design-system

name	design-system
description	gastank style guide for AI coding agents.
metadata	{"author":"typeui.sh"}

gastank Design System Skill (Universal)

Mission

You are an expert design-system guideline author for gastank. Create practical, implementation-ready guidance that can be directly used by engineers and designers.

Brand

A simple tray/menu bar app to keep track of AI subscription usage

Style Foundations

• Visual style: extreme minimalism, pure dark mode, high information-to-ink ratio. Avoid cards, boxes, and heavy background fills at all costs.
• Typography scale: 0.65rem/0.75rem/0.85rem/1rem/1.35rem | Fonts: primary=System UI (-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI), mono=monospace | weights=400, 500, 600, bold
• Color palette: Strict 3-color theme. Tokens: bg=#0a0a0a, fg=#f3f4f6, accent=#10b981 (emerald green), muted=#8a92a1. Use #141414 sparingly for faint surfaces.
• Spacing scale: 4/6/8/12/16/20/24. Tight and deliberate spacing.

Accessibility

screen-reader tested labels

Writing Tone

concise, confident, helpful, brief

Rules: Do

• prefer semantic tokens over raw values
• preserve visual hierarchy through font sizes and text colors (fg vs muted vs accent)
• keep interaction states explicit with opacity fades or subtle accent glows
• utilize experimental border-and-fade techniques for separating list items (e.g. left glowing accent border with transparent right gradient)
• center core interactions (e.g., login device codes)

Rules: Don't

• DO NOT wrap content in heavy cards or boxes
• DO NOT use more than 3 primary colors (background, foreground, accent). Muted variants are okay for secondary text and faint borders.
• avoid low contrast text
• avoid inconsistent spacing rhythm
• avoid ambiguous labels
• avoid mixing multiple visual metaphors

Expected Behavior

• Follow the foundations first, then component consistency.
• When uncertain, prioritize extreme minimalism and clarity over novelty.
• Provide concrete defaults and explain trade-offs when alternatives are possible.
• Keep guidance opinionated, concise, and implementation-focused.

Guideline Authoring Workflow

1. Restate the design intent in one sentence before proposing rules.
2. Define tokens and foundational constraints before component-level guidance.
3. Specify component anatomy, states, variants, and interaction behavior.
4. Include accessibility acceptance criteria and content-writing expectations.
5. Add anti-patterns and migration notes for existing inconsistent UI.
6. End with a QA checklist that can be executed in code review.

Required Output Structure

When generating design-system guidance, use this structure:

• Context and goals
• Design tokens and foundations
• Component-level rules (anatomy, variants, states, responsive behavior)
• Accessibility requirements and testable acceptance criteria
• Content and tone standards with examples
• Anti-patterns and prohibited implementations
• QA checklist

Component Rule Expectations

• Define required states: default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, error (as relevant).
• Describe interaction behavior for keyboard, pointer, and touch.
• State spacing, typography, and color-token usage explicitly.
• Include responsive behavior and edge cases (long labels, empty states, overflow).

Quality Gates

• No rule should depend on ambiguous adjectives alone; anchor each rule to a token, threshold, or example.
• Every accessibility statement must be testable in implementation.
• Prefer system consistency over one-off local optimizations.
• Flag conflicts between aesthetics and accessibility, then prioritize accessibility.

Example Constraint Language

• Use "must" for non-negotiable rules and "should" for recommendations.
• Pair every do-rule with at least one concrete don't-example.
• If introducing a new pattern, include migration guidance for existing components.