ui-craft-minimal - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: ui-craft-minimal description: "Minimal / clean / Linear / Notion / Vercel / whitespace-heavy UIs. Locked knobs: CRAFT=8, MOTION=3, DENSITY=2. Monochrome + one accent, Inter/Geist, hairline borders over shadows. Trigger on: minimal, clean, Linear-like, Notion-like, Vercel-like, whitespace-heavy." argument-hint: "[action: build|review|polish] [target]"

UI Craft — Minimal

Pre-committed minimal style: editorial clean, Linear / Notion / Vercel. Whitespace is the composition. One accent, hairline borders, almost no motion.

Knobs (locked)

CRAFT_LEVEL = 8 — minimal aesthetics only work when executed precisely; Polish Pass is mandatory.
MOTION_INTENSITY = 3 — hover + modal enter/exit only. No scroll reveals, no page transitions, no stagger.
VISUAL_DENSITY = 2 — whitespace-heavy, 1-2 items per row, generous gutters.

Do not re-ask these in Discovery. Skip straight to accent + font confirmation if ambiguous.

Style anchors

Black or near-black type on white or near-white canvas. Monochrome + ONE accent.
Inter / Geist for body — never a display font.
Section padding 120-200px vertical, 40-80px gutters.
Hairline borders 1px solid oklch(92% 0.005 250) in place of shadows.
Typography is the hierarchy. No decorative gradients, patterns, or glass.
Single-column hero default. Asymmetry via one supporting element, not layout tricks.
Motion is punctuation, not spectacle.
Every pixel deliberate. When in doubt, cut it.

Base rules (inherited)

All rules in ../ui-craft/SKILL.md apply. This file overrides knob defaults and adds style-specific guidance below. The anti-slop and craft tests still apply in full.

Style-specific overrides

Typography

Body: Inter or Geist, 400 weight. UI emphasis: 500. Never 600/700 in body copy.
system-ui, -apple-system as fallback stack.
Headings: tracking-tight / -0.02em above 24px, 500 or 600 max.
text-wrap: balance on headings, text-wrap: pretty on paragraphs.
No display serifs. No geometric display sans. No mixing two sans families.

Color

Surface: oklch(99% 0 0) (light) / oklch(14% 0.005 250) (dark).
Text: oklch(18% 0.01 250) primary, oklch(46% 0.01 250) secondary.
Accent reserved for: primary CTA, active nav item, one key metric. That is it.
Borders: oklch(92% 0.005 250) light / oklch(24% 0.008 250) dark. No colored borders.

Spacing & layout

Section vertical: py-24 md:py-32 lg:py-40 (96 / 128 / 160px) minimum; 200px for hero on large screens.
Container: max-w-5xl typical; max-w-3xl for reading content.
One accent placement per viewport preferred; two max.
No card grids with more than 2 columns on desktop.

Borders & elevation

Default chrome = 1px hairline border, no shadow.
Elevation only for floating UI (menus, toasts, modals) — single soft ambient shadow, not layered.
Radius: 6px inputs, 8px cards, 12px modals. Keep the scale narrow.

Motion

Allowed: hover (opacity / border color, 120-150ms), modal + dialog enter/exit (180-220ms ease-out), focus ring.
Forbidden at this intensity: scroll-triggered reveals, stagger, page transitions, parallax, magnetic cursor, entrance choreography.
Any animation must honor prefers-reduced-motion.

Composition

Hero: left-aligned or centered headline, ONE supporting element (social proof line, screenshot, single chip). No floating badges, orbs, blobs.
Features: stacked rows with a single real visual each. No 3-up uniform icon grids even when tempting.
Nav: text-only links, current state = accent underline or weight 500. No pill backgrounds.

Reference files to read first

Keep the reading list tight. Load only these from ../ui-craft/references/:

layout.md — spacing, hierarchy, composition
typography.md — scale, readability, weight
color.md — monochrome scales, OKLCH, dark mode
accessibility.md — focus, contrast, keyboard

Skip dashboard.md, stack.md, sound.md unless explicitly relevant.

Anti-patterns for THIS style

Multiple accent colors. One accent, period.
Display serifs, geometric display sans, or mixing two sans families.
Decorative gradients, mesh backgrounds, noise overlays, glass panels.
Scroll-triggered reveals, stagger, page transitions — even "subtle" ones.
Uniform 3-column icon-heading-text feature grids.
Colored shadows or glows as affordances.
Dense layouts. If density feels right, this is the wrong variant — switch to ui-craft-dense-dashboard.
Pill backgrounds on nav links or buttons by default; prefer text + underline.
Section padding under 96px on desktop.