using-design-skills

You decide which design skills a task needs, in what order, and who executes each stage, then defer to them. Member roster, role tables, and executor details live in

references/design-roles.md

— read it at pipeline composition time; never route from memory of it.

BYPASS

Backend-only / non-UI work · one-line CSS or copy tweak (inline; at most consult DESIGN.md) · the user names ONE member skill for a single-skill-sized task → go direct.
Loop-shaped non-design work (audits, plan→build) →
```
using-workflows
```
.

TRIGGER

Any deliverable whose value is visual or interface-shaped: pages, screens, HTML reports/diagrams/plans, artifacts, dashboards, motion, mockups, module/API interface design.

QUESTIONS — compose the pipeline (answer in order)

Q1 Base deliverable — who owns the output? Diagram →

diagram-design

for house-style consistency / mermaid / draw.io / PNG-SVG export, else the HTML trio · report / plan page → the HTML trio or

plannotator-visual-explainer

· web/mobile → target stack · Artifact → artifact file · data file →

data-report

· module/API/domain → Pipeline D · token work → DESIGN.md itself · mockup-only → imagegen output · "would this work?" →

prototype

, alone, no loop.

Q2 Variant. Existing interface → audit-first (authority critiques the CURRENT render before rebuild). New + ambitious + imagegen available → image-first (imagegen ⇒ image-to-code ⇒ loop); ordinary task → direct build, say so when skipping imagegen.

Q3 Orthogonal specialists (additive). Charts →

dataviz

if it resolves under SELECT (else apply charting best-practices inline — no dedicated chart skill is guaranteed installed). Artifact →

artifact-design

(a bundled skill; MANDATORY before publishing). Motion/gesture →

apple-design

. Constraint sets, loaded inline.

Q4 Executor per stage — the executor table in

references/design-roles.md

. Direction runs INLINE; imagegen/image-to-code → agent-tmux codex persistent worker; non-trivial build → agent-tmux claude persistent worker; every review → FRESH headless one-shot, never the author.

Q5 Verifier. Render in scope → the visual quality loop below (full Gate 0 screenshot evidence). DESIGN.md-only → document-only evidence (file hash/commit, token completeness, contrast math). Pipeline D → non-visual loop: design comparison judged against

codebase-design

depth criteria by a fresh reviewer, verdict still PASS/BLOCK.

prototype

→ none.

SELECT — discover live, then bind roles

```
ls ~/.claude/skills/ ~/.agents/skills/ 2>/dev/null | sort -u
```
, cross-check against THIS turn's active available-skills listing — a directory copy that isn't loaded is not invocable; a member gated
```
disable-model-invocation: true
```
(check
```
head -8
```
) is reached by reading its SKILL.md inline, never via
```
Skill()
```
.
Exactly ONE direction authority for a visual pipeline (ZERO for Pipeline D / prototypes / trivial tweaks). Never stack two — they fight. An unknown skill is never auto-promoted to authority.
A prior member that is absent or uncallable → STATE the absence and the substitute in your plan; an empty role → degrade explicitly. Never substitute silently.
Read each selected skill's SKILL.md before its stage runs.

DEFER — cross-stage contracts

DESIGN.md: the direction stage WRITES it (plain Read/Write — the
```
design-md
```
helper skill was removed); every later stage and every worker prompt READS it. Workers have no chat memory — never carry direction in chat only.
Dispatch: tmux dispatches route through
```
using-tmux-agent-tools
```
; worker prompts from
```
delegation-templates
```
; tiers per
```
~/.agents/rules/model-dispatch.md
```
§5, verification §7. Fanout/dialogue need the user's exact authorization.
Loop topology (fixed): the BUILDER is a persistent worker — BLOCK findings return to the SAME builder (worker-reuse protocol). Each REVIEWER is a fresh headless one-shot, never the builder, never reused.
Worker-prompt addendum: "DESIGN CONTEXT: read
```
{repo}/DESIGN.md
```
first; conform to its tokens. SKILL: read and follow
```
{member-SKILL.md}
```
first."

The quality loop — no pipeline ends at "built"

Gate 0, fail-closed: the reviewer RECORDS build identity (hash/commit), artifact path/URL, screenshot path(s), viewport(s), full-page/uncropped. Desktop AND mobile for responsive deliverables. Missing/stale/cropped evidence → UNCONFIRMED → overall BLOCK; never PASS on code-only review. (Document-only exception: DESIGN.md-only deliverables record file hash/commit instead — the instant any render exists, full contract resumes.)

Rubric, in order: 1. THE SLOP TEST — the authority's audit rubric; generic gradient-hero / emoji-bullet / card-grid sameness = BLOCK regardless of correctness. 2. Prose discipline — no filler, scannable hierarchy. 3. DESIGN.md conformance. 4. The stage's frozen ACCEPTANCE criteria.

Report contract: per-item PASS / FAIL / UNCONFIRMED + one-line reason, findings tagged persistent/new/regression/evidence-gap, all blockers in ONE pass, final line exactly

VERDICT: PASS

VERDICT: BLOCK

, quoted verbatim in your report.

Rounds: BLOCK → same persistent builder fixes → fresh reviewer re-audits. Hard cap two fix rounds, then route by CAUSE: same-root failures

wrong-direction signals (
```
judgment-rubrics.md
```
§4) → back to direction · evidence-gap → repair evidence path, re-audit · new/regression → triage separately · otherwise → stop and ask the user with the failure trail. PASS → persist tokens via design-md, report with the evidence bundle. "Built and audited: PASS" is a completion claim; "built" alone is not.

NOT-FOUND

A needed role has no installed member → degrade the pipeline explicitly and say what was skipped — never fake a stage. Member contracts: each skill's own SKILL.md · roster/roles/executors:

references/design-roles.md

· worker mechanics:

tmux-agent-tools

· prompts:

delegation-templates

using-design-skills

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

using-design-skills

BYPASS

TRIGGER

QUESTIONS — compose the pipeline (answer in order)

SELECT — discover live, then bind roles

DEFER — cross-stage contracts

The quality loop — no pipeline ends at "built"

NOT-FOUND