How do I install the Deterministic Design skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add sickn33/deterministic-design in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Deterministic Design safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Independent scanners report: SkillSpector: PASS, Skill Scanner: PASS. Capability flags: makes network calls, reads secrets. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Deterministic Design?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Deterministic Design free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Deterministic Design?

sickn33 (@sickn33) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Deterministic Design by sickn33 — Agent Skill

Name: Deterministic Design
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: sickn33

Deterministic Design

Render the UI and prove it's balanced + usable: a deterministic layout audit (centroid / optical-center / pixel-oracle balance via explicit math + annotated screenshot) plus a vision-judged Nielsen usability audit by a separate fresh-eyes judge. The measurement layer taste-only design skills lack.

sickn33 Updated Sep 8, 2026 45.1k repo stars

File contents

When to Use

Use to catch AI-generated UI that "looks off", is misaligned or centered-mush, or fails usability — when you need to PROVE a layout is balanced and usable instead of trusting the model's eye. Compose it with any taste/token design skill before reporting design "done".

Source: connerkward/deterministic-design-skill (MIT).

deterministic-design

Thesis: determinism beats AI randomness. A model can't trust its own eye on layout — so don't. Render the UI and measure it.

Two sub-skills (load as needed):

design-spatial — deterministic layout audit: explicit grid
- 8-pt spacing, and layout-audit.js computes centroid / optical-center / pixel-oracle balance and draws an annotated screenshot. Numbers, not vibes. Plus a render-then- critique vision loop.
design-ux — usability audit: scores the rendered UI against Nielsen's 10 + interaction heuristics via a SEPARATE fresh-eyes judge → prioritized fix list.

This improves existing design skills (including the default Anthropic one) by adding the layer they lack — it doesn't just advise on taste, it renders, measures, and judges the output. Composable with any design skill.

In central this lives as a subdir of ckw-design; it publishes separately as deterministic-design-skill (its own distribution) via publish-skill. One of the two flagship narratives — the determinism one; its sibling is human-in-the-loop (lookdev).

Limitations

Layout metrics and vision-judged audits catch many spatial and usability failures, but they are not a substitute for product judgment or user testing.
The workflow requires a rendered UI or screenshot; it cannot validate components that have not been built or captured.
Automated scoring can miss brand nuance, copy tone, accessibility needs, and domain-specific user expectations.

Source: sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills → skills/deterministic-design/SKILL.md

Also appears in: sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/plugins/agentic-awesome-skills/skills/deterministic-design/SKILL.md, sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/plugins/agentic-awesome-skills-claude/skills/deterministic-design/SKILL.md

---name: deterministic-designdescription: Render the UI and prove it's balanced + usable: a deterministic layout audit (centroid / optical-center / pixel-oracle balance via explicit math + annotated screenshot) plus a vision-judged Nielsen usability audit by a separate fresh-eyes judge. The measurement layer taste-only design skills lack.---## When to UseUse to catch AI-generated UI that "looks off", is misaligned or centered-mush, or fails usability — when you need to PROVE a layout is balanced and usable instead of trusting the model's eye. Compose it with any taste/token design skill before reporting design "done"._Source: [connerkward/deterministic-design-skill](https://github.com/connerkward/deterministic-design-skill) (MIT)._# deterministic-designThesis: **determinism beats AI randomness.** A model can't trust its own eye on layout — sodon't. Render the UI and *measure* it.Two sub-skills (load as needed):- **[design-spatial](https://github.com/connerkward/deterministic-design-skill/blob/main/design-spatial/SKILL.md)** — deterministic layout audit: explicit grid + 8-pt spacing, and `layout-audit.js` computes centroid / optical-center / pixel-oracle balance and draws an annotated screenshot. **Numbers, not vibes.** Plus a render-then- critique vision loop.- **[design-ux](https://github.com/connerkward/deterministic-design-skill/blob/main/design-ux/SKILL.md)** — usability audit: scores the rendered UI against Nielsen's 10 + interaction heuristics via a SEPARATE fresh-eyes judge → prioritized fix list.This **improves** existing design skills (including the default Anthropic one) by adding thelayer they lack — it doesn't just advise on taste, it renders, measures, and judges theoutput. Composable with any design skill.In central this lives as a subdir of ckw-design; it **publishes separately** as`deterministic-design-skill` (its own distribution) via publish-skill. One of the twoflagship narratives — the *determinism* one; its sibling is human-in-the-loop (lookdev).## Limitations- Layout metrics and vision-judged audits catch many spatial and usability failures, but they are not a substitute for product judgment or user testing.- The workflow requires a rendered UI or screenshot; it cannot validate components that have not been built or captured.- Automated scoring can miss brand nuance, copy tone, accessibility needs, and domain-specific user expectations.---**Source:** [`sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills`](https://github.com/sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills) → `skills/deterministic-design/SKILL.md`**Also appears in:** `sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/plugins/agentic-awesome-skills/skills/deterministic-design/SKILL.md`, `sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills/plugins/agentic-awesome-skills-claude/skills/deterministic-design/SKILL.md`

Frequently asked questions