the layout concepts. Never copy the JSX.

P2: Never ship export numbers

Grep the export for fake-data tells before wiring any data: John Doe, Lorem ipsum, example.com, round-thousands (1,000+, 10,347), fabricated testimonials, invented logo clouds. Every visible number in production must map to a real DB query or be omitted. If the backend doesn't emit a metric, the UI doesn't show it. If the value is zero for a new user, show the zero state — not the mock.

P3: Design honest empty states

The export shows the happy path with N items. Production users see the empty path first. Before merging, implement all four variants:

• New user — zero data, onboarding CTA
• Pending — async operation in progress
• Genuinely empty — data exists but matches no filters
• Permission-gated — feature requires a plan upgrade

Label any placeholder content "Sample" explicitly if it must ship before real data is available.

P4: Token-first mapping

Every color, spacing value, and type style from the export resolves to an existing var(--*) in the product’s design-token source. Flag off-token hex values in the PR description. Never silently add a new CSS variable — if the export introduces a genuinely new token, add it to the token file in the same change with a comment explaining why it cannot map to an existing one.

P5: Component reuse first

Before writing a new component, search the app’s component library for the same intent. If an existing <Button>, <Card>, or <Dialog> covers ≥80% of the need, extend it via props or variants. Introducing a parallel inline-styled clone creates drift. Only create a new component when there is no existing analog and it will be reused in ≥2 places.

P6: Scope discipline — existing route, new section

An export that implies a new route (/dashboard/graph, /reports/weekly) gets a new section on the EXISTING closest route + a separate ticket, not a half-built route with a live nav link that 404s. The scope of an adapt task is ALWAYS the existing route. If a new route is warranted, create it as a separate ticket and leave a /* TODO: #N */ comment at the nav linkage point.

P7: Render-gate on prod, not localhost alone

Vercel preview URLs for authenticated dashboard surfaces are Clerk/SSO-gated — a preview URL existing is not evidence the page rendered. Verify via:

1. npm run dev locally with a real session
2. claude-in-chrome against localhost:3000 with an active Clerk session
3. A prod URL with an active session (for post-deploy verification)

"The preview built" is not a render receipt. Capture a screenshot as evidence.

For data-driven pages (tables, leaderboards, anything fed by a backend field), a screenshot taken immediately after the backend deploy is STILL not a render receipt. Next.js ISR + the CDN serve stale rows (new columns show —) for minutes after the deploy lands. Score AFTER the ISR revalidate TTL expires or a cache-busting reload shows fresh data — otherwise you file a false "data missing" finding against a page that is actually correct (gotcontext benchmark leaderboard, 2026-06-28: all ctx/batch/ttft read — until a forced reload; it was a CDN hit, not a bug).

For authenticated dashboard pages, a normal reload may STILL show stale UI — a stale service worker can serve the cached /dashboard shell. When render-verifying a dashboard surface after a deploy, hard-reload (Ctrl+Shift+R) to bypass the service worker AND the HTTP cache; a plain reload — or even re-navigating to the same URL — can return the SW-cached pre-deploy build. (gotcontext Knowledge table, 2026-06-28: the new full-width table rendered the OLD layout until a hard reload — the pre-fix service worker was caching /dashboard navigations. Corollary: real users on a pre-fix SW see stale dashboards until the new SW activates, so a fresh deploy is not retroactive for already-cached sessions.)

P8: Data-shape validation at the seam

Render against the ACTUAL API response type, including a real zero/null response. check-types passing does not guarantee correct wiring — TypeScript checks that a field exists on the declared type, not that the wire shape matches. For every data-bound component, confirm the field names against a real curl response or a Grep of the Pydantic model before declaring the adapt done.

Before claiming a binding is BROKEN, read the API-client adapter first. Frontend field names frequently differ from backend names BY DESIGN via an intentional rename layer in the typed client (e.g. an adapter renaming context_length→context_size, hardware_text→hardware_name, public_slug→run_slug). A field-name divergence is usually the adapter working, not a bug — read the adapter function + any wire-shape registry before raising a seam finding (gotcontext benchmark "seam bug" false-alarm, 2026-06-28).