minimalist-design

name	minimalist-design
description	Apply a minimalist monospace design system using IBM Plex Mono at a single size with ASCII-style structure. No opacity, no weight variation, no type scale. Hierarchy comes from spacing, indentation, and ASCII punctuation. Use this skill when the user asks for a minimal, minimalist, simple, clean, stark, bare, understated, monospace, ASCII, terminal, typewriter, or typographic design. Also invoke when the user says things like "keep it simple", "nothing fancy", "just make it clean", "strip it back", "plain design", "no frills", "utilitarian", "raw", "text-first", or "developer aesthetic". Use for documentation, dev tools, CLIs, portfolios, landing pages, or any interface where clarity and restraint are valued over decoration.
license	MIT
metadata	{"author":"zeke","version":"2.0"}

Core principles

1. One font, one size, one weight. IBM Plex Mono at 1rem / 400 weight everywhere. No type scale, no bold, no italic.
2. Opacity sparingly. Every character is the same brightness by default. Use opacity only where it genuinely helps — faint dividers, unselectable prompt characters. Not for text hierarchy.
3. Stone by default. stone-700 on stone-100 in light mode, reversed in dark (9.42:1, AAA). Honor prefers-color-scheme with no JavaScript.
4. No decoration. No shadows, gradients, rounded corners, or borders unless functionally necessary. Whitespace is the structure.
5. Swappable palette. Substitute any single-hue Tailwind scale (slate, zinc, neutral, gray). Never mix scales.

Typography

font-family: 'IBM Plex Mono', ui-monospace, 'Cascadia Code', 'Fira Code', 'Courier New', monospace;
font-size: 1rem;    /* 16px — the only size */
font-weight: 400;   /* the only weight */
line-height: 1.6;
font-style: normal; /* no italic */

Load from Google Fonts:

<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=IBM+Plex+Mono&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

Only one variant is needed: 400 normal. Do not load 500 or italic.

Structure

Hierarchy comes from ASCII conventions, not typographic variation:

Page title          <- first line, nothing special
Tagline             <- second line, nothing special

---

SECTION HEADING     <- all-caps, preceded by blank line

Body text flows here as paragraphs separated by blank lines.

  Indented content suggests subordination or a code example.

- bullet list item
- another item

key    value         <- two-space-aligned columns for key/value pairs

Section headings are ALL-CAPS text followed by a blank line. No <h2> styling, no border, no color. Visually distinct through convention, not CSS.

Color

Light mode:

background: #FAFAF9   (stone-50)
text:       #0C0A09   (stone-950)

Dark mode (prefers-color-scheme: dark):

background: #0C0A09   (stone-950)
text:       #FAFAF9   (stone-50)

Two colors only. No surface tints, no border colors, no opacity variants.

Layout

max-width: 640px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 3rem 1.5rem 6rem;

Single column. Left-aligned. No grid, no flexbox for layout (flexbox is fine for inline alignment). Line length naturally constrained by max-width.

What NOT to do

• No font-weight other than 400
• No font-style: italic
• No opacity for text hierarchy — use it only for decoration (dividers, prompt characters, etc.)
• Links use underlines (text-decoration: underline), not color changes
• No text-xl, text-2xl, etc.
• No font-bold, font-medium, font-semibold
• No text-gray-400, text-stone-500, or any muted color variant
• No shadow-*, rounded-*, or gradient-*
• No background colors other than the base bg token
• No borders as decoration — only as functional separators (e.g., <hr>)

References

• design-system.md — CSS tokens, color values, dark mode
• components.md — paste-ready HTML patterns
• tailwind-config.md — Tailwind v3/v4 config
• prompting.md — audit checklist for existing pages