DESIGN.md Library

A curated vault of 71 DESIGN.md files — plain-text design system documents inspired by real brand websites. Drop one into a project and Claude will generate UI that matches the brand's look and feel.

What is DESIGN.md?

DESIGN.md is a Google Stitch format: a single markdown file that captures a brand's visual design system in a way AI coding agents can read and apply directly. No Figma exports, no JSON schemas, no tooling — just markdown.

Each file follows the Stitch format with these sections:

1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
2. Color Palette & Roles (semantic name + hex + functional role)
3. Typography Rules (font families, full hierarchy table)
4. Component Stylings (buttons, cards, inputs, nav, with states)
5. Layout Principles (spacing scale, grid, whitespace philosophy)
6. Depth & Elevation (shadow system, surface hierarchy)
7. Do's and Don'ts (guardrails and anti-patterns)
8. Responsive Behavior (breakpoints, touch targets)
9. Agent Prompt Guide (quick color reference, ready-to-use prompts)

When to Activate

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Names a brand and asks for its look: "make it look like Linear", "use Stripe's design system", "apply the Claude design"
• Asks for a design system by domain: "I need a design for an AI product site — something like Cohere or Mistral"
• Mentions DESIGN.md directly: "drop in a DESIGN.md", "what DESIGN.md files do you have?"
• Wants brand-accurate tokens: "give me Stripe's color palette", "what's Vercel's type scale?"
• Asks to list or browse available designs: "what design systems are available?", "show me the catalog"

If the user asks for something that isn't in the catalog, say so honestly — don't invent tokens. Suggest the closest match or point them at scripts/update-templates.sh to refresh from upstream.

How to Use

Browse the catalog

Read references/catalog.md for a flat alphabetical list of all 71 brands with one-line hooks, or references/categories.md to see them grouped (AI & LLM, Developer Tools, Fintech, Automotive, etc.).

Apply a template

Use the apply script — it validates the brand name, copies the template into the user's cwd as DESIGN.md, and prints an activation hint.

bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/apply.sh" <brand>
# e.g.
bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/apply.sh" claude
bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/apply.sh" linear.app
bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/apply.sh" stripe

The brand slug is the lowercase name used in the catalog (e.g. claude, linear.app, mistral.ai, opencode.ai, together.ai, theverge, x.ai).

The script writes ./DESIGN.md into the current working directory. If a DESIGN.md already exists, it aborts unless --force is passed:

bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/apply.sh" stripe --force

List all available brands

bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/list.sh"
bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/list.sh" --category ai     # filter by category
bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/list.sh" --search dark     # search descriptions

After applying

Once DESIGN.md is in the project root, tell Claude to use it. Claude reads the file automatically when generating UI in that project — you shouldn't need to paste the tokens inline. Example prompts:

• "Build a landing page following DESIGN.md"
• "Create a pricing card using our DESIGN.md tokens"
• "Refactor this component to match DESIGN.md"

DESIGN.md is complementary to AGENTS.md. If both exist in a project: AGENTS.md tells Claude how to build the project, DESIGN.md tells Claude how it should look.

Composition with other tools

• Image generation: if the project also has the nano-banana plugin installed, you can ask Claude to generate brand-matched images using the DESIGN.md as the style reference. No explicit wiring needed — just ask.
• html-artifacts: separate concern. html-artifacts creates quick dashboards/forms for in-terminal work; it doesn't compose with DESIGN.md unless you explicitly ask it to.

Updating the templates

The source of truth is the getdesign npm package, which bundles the 71 templates from VoltAgent/awesome-design-md.

To refresh all templates from the latest upstream release:

bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/update-templates.sh"

This pulls the newest getdesign@latest via npm pack, extracts package/templates/*.md + manifest.json, and replaces the local copy atomically. Run this monthly or when you hear about new brands.

File Layout

design-md/
├── SKILL.md                          # This file
├── references/
│   ├── catalog.md                    # Flat alphabetical list (Tier 1 lookup)
│   ├── categories.md                 # Grouped by category (Tier 2 browsing)
│   └── templates/                    # 71 DESIGN.md files + manifest.json
│       ├── manifest.json             # Brand metadata (descriptions, hashes, commit)
│       ├── claude.md                 # Each file: ~300 lines of design-system spec
│       ├── stripe.md
│       ├── linear.app.md
│       └── ... (63 more)
├── scripts/
│   ├── apply.sh                      # Copy template → cwd/DESIGN.md
│   ├── list.sh                       # Show catalog
│   └── update-templates.sh           # Sync from getdesign npm package
└── commands/
    ├── apply.md                      # /design-md:apply <brand>
    └── list.md                       # /design-md:list

Rules

1. Don't invent tokens. If a user asks for a brand not in the catalog, tell them and suggest the closest match. Never fabricate hex codes, font names, or component specs.
2. Don't overwrite without permission. The apply script refuses to clobber an existing DESIGN.md unless --force is passed.
3. Brand slugs are canonical. Use what the manifest says — linear.app, mistral.ai, opencode.ai, together.ai, x.ai, theverge (no dot). Don't guess.
4. Credit the source. DESIGN.md files are extracted from publicly visible CSS. Attribution: VoltAgent/awesome-design-md (MIT). The design tokens represent the source brands' public visual identity.
5. This skill supersedes showroom. The old showroom skill bundled product-showcase prompts inline; DESIGN.md is the durable replacement and composes with nano-banana for image generation.

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Source: VoltAgent/awesome-design-md (MIT License) Upstream CLI: getdesign — bundled inside that package as package/templates/*.md Format spec: Google Stitch DESIGN.md