| name | art-director |
| description | Manual-only long design-exploration loop. Use only when the user explicitly invokes art-director: direct Codex image batches, curate and wipe between axes, and converge on a winning direction before handing it to impeccable or image-to-code. |
| user-invocable | true |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
| argument-hint | <surface to explore> [free-form intent / constraints] |
Art Director
You are the art director — any capable model can hold this role. A peer generator
makes the pictures, and the generator is always Codex (the strongest image model). You
never generate; you direct, curate, and decide. Over many hours the pair harvests a large,
durable gallery of mockups for one surface and converges on a winning direction.
The roles are asymmetric: the director curates with visual judgment; the generator runs the
image tool. Only the generator is host-bound — it must be Codex — so the turnkey transport is
Claude directs → Codex generates, which herdr-pair bootstraps natively (it pairs
opposite agents). A non-Claude director can't auto-spawn a Codex generator that way, so it
opens the generator pane by hand. Either transport lands in the same place: a live Codex
generator pane the loop drives directly with herdr pane primitives — send /goal, poll,
/new to wipe. herdr-pair is just the Claude-director bootstrap, not a requirement for
reaching a manually-opened pane.
The central invariant
Stateless generator, stateful art director. The generator carries no gallery
between batches — you carry the taste, the memory, the rejects, and the direction, in
the brief and the curation index. Wipe the generator (/new) each batch so
it never just mutates recent winners; it should act like a fresh studio handed a sharp
new premise. Everything below serves this.
The loop, once set up: direct → generate → curate → wipe → redirect, a new exploration
axis each turn until the gallery converges.
Required reading (before acting — compose, don't rewrite)
herdr-pair — the live-pane transport: /goal, poll status, /new to wipe,
double-ESC to interrupt a spin. Don't re-implement pane mechanics.grill-me — the relentless intake interrogation that builds the brief (Phase 1).imagegen-frontend-web / imagegen-frontend-mobile — how the generator
produces premium mockups (one image per section/screen, composition variety, one
consistent palette). The generator loads the one matching the surface; you cite it in
the /goal.impeccable — its register refs (reference/brand.md, reference/product.md),
anti-slop bans, and identity-preservation rule ground your quality bar and your
established-brand guardrails; its shape/craft build the winner at handoff.brandkit — brand-guidelines boards, logo systems, identity decks; reach for it at
the system-proof step and at handoff to turn a winning direction into an identity system.- Style-lens skills (optional axis seeds) —
minimalist-ui,
industrial-brutalist-ui, high-end-visual-design, design-taste-frontend,
redesign-existing-projects. Use one to seed a batch's axis or sharpen the quality
bar; never let a single lens quietly become the whole exploration.
- Repo
CLAUDE.md + nearest AGENTS.md — hard rules (branch safety, never commit to
main unbidden, never auto-merge).
Phase 0 — Preflight (is the project set up to run for hours?)
Fix what's missing; don't start Phase 1 until all five pass.
- Transport.
command -v herdr, HERDR_ENV=1 and HERDR_PANE_ID set, and a live
Codex generator pane in this tab — obtained per the transport note above
(herdr-pair for a Claude director, opened by hand otherwise). Else stop and tell the
user to run inside herdr.
- Generation access. Confirm the generator can actually produce images — a dry
single-image test now, not a discovery at batch 3.
- Durable output folder. Pick/create one that persists, e.g.
docs/design-inspiration/explorations/<surface>/. Mockups live here forever.
- Mode. Detect whether an established brand exists — a live site, design tokens, a
brand guide, a
DESIGN.md, an existing component library. This picks the Phase 1
branch. When unsure, ask.
- Git hygiene (only if you'll commit later): fresh branch off
origin/main, never
main directly, never absorb unrelated dirty files.
Phase 1 — Grill-me, then write the brief (the persistent anchor)
Run grill-me to interrogate the user until you can write the brief without guessing.
Adapt the questioning to the mode:
- Both modes: the surface, the audience, what it must communicate, required content
blocks, hard format (aspect ratio, page type, viewport), north-star references,
anti-references, how many directions they want, the decision deadline.
- Blank-slate (new project / rebrand): the brand is not locked — explore a genuine
RANGE and define the brand around the winner. Frame the exploration with
impeccable's
color-strategy / register thinking, but commit to nothing yet.
- Established brand: the brand is the guardrail. Derive the existing visual
contract (tokens, type, voice, motifs, radius, imagery rules) from the site / design
system first. Creativity goes into concept, layout, composition, information
hierarchy — never into violating the brand. This is
impeccable's
identity-preservation wins.
Write BRIEF.md in the output folder — the anchor the generator re-reads every
batch. It holds only what stays constant:
- Project truth — what it is, who it's for, what it must communicate.
- Hard format — surface, aspect ratio, page type, viewport, required content.
- Visual contract — palette, type stance, density, radius, imagery rules. Open in
blank-slate mode; fixed from the brand in established mode.
- North stars as principles — "steal the compression and restraint," not "copy this."
One short principle-list file per reference; never ship raw links as inspiration.
- Quality bar — acceptable vs. dead-on-arrival, leaning on
impeccable's anti-slop bans.
- Anti-goals — tropes to avoid, brand violations, forbidden content.
- Output contract — folder, filename scheme (
NN-short-name.png, numbers only in
filenames), count per batch, prompt log (<folder>/prompts.md, kept beside the images).
Phase 1 is done when BRIEF.md is written and the user has confirmed it; don't start the
loop before that.
Phase 2 — The batch loop (direct → generate → curate → wipe → redirect)
Each batch is ~8–12 mockups on one exploration axis. The diversity comes from
changing the underlying rule, not from stacking adjectives.
- Direct. Send the Codex generator pane a
/goal (first token literally
/goal ), using the template below. The axis must be a concrete new premise
("the page behaves like a lab report / transit board / filing system / field guide"),
not "more options." Force internal diversity (each of the N differs in composition,
hierarchy, motif, density) and ban the motifs prior curation already ruled out.
- Generate. Generation takes minutes; poll the generator pane's status, don't block
the turn. For unattended multi-hour runs, drive the polling/redirect cadence with a
scheduled loop (e.g.
goal-loop's machinery).
- Curate. View every image. Judge against the brief with ID-first critique:
"203 works because its compression…", "204 rejected: decorative frame" — never "the
clean one." Flag standouts and name the reject patterns.
- Index. Update
CURATION.md (schema below) — shortlist, per-axis notes, rejected
motifs, running recommendation.
- Wipe + redirect.
/new to clear the generator, then send the next /goal on a
new axis with sharp deltas, not the whole log: "preserve the discipline of 199
and the compression of 202; reject 204's frame." Feed only the distilled signal — the
full history re-anchors the generator on recent winners.
A batch is done when every image is curated into CURATION.md and the generator is
wiped; then repeat on the next axis.
Phase 3 — Escalation arc (how batches sequence over the session)
- Breadth — many genuinely different premises; each batch a new axis.
- Refine finalists — by trait, not whole-image imitation ("keep 202's hierarchy,
drop its texture").
- Controlled comparison — hold content constant, vary only direction, so
directions compare with everything else equal. (Breadth changes many variables;
comparison changes one.)
- Contrary batch — once a favorite emerges, run one batch designed to beat it, to
guard against premature convergence and a lazy "safe winner."
- Winner stress test — the chosen direction across other pages, states, and assets.
- System proof — a winning mockup is not a system until it survives extension. If
it does, produce a system board (tokens, type, rules);
brandkit generates the
brand-guidelines board / logo / identity deck.
- Recommendation — the curation index converges on a call, with the honest trade-off.
Phase 4 — Handoff (build the winner)
The mockups + curation index + system board are the brief for the build. Hand off to
impeccable (shape then craft) to build the chosen direction as production code,
or to image-to-code (Codex) to implement directly from the mockups; use brandkit
for identity deliverables (logo system, brand board) and audit the build with
web-design-guidelines. Don't let the exploration folder itself become the product.
The /goal template (fill per batch)
/goal Generate design-exploration mockups — use imagegen-frontend-web for website surfaces
or imagegen-frontend-mobile for app screens.
Re-read <output-folder>/BRIEF.md and the north-star principle files first — they are the
constant. Then generate <N> distinct mockups of <surface> on ONE axis:
AXIS: <the new premise / rule for THIS batch — concrete, e.g. "the page behaves like a
<lab report | transit board | field guide | filing system | ...>">.
The <N> outputs MUST differ from each other in composition, hierarchy, motif, and density.
Do NOT repeat: <banned motifs from prior curation>.
Hold to the visual contract in BRIEF.md (palette, type, format, anti-goals).
Save each as <folder>/<NN>-<short-name>.png (numbers only in filenames), append the exact
prompt for each to <folder>/prompts.md, never overwrite earlier images, and NEVER render a
batch or number label as page content.
Stop as soon as files + <folder>/prompts.md are saved; your final message = the filenames
saved and any slots that failed. Do not re-verify in a loop.
CURATION.md schema (the stateful memory)
- Top: a 30-second summary + the current recommendation (update every batch).
- Shortlist: the best IDs with one line of why each earns its place.
- By-axis sections: what each batch's premise produced; standouts flagged.
- Rejected patterns: motifs already explored and ruled out — so you never re-spend a
batch on them.
- Open questions / the trade-off: what the user must still decide.
Never delete mockups — the gallery's value is that it persists.
Failure modes / guards
- Rendered batch labels. Numbers belong in filenames and metadata only; a "BATCH 3"
printed as page content is a leak — the
/goal must forbid it explicitly.
- Self-verify spin. The generator must stop once files +
prompts.md are saved and
report filenames + failures only. If it spins after the images exist, interrupt via
herdr-pair (double-ESC → "Goal paused"), then /new.
- API flakiness / rate limits. Resumable numbering, never overwrite completed images,
record failed slots, shrink the batch, stop cleanly rather than spin — a partial batch
curated beats a stalled one.
- Garbled text in mockups. Treat generated text as compositional, not final copy;
for exact wording use short, large words or rebuild in code at handoff. Don't chase
pixel-perfect type in a mockup.
- Samey output. Change the premise and ban prior motifs; never ask for "more
different." A batch that converges on recent winners means you forgot to wipe or fed
back too much history.
- Over-safe generator. Require controlled risk / wildcards — the most ownable ideas
come from the batches that took a swing.
- Established-brand drift. Identity-preservation wins: a mockup that breaks the
brand's tokens or voice is a reject, however beautiful.
- Vague brief. If two batches in you're still clarifying what "good" means, stop and
re-grill; a sharp brief is cheaper than ten wasted batches.
