pi-config/skills/design-explore/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
design-explore	Generate visual UI design mockups as images for exploration and ideation. Uses Tastemaker anti-slop rules, Emil Kowalski motion/polish concepts, and DESIGN.md tokens to visualize creative, non-generic UI directions before building.

/design-explore

Generate visual UI mockups. Asks the user what to design, pulls design tokens or style references, and calls image-maker to produce high-fidelity mockup images.

---

🎨 Visual System & Image Prompting Rules

• Anti-Generic AI Slop: Explicitly instruct the image model to avoid default purple/indigo gradients, cookie-cutter floating cards, and template hero sections.
• Aesthetic Direction: Ground mockups in specific visual styles (e.g. brutalist, glass-morphism, high-contrast dark mode, warm editorial, Apple-like precision).
• In-Context Framing: Render interfaces within realistic, sleek browser frames or device bezels.
• Typographic Scale: Show bold header contrasts, clear section hierarchy, and clean layout whitespace.

---

🛠 Flow

Step 1: Gather Requirements

Ask:

1. "What are we designing?" — Description of the interface or page.
2. "What style/vibe?" — URL to DESIGN.md, or aesthetic description (e.g., "warm editorial, high contrast dark, Swiss typography").

Step 2: Download DESIGN.md (if provided)

curl -sL <DESIGN_MD_URL> -o /tmp/design-tokens.md

Step 3: Call image-maker

Agent(
  subagent_type: "image-maker",
  description: "Generate design mockup images",
  prompt: "High-fidelity UI mockup for {what}. Aesthetic: {vibe/tokens}. Clean browser frame, non-generic layout, bold typography, rich contrast, professional SaaS/web app finish.",
  max_turns: 3
)

Step 4: Display Images Inline (REQUIRED)

1. Save generated images to /tmp/design-explore-<N>.png.
2. Call read on each image file so Pi displays them inline in the chat.
3. Ask the user for feedback or proceed to /design-build to generate the code.