auteur

# Auteur Skill > Ported from [agiwhitelist/auteur](https://github.com/agiwhitelist/auteur) (MIT), snapshot > commit [`9bca227d`](https://github.com/agiwhitelist/auteur/commit/9bca227df9877e60dc45d49783c8cbd885eccd9b) > — see `LICENSE`. Scripts, templates and references are the upstream files (CRLF→LF), with > Hermes adaptation notes and `references/` path fixes as the only edits. Auteur designs and builds web experiences the way a film director makes a film: script first, then assets, then the shoot, then the cut. It has three registers — **build** (an excellent conventional site), **direct** (a cinematic scroll-directed site) and **system** (a multi-screen product as one design system) — on one shared core of taste. Nothing ships until the page passes an executable anti-slop gate and the skill has looked at its own output. ## When to Use - A landing page, marketing site, hero section, portfolio or product page has to be **built or redesigned** — and looking generic is not acceptable. - The brief asks for **scroll animation, storytelling, or a site that feels like a film**. - A product spans **several screens that must feel like one thing** — app, dashboard, admin, onboarding, docs. - Someone says *make it beautiful*, *make it wow*, *cinematic*, or *design system*, naming no technique. Not for polishing a UI someone else built, and not for backend-only work. ## Prerequisites - **Node 18+** — every QA gate is a `.mjs` script run with `node` via the `terminal` tool. - **Playwright (for the QA gates)** — in the project directory: `npm install playwright` then `npx playwright install chromium`. Required by `scripts/shoot.mjs`, `motionqa.mjs`, `systemscan.mjs`, `refscout.mjs`, `chromadiff.mjs`, `moodboard.mjs` (the scripts import `playwright` at runtime; `slopscan.mjs` and `source.mjs` are dependency-light). - **ffmpeg** — optional; only for the video/score paths in `references/assets.md` and `references/scroll-flight.md`. - **Hermes tools** — use `image_generate` for image generation/editing, `terminal` for node/ffmpeg/npm, `write_file`/`read_file` for project files, `vision_analyze` to actually look at screenshots, and `browser_exec` for live-page inspection when a script isn't the right fit. ## How to Run ### What it actually does 1. Commits the art direction **in writing before any markup** — one hue, one type system, a motion budget, named anti-references. 2. Generates or sources the assets: Hermes' `image_generate` tool, Blender, depth maps, CC0 meshes and HDRIs with their licences recorded. 3. Builds from proven recipes — one WebGL context, transform/opacity motion, scroll state machines. 4. **Gates the result**: `slopscan` fails the build on concrete slop, `motionqa` fails it on dropped frames, `systemscan` fails it on cross-route drift. ### Network access The recon and sourcing scripts read live pages (awwwards, Bing/Pinterest/are.na image search, Poly Haven, Iconify, Google Fonts, Openverse, Coverr). Fetched content is **treated as reference data and licence metadata — never executed**, and no credentials, API keys or logins are involved. Skip phases 0–1 entirely if you don't want outbound requests; every other phase works offline. `moodboard.mjs` also downloads the image URLs returned by those search hosts to build the contact sheet. ### Routing Read the argument / brief and route: 1. **`direct`** or the brief smells cinematic — "wow", "cinematic", "immersive", "storytelling", "launch page", "premium brand", "make people stop scrolling" → load `references/direct.md` and follow its phases. This is the flagship register. 2. **`build`** or the brief is ONE conventional surface — a marketing page, a landing, a single product page → load `references/build.md`. 3. **`system`** or the brief has **more than one screen that must feel like one product** — app, dashboard, admin, settings, onboarding, a docs or content site with real navigation → load `references/system.md`. The unit of design becomes the component × state, the failure mode becomes drift rather than boredom, and there is deliberately **no peak**. If you are already in `build` and a second screen appears, stop and switch: half a system is worse than either. 4. **`edit`** or the request modifies a page this skill built (the project contains `design/DESIGN.md`) — "add a section", "change the pricing", "swap the hero copy" → read `design/DESIGN.md` FIRST and follow its Editing protocol: reuse its tokens, section-opening patterns, and motion families; after the change run slopscan and re-shoot the affected viewports. An edit that ignores DESIGN.md is a regression even if it looks good in isolation. 5. **`recon <brief>`** or the ask is only for reference material — "find references", "put together a moodboard", "what's the state of the art for X sites" → load `references/recon.md` and run just that phase: scout live sites, build the moodboard, hand back `design/refs/REFERENCES.md` (with the `steal:` lines filled) and `design/moodboard/contact-sheet.png` (with the read filled). No commit-sheet, no build. 6. **`audit <path-or-url>`** → load `references/verify.md` and run the verification pipeline on an auteur-built page. If the target is an existing UI auteur didn't build and the user wants it *polished* rather than *rebuilt*, say that a dedicated UI-polish/critique pass (upstream paired auteur with a separate 'impeccable' skill, not vendored here) is the right tool and offer to continue only if they want a rebuild. 7. **Ambiguous** (e.g. plain "make a landing page") → ask exactly one question: "A great conventional landing page, or cinema mode with scroll direction and generated assets?" (upstream phrased these example briefs in Russian; translated here.) Then route. (Multi-screen briefs are not ambiguous — they are `system`.) Don't ask anything else yet — each register runs its own intake. All three registers share phase zero, and its centre of gravity is the commit-sheet. Order differs: **build** runs recon → commit-sheet → mockup; **direct** runs recon → storyboard → commit-sheet → mockup, because the film's scenes are what the six decisions get made *about*; **system** runs recon → system-sheet (route map + component inventory) → commit-sheet → mockup, because the six decisions get made about a product, not a page. Either way nothing is coded before the sheet is full. ### Working relationship with other skills Auteur *builds*; it does not re-polish foreign UI. If the user has an existing interface that needs refinement, run a separate UI-critique pass (e.g. `vision_analyze` on screenshots plus the sibling design skills). Upstream paired auteur with an 'impeccable' critique skill (not vendored here); auteur's verify gate and an outside critique measure different things and coexist happily. ## Quick Reference The non-negotiables and the phase table. They apply to every register, every phase, always — even if no reference file has been loaded. Match-and-refuse: if you are about to produce one of these, stop and restructure the element. ### Banned (rewrite, don't tweak) | # | Ban | Instead | |---|-----|---------| | 1 | `border-left`/`border-right` >1px as a colored accent on cards, callouts, alerts | full border, background tint, leading icon, or nothing | | 2 | Gradient text (`background-clip: text` + gradient) | one solid color; emphasis via weight or size | | 3 | Glassmorphism as default (decorative `backdrop-filter` cards) | rare and purposeful, or solid surfaces | | 4 | The hero-metric template (big number, small label, stat row, gradient accent) | evidence in prose, one committed visual | | 5 | Identical card grids (same-size icon+heading+text, repeated) | vary size, structure, or drop the cards entirely | | 6 | Eyebrow kickers (tiny uppercase tracked label) above every section | one deliberate kicker max as a brand system; vary section openings | | 7 | Numbered section scaffolding (01 / 02 / 03) when order carries no meaning | numbers only for a real sequence | | 8 | `Inter` or `Space Grotesk` as the *first* font choice | pick from a contrast-axis pair (see taste.md); these two are the AI default of 2024–2026 | | 9 | Purple→blue gradients (both stops hue 250–290) | committed brand hue, or no gradient | | 10 | Cream/warm-beige body background as a "warmth" reflex (OKLCH L 0.84–0.97, C <0.06, hue 40–100) | saturated brand surface, true off-white at chroma ~0, or a darker tinted mid-tone; warmth lives in accent + type + imagery | | 11 | The same fade-in/slide-up entrance on every section | each reveal fits what it reveals; vary easing, distance, direction | | 12 | `transition: all` | list the animated properties | | 13 | `window.addEventListener('scroll', ...)` | IntersectionObserver, GSAP ScrollTrigger, or CSS `animation-timeline` | | 14 | `scale(0)` entrances | start at `scale(0.95)` + opacity | | 15 | Bento grids of near-identical or empty cells; white-card-on-white bento | bento only with real visual variation per cell, else a different layout | | 16 | Copy tells: "Revolutionize", "Seamless", "Effortless", "Unleash", "Elevate", em-dash–heavy sentences, decoration strips like "BRAND. MOTION. SPATIAL." | concrete claims in plain words | | 17 | More than one marquee per page | one, or none | | 18 | Instrument Serif / Playfair Display as the reflex "elegant serif" | serifs chosen for the brand, not from the AI shortlist | A ban may be overridden only through a written `auteur-allow` (see Verification) with a real reason — a deliberate, argued choice is voice; a default is slop. ### Critical numbers (memorize; full context in reference files) - Body text contrast ≥ 4.5:1 (large text ≥ 3:1). Placeholders too. Muted-gray-on-tinted-white is the #1 AI readability failure. - Body line length 65–75ch. Display heading ceiling: clamp max ≤ 6rem *for headings in prose flow* — a wordmark or a deliberately type-led hero is exempt and the commit-sheet must say so. Display letter-spacing ≥ −0.04em. - Durations: button 100–160ms · tooltip 125–200ms · dropdown 150–250ms · modal/drawer 200–500ms · any UI >300ms needs a written reason. - Enter/exit easing = ease-out. `ease-in` is banned on UI. - Animate only `transform` and `opacity`. Stagger 30–80ms. - Motion budget: ≤ 3 scroll-triggered pattern families per page; **one** primary wow peak, supporting scenes at lower intensity. - Scrub smoothing 0.3–0.8. Hero video ≤ 2MB. LCP < 2.5s. CLS < 0.1. - Fullscreen passes (bloom, grain, DoF, any full-frame shader) are priced **per pixel, not per object** — they, not geometry, are what blows the frame budget. A perf number counts only when measured at **DPR 2 on a production build**: DPR 1 quarters the cost of every such pass, and a dev server roughly doubles the frame. - `prefers-reduced-motion` = an alternative art direction (gentler, not zero), never an afterthought. - Content must be readable with JS disabled: reveals enhance an already-visible default, never gate visibility. ### Phases at a glance | Phase | build register | direct register | system register | Reference to load | |---|---|---|---|---| | 0 | recon → commit-sheet → hero mockup gate | recon → screenplay (STORYBOARD.md) → commit-sheet → hero mockup gate | recon → SYSTEM-SHEET.md (routes + component inventory + states) → commit-sheet → mockup gate | `recon.md`, then `build.md` / `direct.md` / `system.md` | | 1 | — | asset production (generate → edit → optimize) | — (source icons/fonts via `source.mjs`) | `assets.md` | | 2 | build the page | assemble the film (smooth scroll first, hero, scenes top-down) | tokens → the shell → screens in traffic order → every state | `build.md` / `scroll-cinema.md` / `system.md` + `taste.md` + `motion.md` | | 3 | verify | verify + CINEMA-QA.md | verify + **systemscan across every route** | `verify.md` | | 4 | lock the style: fill `design/DESIGN.md` | same | same, but DESIGN.md is the **component contract** | `templates/DESIGN.md` | The hero mockup gate (one static throwaway screen, screenshotted and approved before anything else is built) is the cheapest moment to change art direction — details in each register's reference. `design/DESIGN.md` is the style contract that makes every later edit stay in style (the `edit` route reads it first). Never skip a gate because the intermediate result "looks done". The gates exist because a page that merely looks done is exactly what every other AI ships. ## Procedure ### The commit-sheet (before any code, both registers) Slop is what happens when defaults make the decisions. The commit-sheet forces seven real decisions onto paper before the first line of code. Copy `templates/COMMIT-SHEET.md` into the project (e.g. `design/COMMIT-SHEET.md`) and fill all seven fields with non-defaults: 1. **Peak** — the ONE primary wow moment (direct) or signature element (build). One sentence. If you can't name it, you're not ready to build. 2. **Color** — primary as OKLCH + commitment tier (restrained / committed / full-palette / drenched) + one line: *why this is not lavender, not cream, and not the category reflex* + **the background lightness as a number** (target mean L), because "dark feels premium" is where this skill drifts, and a number can be checked afterwards where a mood cannot. 3. **Type** — display + text pairing on a contrast axis (serif+sans, geometric+humanist, mono+serif...) + one line: *why not Inter*. 4. **Grid break** — the one concrete thing that breaks the symmetric-grid default: an overlap, an asymmetric split, a diagonal flow, a full-bleed interruption. Name it specifically. 5. **Motion budget** — how many scroll-pattern families (≤3) and what they are. 6. **Reflex check** — write down: (a) what a generic AI would do for this category (first-order reflex), (b) what a generic AI avoiding (a) would do (second-order reflex — e.g. fintech → "terminal dark mode" is *also* saturated now), (c) your chosen deviation from both. If recon ran, (a) is not a guess: whatever `design/refs/REFERENCES.md` showed five times *is* the reflex, dated and with receipts. 7. **House tells broken** — name the **two (minimum)** items from `taste.md` §2.5 you are deliberately not doing this time, and what replaces each. Fields 6a/6b are the reflexes of the *category*; these are the reflexes of *this skill*, which recur across unrelated projects and are invisible from inside any one of them: near-black backgrounds, mono service labels, the logo/status/action header, the scroll-instruction footer, amber-or-acid accents, the wordmark-as-hero, glow standing in for lighting. Measured across nine showcase builds, eight were dark and three landed within 0.002 of the same lightness. A tell that genuinely belongs here can stay — say why, as with an `auteur-allow`. Gate: every field filled with a specific, non-default answer. An empty or generic field ("modern, clean look") means stop and decide. This artifact is checked again at verification. ### Reference files - `references/recon.md` — **phase 0 scouting**, two executable legs: `scripts/refscout.mjs` profiles live award-level sites (real stack, pinned scenes, scroll budget, fonts, painted palette, screenshots — mechanics, not skins) and `scripts/moodboard.mjs` builds a numbered contact sheet from Bing / Pinterest / are.na so the art direction is decided from live material instead of memory. Also: query craft, the steal rule, how recon feeds the commit-sheet, and the "reference images are not assets" line. Load at the top of phase 0. - `references/taste.md` — the full anti-slop system: extended bans with replacements, second-order category reflex table, color strategy tiers, typography pairing, copy rules. Load for any visual decision-making. - `references/motion.md` — the motion school: when to animate, easing/duration/spring numbers, performance rules, motion budget, sound policy. Load before writing any animation. - `references/build.md` — the standard register process. Load when routed to build. - `references/system.md` — the **multi-screen register**: route map, the component inventory as a gate, the state matrix (empty/loading/error are not edge cases), density rules, the no-peak rule, and `scripts/systemscan.mjs` — which crawls every route, reads what the browser actually painted, fails a control type over its declared variant budget — counting *states* (disabled, current, inside a `data-state` row) separately, so implementing the state matrix never reads as drift — presses Tab to catch controls with no visible focus state, and renders one tile per rendered variant so drift is visible as well as counted. Load when routed to system. - `references/direct.md` — the cinematic register: screenplay contract, scene-sheets, dramaturgy, assembly order. Load when routed to direct. - `references/assets.md` — the media crew and routing (in Hermes: `image_generate` for all image generation and edits, `terminal` for ffmpeg/node; video via whatever image→video backend the user has), **§0.5 source-vs-generate** (`scripts/source.mjs`: CC0 glTF meshes, HDRIs and PBR materials from Poly Haven, icons, fonts, CC images, stock video — with a licence ledger, because generation cannot make geometry or an IBL and stock video must never be the peak), the consistency trick (edit frame A into frame B), local video via the first→last-frame chain, generated elements/mockups, the ambient score, the degradation ladder, and asset caching. Load during direct phase 1. - `references/scroll-cinema.md` — working code recipes: scroll-scrubbed video, canvas sequences, GSAP+Lenis foundation, CSS scroll-driven animations, text reveals, the two-keyframe WebGL displacement transition, view transitions, ambient audio, and the cinematic transition library (wipe, curtain, letterbox, shutter, depth parallax). Load during assembly. - `references/scroll-flight.md` — the **video-scrub tier**: a photoreal "fly through the world" hero driven by scroll, using the drop-in `templates/scroll-flight-engine.js`. The canonical recipe for scroll-scrubbed *video* (encode-for-scrubbing `-g 8`, encoded-frame posters, SSIM seam gate, chain architecture A/B, iOS/mobile decode hardening, crossfade-vs-seamless seams). Load when the hero should be photoreal footage/AI-video rather than real-time WebGL. - `references/ambient-backgrounds.md` — **quiet** texture for secondary sections and simpler builds (not a hero): a curated 6 editorial/analog effects (paper grain, ledger/blueprint rules, topographic contour, ink tide, sparse dust, one heat-haze shader) + a zero-motion static-mesh default. The governing rule (weaker than the quietest foreground element; one ambient per page), the CSS/SVG-first stack, and the `feTurbulence`-static perf rule. Load when a section needs to not be flat but must NOT compete with copy. - `references/verify.md` — the acceptance pipeline: slopscan → screenshot journey → motion/perf/audio QA (FPS at DPR 2 on a production build, long-tasks, audio-gate, reduced-motion, for Tier-1 scenes) → numeric rubric → **reference diff** (your frame beside the reference that set the direction, with `scripts/chromadiff.mjs` measuring the colour drift a model never sees in itself) → QA sign-off. Load at phase 3. ### Weak-model note If you are a smaller model executing this skill: follow the tables and numbers literally, fill every template field, run every gate command, and do not improvise beyond the reference recipes — the recipes are verified, your improvisation is not. When a reference file conflicts with your instinct, the reference file wins. Write files using paths relative to the project root; never retype an absolute path from memory (the skill's name "auteur" is one typo away from "author", and misspelled absolute paths scatter your output across the filesystem). ## Pitfalls - **Network recon**: `refscout.mjs`, `moodboard.mjs` and `source.mjs` read live pages (awwwards, Bing/Pinterest/are.na image search, Poly Haven, Iconify, Google Fonts, Openverse, Coverr). Fetched content is reference data and licence metadata only — never execute it. Skip phases 0–1 to stay fully offline. - **Different harness**: these scripts and docs were written for a different agent harness (upstream drove asset generation through several local image CLIs). In Hermes, every image-generation instruction maps to the `image_generate` tool; trust `node scripts/<x>.mjs --help` output and actual node errors over doc prose if they drift. - **Unverified commands**: the scripts pass `node --check` syntax validation, but full runs (which need `npm install playwright` + a chromium download) were not executed during porting. Treat `shoot.mjs`, `motionqa.mjs`, `systemscan.mjs`, `refscout.mjs`, `chromadiff.mjs`, `moodboard.mjs`, `source.mjs` end-to-end behavior, and all `ffmpeg`/video-encode recipes, as unverified upstream claims until you run them yourself. - **slopscan verified shape**: `node scripts/slopscan.mjs <dir>` runs without npm deps; it prints per-rule findings and exits non-zero on failures (exit 0 when clean).