impeccable-design

impeccable-design

Paperboard's design authority skill. It does not run a CLI — it loads doctrine into the agent's context so that every authored or modified .DESIGN.md file respects the same anti-slop rules. Methodology is imported from pbakaus/impeccable; aesthetic tokens remain paperboard's own.

When to invoke

• The user asks you to create, edit, or audit a .DESIGN.md file (a design tier, a starter, or the default paperboard.DESIGN.md).
• The user asks for a new design tier, a new starter pack entry, or a redesign of an existing tier.
• You are reviewing a PR that touches anything under core/designs/.
• A .DESIGN.md lint fails and you need to reason about why a token or rule is banned.

Do not invoke for plain HTML/CSS work that does not touch a .DESIGN.md contract, or for documentation prose unrelated to design tokens.

Doctrine sources

Read these files, in order, before authoring or modifying a .DESIGN.md:

1. core/designs/DESIGN-AUTHORITY.md — the binding rules. The single source of truth for what is allowed in any paperboard .DESIGN.md.
2. core/designs/impeccable-context/typography.md — type scale, weights, tracking, mono-vs-serif decisions.
3. core/designs/impeccable-context/color-and-contrast.md — palette discipline, accent budget, tinted neutrals, contrast floor.
4. core/designs/impeccable-context/spatial-design.md — spacing scale, border discipline, depth from negative space (not shadows).
5. core/designs/impeccable-context/motion-design.md — easing curves (cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1) only; no bounce), durations, prefers-reduced-motion.
6. core/designs/impeccable-context/interaction-design.md — affordance, state, focus, hit-target rules.
7. core/designs/impeccable-context/responsive-design.md — breakpoint philosophy, fluid type, container query intent.
8. core/designs/impeccable-context/ux-writing.md — voice, hedging bans, expert-decisive tone.

Provenance: vendored verbatim under Apache 2.0 from pbakaus/impeccable at commit 4af581e23f17d112d8f9d6b7a5b7ff37823494e1. See core/designs/impeccable-context/UPSTREAM.md and NOTICE.md.

Absolute bans (non-negotiable)

These are restated from DESIGN-AUTHORITY.md so the skill is self-contained. Every .DESIGN.md Don't list must enforce all of them:

• Glassmorphism — no backdrop-filter: blur, no frosted-translucent surfaces, no glow-on-blur cards.
• Gradient text — no -webkit-background-clip: text with a gradient fill.
• Side-stripe borders — no border-left / border-right greater than 1px used as a colored stripe on cards, list items, callouts, or alerts.
• Nested card-in-card — no card containers visually nested inside other cards. Flatten the hierarchy; depth comes from negative space.
• Generic AI emoji decoration — no ✨ 🚀 ⚡ 🎯 🔥 💎 or comparable cliché glyphs used decoratively. Status dots, mono ·, and typographic emphasis are the only allowed ornaments.
• Identical-card feature grids — no repeat(auto-fit, minmax(280px, 1fr)) endlessly tiling same-shaped icon-heading-text cards.
• Hero-metric SaaS layouts — no big-number-with-tiny-label-and-gradient template.
• Bounce / elastic easing — animations decelerate via expo-out only.
• Pure #000 / #fff — always tinted neutrals (paperboard ships #08090A / #F7F8F8).
• Hedging prose — "maybe consider," "could be helpful," "might want to" are banned. Design rules are decisive.

If a request asks for any of the above, refuse and explain which ban applies.

How to use this when authoring or modifying a .DESIGN.md file

1. Read core/designs/DESIGN-AUTHORITY.md in full before writing any token or rule. Then read the relevant impeccable-context file for the dimension you are touching (typography, color, spatial, motion, etc.).
2. Audit the existing file (if any) against the bans above. List every violation found. Do not silently fix — list, then fix.
3. Write or edit tokens in paperboard's voice: cold, dark, technical, expert-decisive. No hedging. Every Don't is a hard, enforceable ban.
4. Add or update the audit comment at the very top of the file, in HTML comment form: <!-- YYYY-MM-DD: audited against impeccable doctrine; <N> violations corrected: <list> --> or <!-- YYYY-MM-DD: audited against impeccable doctrine; no violations found -->.
5. Verify by running pytest -q and (when Node.js is available) npm run lint:artifacts. Neither must regress.

Methodology vs. aesthetic — the load-bearing distinction

Paperboard adopts impeccable's methodology (how design rules are authored and enforced), not its aesthetic (the warm Cormorant Garamond editorial palette). Impeccable's own tokens — Cormorant Garamond, Warm Ash Cream, Editorial Magenta — are not adopted by any paperboard tier.

Paperboard's canonical aesthetic remains cold, dark, technical:

• #08090A near-black canvas; #F7F8F8 tinted off-white.
• Geist Mono eyebrows in UPPERCASE with 0.12em tracking.
• Indigo / rose accents capped at ≤ 15% of visible surface area.
• 1px hairline borders; depth via tonal layering, not drop shadows.
• Numbered sections (00, 01, 02) with tightened heading tracking (-0.02em to -0.04em).

If you find yourself writing tokens that look "warm editorial," stop — you have crossed from methodology into aesthetic import. Roll back.