design-intelligence

Design Intelligence

Internal lookup and synthesis support for Supervibe design work. This skill does not own brand direction, UX specs, prototypes, presentation decks, accessibility review, or stack implementation. It supplies cited evidence so those agents make better decisions.

When to invoke

Use this skill only as internal evidence support for design-facing agents and commands that need retrieval-backed product, style, UX, chart, deck, collateral, or stack UI guidance. It should enrich a design decision with citations, not replace the owning design, review, or handoff skill.

Expert Operating Standard

Follow docs/references/skill-expert-operating-standard.md: start from source of truth, preserve retrieval evidence, apply scope safety, use real producers with runtime receipts for durable delegated outputs, verify before completion claims, and keep confidence below gate when evidence is partial.

Step 0 - Read source of truth (required)

Before lookup, read the active design workflow state, approved design-system manifest if present, project memory, Code RAG hits for existing UI/tokens, and docs/references/design-expert-knowledge.md. For regulated-trust briefs, gather domain evidence before accepting palette, typography, copy-risk, or trust defaults. Apply the Reference Quality Ladder before allowing any external reference to influence a recommendation. For new products, rebrands, missing systems, material visual shifts, or weak category references, also read docs/references/creative-reference-taxonomy.md and the relevant local packs in skills/design-intelligence/references/creative/ before recommending creative benchmarks.

Decision tree

Approved design system exists and matches the target
  -> Reuse tokens, components, decisions, and prior approval evidence.

Design system is candidate, needs_revision, missing, or mismatched
  -> Return a gap and route to the owning design-system workflow before durable output.

Local memory, code, or design-intelligence rows conflict
  -> Apply precedence: approved design system, project memory, codebase patterns, accessibility law, external lookup.

Brief is regulated-trust or safety-sensitive
  -> Require domain evidence before palette, typography, trust-copy, or data-display recommendations.

Lookup has no relevant local evidence
  -> Return fallback reason and recommend the owning skill gather external/current evidence if needed.

Invocation Scope

Use through existing routes only:

• /supervibe-design for design-system, prototype, presentation, collateral, and stack handoff work.
• /supervibe-audit for UI polish, accessibility, token drift, brand asset drift, and deck quality review.
• /supervibe-strengthen for agent tuning and repeated design failure patterns.
• /supervibe routing when the trigger router selects a design intent.

Never add a new slash command, package script, or standalone CLI wrapper for this lookup.

Procedure

Required preflight order:

1. Project memory: search accepted decisions, rejected alternatives, review findings, and learned patterns tagged design, brand, ux, a11y, tokens, prototype, slides, or rejected.
2. Code search: inspect existing tokens, components, prototypes, routes, stack conventions, and brand assets.
3. Internal lookup: call designContextPreflight() or searchDesignIntelligence() for the relevant domains.
4. Creative pack lookup: when creative direction matters, choose fast path, medium path, or full creative path from docs/references/creative-reference-taxonomy.md, then select 1-3 local packs from skills/design-intelligence/references/creative/. Use packs to produce borrow/avoid moves and differentiation pressure, not brand imitation.
5. Optional external references: use Figma/browser/search only when available and relevant. External references are supplemental; use the internet only for current references, market examples, official platform docs, live competitor pages, or fresh visual evidence that local data cannot contain. Classify every source with referenceRole, qualityTier, capturedAt, borrow, avoid, and notAuthority=true unless it is an approved project brand source.

Local Expert Routine

Before design-facing outputs, read docs/references/design-expert-knowledge.md and apply Design Pass Triage from its Eight-Pass Expert Routine where the owning command or agent is doing substantial design work. The owning workflow classifies each pass as required | reuse | delegated | skipped | N/A. This skill supplies the local evidence lookup pass; it does not replace preference intake, reference scan, IA/user-flow, visual-system, responsive/platform, quality, or feedback/approval passes.

When an approved design system already exists, treat prior preference and visual-system choices as reusable evidence unless the user asked for a rebrand, new audience posture, or material direction change. When a candidate or needs_revision design system exists, recommend resuming section approval instead of treating it as reusable prototype evidence. If lookup reveals a missing token, component, asset, or interaction, recommend a narrow design-system extension instead of a full restart. Do not force all eight passes for every prototype when local evidence proves reuse is sufficient.

Evidence Contract

Design-facing outputs must include a compact Design Intelligence Evidence section when lookup influenced a recommendation:

Design Intelligence Evidence:
  query: "<user/design query>"
  memory:
    - path: ".supervibe/memory/decisions/example.md"
      relevance: "accepted or rejected design decision"
  lookup:
    - id: "style:12:example"
      domain: "style"
      score: 3.42
      recommendation: "retrieved row summary"
      conflict: "none | project memory wins | design system wins"
  references:
    - source: "https://example.com/path"
      referenceRole: "creative benchmark | interaction benchmark | category convention | direct competitor | platform standard | implementation library | anti-pattern | do-not-use-as-style"
      qualityTier: "tier-1 | tier-2 | tier-3"
      capturedAt: "YYYY-MM-DD | local-pack"
      borrow: "specific trait or pattern to reuse"
      avoid: "specific trait, risk, or mimicry to avoid"
      notAuthority: true
  creativePacks:
    path: "fast path | medium path | full creative path"
    selected:
      - "skills/design-intelligence/references/creative/creative-data-products.md"
    borrow: "specific pack moves used"
    avoid: "specific pack risks rejected"
  acceptedStatus: "candidate | accepted | rejected | learned"
  fallbackReason: "no matching row | stack data unavailable | external lookup skipped"

Reference Quality Ladder

Use the ladder from docs/references/design-expert-knowledge.md for all non-project references. A source can be a creative benchmark, interaction benchmark, category convention, direct competitor, platform standard, implementation library, anti-pattern, or do-not-use-as-style. Famous product names must be decomposed into borrow/avoid traits before use; they are not style authority. Tier-1 references need a current capture date or official version, direct fit, and explicit borrow/avoid notes. Tier-2 references are advisory. Tier-3 references are historical context or anti-pattern material only. Local creative reference packs are tier-2 evidence. For a full creative path, select multiple packs with genuinely different moves so the owning agent can generate distinct candidate directions instead of small variations of the same style.

Precedence

Apply this hierarchy without exceptions:

1. Approved design system
2. Project memory
3. Codebase patterns
4. Accessibility law
5. External lookup

Generic retrieved guidance is advisory. It cannot override approved tokens, prior explicit rejection, accessibility requirements, or codebase facts.

Domain Map

• product, style, color, typography, ux, landing, app-interface: primary design and UX guidance.
• charts: chart choice, fallback, and accessibility guidance.
• icons: icon library/import guidance, adapted to Supervibe's local icon policy.
• google-fonts: font pairing and font availability evidence.
• react-performance: UI performance rules for React surfaces.
• ui-reasoning: decision framing, critique, and recommendation quality evidence.
• stack:*: implementation guidance for React, Next.js, Vue, Svelte, Angular, Flutter, SwiftUI, Shadcn, Tailwind, Three.js, and related stacks.
• slides:*: presentation strategy, layout, copy, chart, typography, color, and background guidance.
• collateral:*: logo, icon, CIP, brand asset, and mockup context guidance.
• creative packs: local tier-2 pack cards in skills/design-intelligence/references/creative/ selected through docs/references/creative-reference-taxonomy.md.

Domain aliases stack, slides, and collateral expand to the corresponding prefixed local domain families during lookup.

Required Dataset Breadth For Design Agents

When a design-facing agent handles a product, prototype, landing, deck, or collateral request, it must consider every relevant local dataset family before claiming that evidence is unavailable: product, style, color, typography, UX, landing, app-interface, charts, icons, google-fonts, react-performance, ui-reasoning, stack, slides, collateral, and creative packs. If a family is not relevant, mark it N/A with rationale; do not omit it silently.

For advanced visual work, pair local evidence with a Prototype Capability Plan. Library families agents may consider include native CSS/WAAPI, Motion, GSAP, Lottie/lottie-web, Rive, Three.js, PixiJS, D3, Observable Plot, ECharts, MapLibre GL, Theatre.js, Rough.js, Matter.js, Monaco, CodeMirror, and stack-specific chart wrappers such as Visx or Recharts for handoff. The local pack helps select fit and risk; it does not grant permission to import a dependency without the prototype capability gate.

Use the local knowledge pack first. Do not instruct design agents to fetch a remote repository or remote skill for baseline expertise.

Design Expert Knowledge Matrix

For design-facing lookups, map retrieved evidence to this coverage matrix before making a recommendation:

1. Accessibility
2. Touch & Interaction
3. Performance
4. Style Selection
5. Layout & Responsive
6. Typography & Color
7. Animation
8. Forms & Feedback
9. Navigation Patterns
10. Charts & Data

Use a product-fit style matrix to match product category, trust/risk, density, platform, interaction mode, and data intensity before suggesting visual direction. Use stack-aware UI guidance for framework, mobile, or component-library handoff; retrieved style rows are advisory and cannot override approved tokens, accessibility requirements, or local code patterns.

Memory Writeback Rules

Write memory only after a review or user signal marks the result accepted, rejected, or learned. Do not write every candidate suggestion.

Accepted decisions need artifact links or evidence ids. Rejected alternatives need a rejection rationale so future agents do not resurrect the same weak option.

Anti-Patterns

• asking-multiple-questions-at-once
• advancing-without-feedback-prompt
• random-regen-instead-of-tradeoff-alternatives
• lookup-as-authority
• memory-bypass
• approved-system-overwrite
• uncited-design-claim
• brand-name-as-style-authority
• unclassified-reference-source

Output contract

Returns:

• Evidence summary with cited memory, code, lookup, or fallback sources.
• Decision or recommendation with confidence score and conflict handling.
• Explicit next action, owner skill/agent, and stop condition when follow-up work is needed.

Guard rails

• Do not mutate files, provider state, network resources, or external tools unless this skill's procedure and the user approval path allow it.
• Do not skip prerequisites, confidence gates, policy gates, or explicit approval gates.
• Do not claim completion without concrete verification evidence.
• Preserve user-owned content and unrelated worktree changes.

Verification

• Confirm every emitted artifact exists and matches the Output contract.
• Run the validator, test, dry-run, or audit command named by this skill when one exists.
• Include concrete command/output evidence before claiming the skill completed successfully.
• If verification cannot run, state the blocker and keep confidence below the passing gate.

Related

• supervibe:brandbook - owns approved design-system creation.
• supervibe:prototype - consumes evidence for UI prototypes.
• supervibe:presentation-deck - consumes deck and slide evidence.
• supervibe:ui-review-and-polish - verifies design evidence in rendered artifacts.