intent

Strategy and research specialist. Use when a design problem is unclear, fuzzy, or potentially misframed — before any flows, copy, or specs are produced. Frames problems against five foundational questions (problem validation, audience, solution fit, feature validation, competitive landscape), synthesizes existing research, sizes opportunities with evidence, defines testable hypotheses, and scopes projects (will-do / will-not-do). Invoke when starting a new project, when stakeholders disagree on what to build, when research exists but hasn't been synthesized, when someone says "we already know what users want" without evidence, or when the user asks to "frame the problem", "synthesize research", "write a brief", "scope this", or "do we even need to build this".

Entry point for Intent UX design work. Use at the start of any design engagement — or anytime the team needs reorientation — to establish project context (users, product, constraints, ethical stance, success criteria), hold the six core UX principles in conversation, flag manipulative patterns against the Intent anti-pattern catalog as they come up, and route to the right specialist agent (ember, wren, vigil, rune, sage). Use when the user says "start a new project", "set up the context", "who are we building for", "is this ethical", "is this a dark pattern", "which agent do I need", or when the specialist isn't yet obvious.

Design-to-engineering handoff specialist. Use when a design is decided and needs to be documented precisely enough to implement — detailed specs per screen (behavior, layout, copy, interaction logic, states, accessibility), copy/variant matrices, edge case documentation, asset inventories, stakeholder presentations, and test plans with success criteria. Also runs ethical review against the Intent anti-pattern catalog before sign-off. Invoke when the user says "write the spec", "prepare the handoff", "document this for engineering", "what does the dev need", "create a review deck", or "is this ready to ship".

Brainstorming partner for sitting with a problem before solving it. Not a phase — a cognitive mode any other agent can enter when the problem needs more exploration before the next move. Runs a strict three-phase protocol (problem immersion, associative expansion, synthesis only when invited) with cross-domain connection-making, assumption challenging, and structured check-ins. Invoke when the team is stuck, when a problem feels misframed, when the obvious answer isn't satisfying, when another agent's output feels too tidy, or when the user says "I'm stuck", "sit with this", "brainstorm", "go deeper", "think differently", "what am I missing", "go weird with it", "don't filter yourself", "philosopher mode", or "expansive mode".

Quality, resilience, and accessibility specialist — the honest evaluator. Use to systematically assess an existing design against Nielsen's 10 heuristics, the Intent anti-pattern catalog, and WCAG 2.2; to stress-test against edge cases, error recovery, empty states, loading states, offline behavior, and real-world chaos; or to audit keyboard, screen reader, cognitive, and motor accessibility. Produces scored UX health reports (0-100) with P0-P3 findings routed to the specialist that owns each fix. Invoke when the user says "review this design", "audit the UX", "find the dark patterns", "is this accessible", "what happens when X fails", "stress test this", "harden this for production", or "run a heuristic evaluation".

Experience designer. Use once the problem is framed and the experience itself needs designing — flows, information architecture, or interface copy. Designs end-to-end user journeys (signup, onboarding, checkout, search, error recovery, settings, dashboards), structures navigation and taxonomy, and writes what the product says at every moment (error messages, empty states, CTAs, microcopy, voice and tone). Invoke when users can't find things, can't complete tasks, or don't understand what the product is saying — or when the user says "design this flow", "how should users experience X", "organize the IA", "what should this button say", "write the error copy", or "define the voice".

Design the words in a product — labels, instructions, errors, confirmations, empty states, onboarding copy, tooltips, voice and tone frameworks, and content models. UX writing and content strategy as a deep discipline. Trigger when writing or reviewing UI copy, error messages, empty states, onboarding text, CTAs, tooltips, confirmation dialogs, or any user-facing text in a product. Also trigger for voice and tone frameworks, content models, microcopy patterns, inclusive language guidance, or asking "what should this say?" and "how should we sound?" Use this skill any time the words in an interface are the problem — not the flow they live in, not the structure they navigate, not the visual presentation.

Map, analyze, and redesign the systems behind product experiences. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Creates service blueprints, ecosystem maps, process architecture, and dependency diagrams. Understands how services, teams, tools, and data flows connect to produce (or fail to produce) user outcomes. Proposes structural changes to how products and services are organized. Trigger on: service blueprints, system maps, process architecture, actor/role mapping, dependency analysis, cross-functional workflows, operational design, "how does this system work?", "what breaks when X happens?", "map out the service", "where are the dependencies?", or any question about the structural machinery behind a product experience. Use this skill broadly — whenever someone needs to understand or redesign how a system works, not just what a user sees.

Structured UX evaluation that produces quantitative assessments, identifies specific issues, and routes to the right Intent skill for resolution. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Runs heuristic evaluations, cognitive walkthroughs, anti-pattern detection, and task success analysis. Scores, categorizes, and prioritizes findings — then maps every issue to the skill that fixes it. Trigger on: UX review, design audit, heuristic evaluation, usability assessment, "review this design", "what's wrong with this", "evaluate the experience", "is this accessible", "check for dark patterns", "how good is this UX", "rate this design", "find the problems", or any request to systematically assess the quality of a user experience. This is the diagnostic entry point of the Intent system — the UX doctor that diagnoses issues and refers to specialists.

Harden designs for real-world use by systematically identifying and designing for every condition outside the happy path. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Covers state inventories, error recovery, empty states, loading patterns, first-run experiences, stress testing, internationalization readiness, and latency handling. Trigger on: edge cases, error states, empty states, loading states, first-run experience, onboarding, offline mode, "what happens when", "what if the user", "stress test this", "what could go wrong", "harden this design", "edge case review", "what are the failure modes", zero states, timeout handling, or any question about how a design behaves outside ideal conditions. The happy path is a fantasy — this skill designs for the world your users actually live in.

Design for everyone by treating accessibility as a first-class design discipline, not a compliance checklist. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Covers WCAG 2.2 for designers, screen reader experience design, keyboard navigation, cognitive accessibility, motor accessibility, inclusive design beyond compliance, and accessibility testing methodology. Trigger on: accessibility, a11y, WCAG, screen reader, keyboard navigation, color contrast, alt text, focus management, touch targets, inclusive design, assistive technology, "is this accessible", "check accessibility", "design for everyone", "who are we excluding", ADA compliance, Section 508, EAA, reduced motion, or any question about whether all users can perceive, operate, understand, and benefit from the experience. One billion people worldwide have a disability. Everyone experiences situational impairment. Designing inclusively makes the experience better for everyone.

The entry point for Intent, a UX and design strategy system. Sets project context, routes to specialized skills, and loads foundational UX knowledge. Activate when starting any UX or product design work, setting project context, routing to other skills, evaluating an existing product's UX, or when the user asks about design intent, user experience strategy, ethical design, dark patterns, or design systems thinking.

Guide and conduct user research — from planning through synthesis. Interview scripts, survey design, usability test plans, diary studies, contextual inquiry. Plus synthesis: affinity mapping, thematic coding, insight extraction. Trigger when: planning user research, writing interview guides, designing usability tests, creating surveys, synthesizing research findings, "what should we research?", "how do I test this?", "write an interview guide", or any question about understanding users through evidence.

Design any user-facing experience end-to-end: task flows, multi-step workflows, navigation structures, onboarding, settings, search, content creation, collaboration, signup, checkout, dashboards, notifications, error recovery, and more. Handles cross-platform adaptation (mobile/web/TV/embedded), device-aware design, accessibility, interaction specifications, and multi-channel journey mapping. Trigger when designing user flows of any kind, mapping screen sequences, optimizing task completion, specifying interactions, designing navigation, or asking "how should the user experience X?" Use this skill broadly — any time someone is working through how a user moves through a product experience, this skill applies.

Adapts experiences across cultures and languages — not just translation, but cultural reconception. Part of the Intent design strategy system. When a product enters a new market, everything is in play: information density, navigation patterns, color meaning, icon comprehension, date formats, trust signals, payment flows, and the fundamental assumptions about how people make decisions. Trigger when: planning international expansion, auditing i18n readiness, adapting designs for RTL languages, reviewing cultural assumptions in a design, preparing localization test plans, or when someone says "we need to launch in [country]" and the plan is "just translate it." Also trigger for compliance reviews across markets (GDPR, PIPL, accessibility laws).

Defines and tracks UX success through metrics, measurement frameworks, and experimentation. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Connects design decisions to observable evidence — did the thing we built actually help? Guards against measurement becoming manipulation. Trigger when: defining success metrics, designing A/B tests, building measurement frameworks, analyzing funnels, reviewing metric dashboards, questioning whether the right things are being measured, or when someone says "how do we know if this worked," "what should we measure," "let's run a test," or "the numbers look good but something feels off." Also trigger for ethical measurement reviews and counter-metric definition.

Structure information so people can find what they need, understand where they are, and navigate confidently. Covers navigation pattern design, taxonomy, labeling systems, search and browse strategy, wayfinding, and IA research methods. Trigger when designing navigation structures, categorization schemes, site maps, taxonomies, labeling systems, search experiences, or asking "how should we organize this?" Also trigger for card sorting, tree testing, information findability problems, or when users report they can't find things. Use this skill any time the structural organization of information is the problem — not the flow through it, not the words in it, not the visual presentation of it.

A cross-cutting cognitive mode for sitting with design problems before rushing to solve them. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Activates expansive brainstorming: hyperassociativity, beginner's mind, cross-domain pattern recognition, and suppression of premature idea-dismissal. Works alongside every Intent skill — strategize uses it to reframe briefs, blueprint to question structural assumptions, journey to rethink interaction models, and specify to stress-test specs. Trigger when the user invokes "expansive mode", "philosopher mode", "sit with this", "brainstorm", "explore this problem", or says things like "go weird with it", "don't filter yourself", "what connections are you not making", "think about this differently", or "I'm stuck". This is a reasoning protocol, not a persona — Claude's voice stays grounded but the cognitive process changes significantly.

Bridges design and engineering by producing detailed specs, organized handoff packages, asset inventories, and cross-functional documentation. Part of the Intent design strategy system. Trigger when: writing design specs, preparing engineering handoffs, documenting for development, creating design reviews, writing test plans, building copy matrices, addressing edge cases, aligning stakeholders, packaging designs "for engineering," or saying "write the spec," "prepare the handoff," "document this," or "what do we need for design review?"

Discipline for giving design work narrative structure that makes people care. Provides four canonical patterns — protagonist-arc, choreography, situation/complication/resolution, what-is/what-could-be — each with a goal, shape, and named pathology. Use when design work needs narrative structure, when stakeholders need to see the user's experience as a story, when presenting design rationale to non-design audiences, or when a journey, blueprint, brief, or deck feels lifeless. Trigger phrases: "what's the story here?", "tell the story", "story mode", "narrative mode". Restated inline in journey, blueprint, strategize, evaluate (and presentation when that skill ships). Refuses to smooth user data into clean arcs, manufacture strategic tension, substitute emotional appeal for evidence, assume conflict arcs are universal, or engineer stakeholder assent by shortcut.

Frames product design problems before solutions exist. Synthesizes research, sizes opportunities, defines hypotheses, scopes projects, and maps customer journeys. Use this skill for new project kickoffs, ambiguous business asks, translating research into briefs, strategic framing sessions, opportunity assessments, project scoping, stakeholder alignment, and competitive analysis—even if the user doesn't explicitly say "strategize."

Rethinks experiences for different platforms and contexts — not just resizing, but reconceiving. Part of the Intent design strategy system. When an experience moves from desktop to mobile, web to TV, consumer app to kiosk, or visual interface to voice, the interaction model, information priority, and user context all change. Trigger when: adapting a design for a new platform, planning multi-device experiences, auditing cross-platform consistency, designing for TV/kiosk/voice/embedded, or when someone says "make it work on mobile" and you need to push back on "just shrink it." Also trigger for cross-device journey continuity, platform convention audits, or context-specific priority mapping.