design-critic

name	design-critic
user-invocable	false
description	Autonomous UI/UX review — screenshots every page at mobile/tablet/desktop (full-page scrolling), analyzes with vision models for layout bugs, checks accessibility (axe-core), audits contrast/colors/fonts/spacing for design system inconsistencies, detects dead buttons/links, overlapping elements hiding text/buttons, text truncation, broken links, and runs Lighthouse performance audits. Produces a prioritized report with severity scores and actionable fixes. Use before any launch, after major UI changes, or when the user asks to check/review a web app.
triggers	["review the UI","check the frontend","design review","accessibility audit","is the app ready","visual bugs","check for issues","responsive check","lighthouse","a11y audit","design critic","review the site","check the website"]
category	frontend
maturity	stable
tags	["ui-review","screenshots","accessibility","axe-core","lighthouse"]

Design Critic

Autonomous UI/UX reviewer. Point it at any running web app → get a prioritized list of every visual, responsive, accessibility, and functionality issue with actionable fixes.

Scripts: ${CLAUDE_SKILLS_DIR:-$HOME/.claude-agent/.claude/skills}/design-critic/scripts/ Reviews: ~/.design-critic/reviews/ Binary: ~/bin/design-critic

Quick Reference

S=${CLAUDE_SKILLS_DIR:-$HOME/.claude-agent/.claude/skills}/design-critic/scripts

# Full review (the default workflow)
design-critic http://localhost:5173

# Quick check (mobile + desktop, no lighthouse)
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --quick

# Full audit (all 9 viewports, lighthouse, dark mode, discovery, vision prompts)
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --full

# Responsive focus (all viewport sizes, no lighthouse)
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --responsive

# After fixes — compare with previous review
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --compare ~/.design-critic/reviews/PREVIOUS_DIR

---

The Autonomous Review Workflow

This is the workflow to use before telling the user anything is "done":

Step 1: Run the review

design-critic http://localhost:5173 --full

Step 2: Read the report

cat ~/.design-critic/reviews/LATEST/report.md

Step 3: AI visual review of screenshots

# Use the image tool on captured screenshots with generated vision prompts
cat CAPTURE_DIR/vision-prompts.json | jq '.[0]'
# Then use image tool: analyze the screenshot with the vision prompt

Step 4: Fix all critical + high issues

Step 5: Re-run and compare

design-critic http://localhost:5173 --compare ~/.design-critic/reviews/PREVIOUS_DIR

Step 6: Only report "done" when score ≥ 80 and 0 critical issues

---

What It Detects

📱 Responsive / Layout

• Horizontal overflow — elements extending beyond viewport (causes horizontal scrolling)
• Content hidden on mobile — scroll height dramatically shorter than desktop
• Buttons/links disappearing at smaller viewports
• Broken grids — misaligned columns, uneven gutters

👁️ Visual / Text

• Text truncation — content cut off by overflow:hidden without tooltip/expand
• Overlapping elements — interactive elements (buttons, links, inputs) hidden behind other elements (sticky headers, modals, z-index issues)
• Contrast failures — WCAG AA (4.5:1 normal, 3:1 large text) with exact ratios
• Text partially hidden — labels/text clipped by container boundaries

♿ Accessibility (axe-core)

• WCAG 2.0 A, AA + 2.1 A, AA + best practices
• Missing alt text on images
• Unlabeled form inputs
• Skipped heading levels (h1 → h3)
• Multiple h1 tags
• Missing landmarks (, )
• Color contrast violations

⚙️ Functionality

• Dead buttons — no click handler, no href, not in a form
• Placeholder links — href="#", empty href, javascript:void(0)
• Broken links — 404s, 5xx server errors, timeouts
• Non-functional interactive elements

🎨 Design System Consistency

• Font families — flags >4 different families
• Font sizes — flags >10 unique sizes (no type scale)
• Color palette — flags >12 unique colors (inconsistent theming)
• Spacing — flags >8 unique margin values (no spacing scale)

⚡ Performance (Lighthouse)

• Core Web Vitals (FCP, LCP, TBT, CLS, SI, TTI)
• Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO scores
• Top opportunities with estimated savings
• Diagnostics

---

Scripts

review.cjs — Full Orchestrator (use this)

node review.cjs <url> [options]

Presets:
  --quick             Mobile + desktop, skip lighthouse (~15s)
  --full              All 9 viewports, lighthouse, dark mode, discovery (~2-3min)
  --responsive        All viewport sizes, skip lighthouse (~30s)

Options:
  --viewports LIST    Comma-separated: mobile-sm,mobile,mobile-lg,tablet,tablet-lg,desktop,desktop-lg,wide,ultrawide
  --discover          Auto-discover linked pages (follows same-origin links)
  --max-pages N       Max pages to discover (default: 10)
  --no-lighthouse     Skip lighthouse audit
  --dark-mode         Also capture in dark mode
  --compare DIR       Compare with previous review (shows fixed/new/remaining)
  --output-dir DIR    Override output directory
  --vision            Generate vision analysis prompts for AI screenshot review

capture.cjs — Multi-Viewport Capture

node capture.cjs <url> [options]

  --output-dir DIR    Output directory
  --viewports LIST    Viewport names (see list below)
  --delay MS          Wait after page load (default: 2000)
  --discover          Auto-discover pages
  --max-pages N       Max pages (default: 10)
  --dark-mode         Dark mode capture
  --scroll-step PX    Scroll step for section captures (default: 800)
  --no-links          Skip link checking
  --cookies FILE      JSON cookie file for authenticated sites

Captures per viewport:

1. Full-page screenshot — entire scrollable page stitched
2. Above-the-fold screenshot — what users see first
3. Section screenshots — every scrolled section (catches lazy-loaded content)

analyze.cjs — Issue Analysis

node analyze.cjs <capture-dir> [options]

  --format md|json    Output format (default: md)
  --vision            Generate vision prompts for AI review
  --output FILE       Write report to file

lighthouse.cjs — Performance Audit

node lighthouse.cjs <url> [options]

  --output-dir DIR    Output directory
  --categories LIST   performance,accessibility,best-practices,seo

---

Available Viewports

Name	Resolution	Device
mobile-sm	320×568	iPhone SE
mobile	375×812	iPhone 14
mobile-lg	428×926	iPhone 14 Pro Max
tablet	768×1024	iPad
tablet-lg	1024×1366	iPad Pro
desktop	1280×800	Laptop
desktop-lg	1440×900	Desktop 1440p
wide	1920×1080	Full HD
ultrawide	2560×1440	2K Ultra-Wide

---

Severity Levels

Level	Score	Meaning
🔴 Critical (10)	Ship-blocker	Invisible text, broken layout, inaccessible elements
🟠 High (7)	Must fix	Contrast failures, dead buttons, broken links, missing alt text
🟡 Medium (4)	Should fix	Text truncation, minor overflow, heading structure
🔵 Low (2)	Nice to have	Design system inconsistencies, too many fonts
⚪ Info (1)	FYI	Informational findings

Quality Score: 100 minus sum of issue scores. Ship when ≥80 with 0 critical.

---

Comparison Mode

Track progress across fix iterations:

# First review
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --output-dir ~/.design-critic/reviews/v1

# After fixes
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --compare ~/.design-critic/reviews/v1

# Output shows:
#   ✅ Fixed: 5 issues
#   🆕 New: 1 issue (regression)
#   ⏳ Remaining: 3 issues

---

Vision-Powered Review

The --vision flag generates prompts optimized for the image tool:

# Generate prompts during capture
design-critic http://localhost:5173 --vision

# Then use the image tool with each screenshot + prompt
# The prompts check for:
#   - Layout misalignment, broken grids
#   - Visual hierarchy, CTA prominence
#   - Typography readability
#   - Color harmony
#   - Whitespace balance
#   - Component quality (broken cards, uneven borders)
#   - Text visibility (partially hidden, overlapped)
#   - Image issues (stretched, pixelated, missing)
#   - Navigation clarity
#   - Professional polish rating /10

---

Cookie Auth for Protected Pages

# Export cookies as JSON array
echo '[{"name":"session","value":"abc123","domain":"localhost","path":"/"}]' > /tmp/cookies.json

design-critic http://localhost:5173 --cookies /tmp/cookies.json

---

Auto-Discovery

Follows same-origin links to find all pages:

design-critic http://localhost:5173 --discover --max-pages 20

Discovers: navigation links, footer links, breadcrumbs, sitemap links. Ignores: external links, file downloads, anchor fragments.

---

Dependencies

• chromium-browser (145.0) — headless screenshots
• playwright-core (1.58.2) — browser automation
• axe-core (local) — accessibility engine
• lighthouse (13.0.3) — performance audit
• Node.js (22.x)

---

Output Structure

~/.design-critic/reviews/<site>_<timestamp>/
├── light/                    # Light mode captures
│   ├── index/                # Per-page directory
│   │   ├── mobile-full.png
│   │   ├── mobile-fold.png
│   │   ├── mobile-section-0.png
│   │   ├── mobile-section-1.png
│   │   ├── desktop-full.png
│   │   ├── desktop-fold.png
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── capture-results.json
│   ├── issues.json
│   └── vision-prompts.json
├── dark/                     # Dark mode captures (if --dark-mode)
├── lighthouse/               # Lighthouse reports
│   ├── *.json
│   └── *.html
├── report.md                 # Human-readable report
├── report.json               # Machine-readable report
└── comparison.json           # If --compare was used