distill

name

distill

description

Reduction pass — cuts content, structure, visuals, and dead code that doesn't answer a user question or drive an action, respecting CRAFT_LEVEL. Use when the UI feels cluttered, has too many CTAs, walls of text, or decorative noise, or when the user says "simplify this" / "it feels too busy". Invoke when the user asks for distill on their UI, or mentions 'distill' alongside design / UI / frontend work.

Context: this sub-skill is one lens of the broader ui-craft skill. If the ui-craft skill is also installed, read its SKILL.md first for Discovery + Anti-Slop + Craft Test, then apply the specific lens below.

Distill the UI at $ARGUMENTS to its essence. Load the ui-craft skill.

The test for every section, component, prop, and word:

Does this answer a question the user is asking or drive an action they need to take? If not — cut it.

Knob gating (CRAFT_LEVEL):

• ≤ 4 → be more aggressive with cuts; strip anything that doesn't directly drive action.
• 5-7 → standard cuts per the test below.
• 8+ → preserve signature details even if they don't directly drive action — the one memorable element that makes this feel designed stays.

Apply ruthlessly:

1. Content — walls of text → 2-3 sentences max per landing section. Vague testimonials → specific metrics or cut. "Features" lists with 12 items → pick the 4 that matter. Placeholder copy → real or removed.
2. Structure — identical card grids → asymmetric rows with real visuals. Three competing CTAs → one primary + one secondary. Breadcrumbs + title + subtitle + description + icon → pick the two that are load-bearing.
3. Visuals — decorative gradient blobs → gone. Background patterns that don't carry meaning → gone. Duplicate iconography → gone.
4. Visual weight reduction — if headings are shouting at weight 800 / 72px / tracking -0.04em, compress: 800 → 600, 72 → 56, -0.04 → -0.02. Don't remove hierarchy; tighten the range. Replace hard drop shadows with ambient + direct (references/modern-css.md) or 1px borders — never both. If every section is full-bleed and high-contrast, let some breathe.
5. Code — unused props, dead branches, commented-out blocks, console.log, TODO notes without tickets — gone.
6. Anti-slop overlap — if you see anything on the Anti-Slop Test (SKILL.md), cut it first.

Overlapping commands: for color overload (too many accents, decorative color), use /colorize. For motion noise, use /animate with MOTION_INTENSITY ≤ 3.

Output:

• Edit code directly.
• Report what was cut and why in a table:

Cut	Why

• End with a one-line delta: "Before: N sections / M components / X lines. After: …".

Guardrail: do not cut accessibility affordances (labels, focus styles, error text, reduced-motion fallbacks) — those always earn their space.

Next step: /polish — what survived the cut deserves the details (rung 1).