# Apple Design Skill
An AI design reviewer grounded in Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, packaged as an agent skill.
It audits and improves mobile and desktop UI, including layouts for the two-display iPhone Duo,
against 123 HIG pages pulled straight from developer.apple.com, translates Apple's vocabulary for
**Flutter**, **React Native**, **Tauri**, **Electron**, **SwiftUI**, **UIKit**, and **AppKit**, and
adds a design-craft lens so the result feels at home on the platform without looking like a
template.
## Install
### With the skills CLI
```bash
npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill
```
This works for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Antigravity, OpenCode, Windsurf, and every other agent the
[skills CLI](https://skills.sh) supports. Useful variations:
```bash
npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill -a claude-code # install for one agent only
npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill -g # user-wide instead of this project
npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill --list # show what would be installed
npx skills update apple-design # pull the latest version later
```
### Claude Code, by hand
Claude Code reads skills from `.claude/skills/` in a project or `~/.claude/skills/` for the user:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/dickwu/apple-design-skill.git ~/.claude/skills/apple-design
```
The skill triggers on design-review requests and is also available as `/apple-design`.
### Cursor
Install with `npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill -a cursor`, or clone the repository into
your project and keep its `.cursorrules` next to your own rules. Then ask Cursor:
*"Review this screen against Apple's HIG"*.
### Codex
Install with `npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill -a codex`, or add the repository as a
submodule and point `AGENTS.md` at it:
```bash
git submodule add https://github.com/dickwu/apple-design-skill.git .design-rules
```
```markdown
## Design reviews
Follow `.design-rules/SKILL.md`, which names every guideline file, and load the relevant
`.design-rules/references/hig/*.md` files before giving design feedback.
```
### Antigravity
Install with `npx skills add dickwu/apple-design-skill -a antigravity`, or clone the repository into
`.agents/skills/apple-design` in your project or global `~/.gemini/antigravity/` configuration:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/dickwu/apple-design-skill.git .agents/skills/apple-design
```
You can also keep its `GEMINI.md` next to your own project rules to activate Apple HIG design
reviews automatically in your Antigravity workspace.
### Other agents
Add the same lines to your rules file (`.windsurfrules`, `.ai-rules`, or similar): follow
`SKILL.md`, which names every guideline file, and load the relevant `references/hig/*.md`
files before giving feedback.
## Use it
Ask your agent things like:
- *"Review my Flutter app's home screen against Apple's guidelines"*
- *"Audit this Tauri app for accessibility"*
- *"Does this settings screen follow macOS conventions?"*
- *"Is my Flutter app ready for iPhone Duo's two displays?"*
- *"This looks generic. Give it a point of view without breaking iOS patterns"*
- *"How do I do Liquid Glass in React Native?"*
- *"Check this app icon"*
- *"Audit this repo for anything App Review would reject in our Apple Pay checkout"*
- *"Is this onboarding flow asking for permissions the right way?"*
## What a review covers
The reviewer reads the relevant guideline files before it writes a word, then works through:
1. **Apple's eight design principles** (reintroduced June 2026): purpose, agency, responsibility,
familiarity, flexibility, simplicity, craft, delight.
2. **Accessibility**, blocking: text scaling, contrast ratios, control sizes, screen readers,
keyboard access, motion and transparency settings, with the actual numbers.
3. **Platform conventions**: tab bars, toolbars, sheets, search, and safe areas on mobile; the
menu bar, windows, sidebars, shortcuts, and settings on desktop; light and dark everywhere.
4. **Visual design and craft**: color, type, layout, icons, materials, motion, and then whether
the design has a point of view or is one of the three looks that dominate generated UI.
5. **Interaction**: loading, feedback, alerts, modality, destructive actions, undo, data entry.
6. **Content and writing**: labels that say what happens, platform-correct capitalization,
errors and empty states that direct people.
Every finding has a What, a Why that cites the guideline file and heading, and a Fix written in
your framework. Specialized modes cover app icons, accessibility audits, dark mode, Liquid Glass,
navigation structure, iPhone Duo, Apple Pay, code audits, onboarding and permissions, forms,
generative AI, widgets and Live Activities, and single components.
**iPhone Duo mode** walks the outer display, the inner display, a partial fold, and Split View
against Apple's iPhone Duo guidance: layouts built from size classes instead of fixed widths, the
same functions on both displays, toolbars and tab bars left in the system's default placement,
and content kept clear of the cameras and the fold. It also flags bars and dialogs drawn by
Flutter or in JavaScript, which miss the system's automatic adaptations unless the framework or
your code provides them.
**Code audit mode** reads source instead of screenshots. It searches for Apple Pay buttons and
marks that Apple didn't draw (the cause of App Store Review Guideline 4.9 rejections), including
on web checkouts the app opens; Liquid Glass applied to content, stacked, or over-tinted; and code
that keeps an app from adapting to iPhone Duo, such as fixed widths, custom bars, and overlays
that ignore the fold. Each match is cited with `path:line` and the guideline it breaks.
**Improvement mode** goes further: it grounds the design in the product, plans a token system
(palette, type roles, layout wireframe, one signature element, motion), critiques that plan
against generic defaults before proposing it, and sequences the fixes from accessibility to
polish.
## What's inside
```text
apple-design-skill/
├── SKILL.md # The skill: stance, page index, principles, lenses, report format, improvement mode
├── AGENTS.md # Operating manual for agents and contributors
├── .cursorrules # Cursor entry point
├── GEMINI.md # Antigravity entry point
├── scripts/
│ └── pull-hig.mjs # Re-pulls the guidelines from developer.apple.com
└── references/
├── hig-lookup.md # Generated index with Apple's summaries, change dates, and omitted pages
├── cross-platform.md # Apple's names in Flutter, React Native, Tauri, Electron terms
├── code-audit.md # Code patterns for Apple Pay, Liquid Glass, and iPhone Duo
└── hig/ # 123 generated pages + 1 curated guide
├── design-principles.md
├── designing-for-iphone-duo.md
├── accessibility.md
├── buttons.md
├── tab-bars.md
├── liquid-glass.md # Curated: rules, review checklist, cross-platform translation
└── ...
```
| Section | Files | Includes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Getting started | 6 | Design principles; designing for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, iPhone Duo, and games |
| Foundations | 16 | Accessibility, color, typography, layout, materials, dark mode, icons, SF Symbols, images, motion, branding, privacy, inclusion, right to left, writing, app icons |
| Patterns | 24 | Onboarding, launching, loading, feedback, modality, searching, settings, notifications, accounts, data entry, undo, sharing, files, charts, audio, video, haptics, printing, multitasking, full screen, help, drag and drop, ratings, live viewing |
| Components | 57 | Buttons, menus, the menu bar, toolbars, tab bars, sidebars, split views, sheets, alerts, action sheets, popovers, panels, windows, lists and tables, collections, text fields, pickers, toggles, sliders, steppers, segmented controls, search fields, progress indicators, gauges, labels, charts, widgets, notifications, Live Activities, controls, status bars, and more |
| Inputs | 7 | Gestures, keyboards, pointing devices, focus and selection, game controls, Apple Pencil, gyroscope and accelerometer |
| Technologies | 13 | Apple Pay, Apple In-App Purchase, Sign in with Apple, Siri, Maps, augmented reality, machine learning, generative AI, iCloud, AirPlay, NFC, App Clips, VoiceOver |
| Curated | 1 | Liquid Glass |
Each generated page keeps Apple's wording, headings, tables, notes, and change log, links to its
source, relabels platform headings by device class (phone, tablet, mobile, desktop), and omits
the sections that apply only to tvOS, visionOS, or watchOS. The 35 pages Apple publishes for other platforms or Apple-only
services are listed, with the reason, at the end of `references/hig-lookup.md`.
## Keeping the references current
Apple revises the HIG several times a year. To pull the latest version:
```bash
node scripts/pull-hig.mjs
```
Node 18 or newer, no dependencies, about 170 requests. The script crawls Apple's section index,
renders each page from the same JSON Apple's site uses, writes `references/hig/*.md` and
`references/hig-lookup.md`, and removes pages Apple has retired. Pass `--cache <dir>` to keep the
raw JSON for instant re-runs, and `--no-prune` to keep files the crawl no longer finds. Running the
script twice produces identical output, so a clean `git status` after a second run is the test.
`AGENTS.md` lists the checks to run before committing a refresh.
## Sponsor
If this skill saves you review time, you can support its upkeep through
[GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/dickwu). One-time and monthly tiers are available,
and the Sponsor button at the top of the repository leads to the same page.
## Origin and license
The guideline text belongs to Apple Inc. and is reproduced from the public
[Human Interface Guidelines](https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/)
for AI-assisted design review, with a source link at the top of every file. This project is not
affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. The skill, the curated guide, and the script are provided
as they are; use them at your own discretion.