Swiftui Animation Match

SwiftUI Animation Match

Use this skill to turn a vaguely felt interaction wish ("saving should feel more satisfying", "this list is boring while it loads") into a concrete, proven SwiftUI animation pattern — or into the deliberate decision to use what the system already provides.

The skill is a matcher, not a snippet dump. Its value is the judgment step: name the interaction moment first, check what the OS gives you for free, and only then reach into the cataloged sources for custom motion that earns its place. Animations add juice that makes a product feel human; forcing one where the platform already shines makes it feel worse.

First move

1. Name the moment. Translate the request into: what is the user doing, what should they feel, and how often does this happen? Read references/matching-playbook.md — it has the moment taxonomy and the system-first checklist.
2. Decide system vs custom. If a system affordance covers the moment (Liquid Glass chrome, .symbolEffect, springs, .contentTransition, zoom navigation transitions, .sensoryFeedback), prefer it and stop.
3. If custom motion earns its place, search the catalogs (below) by interaction pattern and keywords, not by animation name.
4. Adapt, never paste. Every catalog entry has lift notes and each catalog ends with a lift checklist (dependencies to replace, old patterns to modernize, Reduce Motion).
5. Verify in motion. Build and watch it in Previews or Simulator; motion cannot be judged from code. If the app repo has build/test skills (for example bootstrap-ios), use them.

Catalogs

Load only the catalog you need; entries are grouped by interaction moment and carry keywords, exact source paths, technique summaries, and lift notes.

The source index with pinned commits and licenses is in references/sources.md.

Mode picker

Restraint rules

• One signature motion moment per screen. Everything else stays quiet.
• Frequency caps intensity: high-frequency interactions get subtle, short motion (or system defaults); rare moments may be theatrical.
• Do not re-skin system chrome that already animates well (tab bars, toolbars, sheets, Liquid Glass surfaces). Custom motion belongs in content, not in the platform's chrome.
• Honor Reduce Motion with a crossfade or reduced variant.
• Keep one motion vocabulary per app: consistent spring feel, consistent duration scale. A catalog entry adopted verbatim into a calm app will feel foreign until its curves are tuned to match.

Adaptation posture

The catalogs describe working code from real repos, including its age. Keep the load-bearing geometry (shapes, trim windows, offset math, shader kernels) and modernize the plumbing:

• Timer state machines -> .phaseAnimator, .keyframeAnimator, withAnimation completion handlers, or Task.sleep.
• UIKit haptic wrappers -> .sensoryFeedback.
• Hardcoded screen bounds -> GeometryReader / container sizing.
• Demo colors, fonts, and assets -> the app's design tokens.
• Fake timer-driven progress -> real async work.

Extending the skill

This skill is built to grow: each new animation repo becomes one catalog reference file following the same entry format, registered in sources.md and the catalog table above. The repeatable recipe — including how to fan out parallel readers over a big repo and the exact entry template — is in references/adding-a-source.md.