Design System — Generate & Audit Visual Systems
When to Use
- Starting a new project that needs a design system
- Auditing an existing codebase for visual consistency
- Before a redesign — understand what you have
- When the UI looks "off" but you can't pinpoint why
- Reviewing PRs that touch styling
How It Works
Mode 1: Generate Design System
Analyzes your codebase and generates a cohesive design system:
1. Scan CSS/Tailwind/styled-components for existing patterns
2. Extract: colors, typography, spacing, border-radius, shadows, breakpoints
3. Research 3 competitor sites for inspiration (via browser MCP)
4. Propose a design token set (JSON + CSS custom properties)
5. Generate DESIGN.md with rationale for each decision
6. Create an interactive HTML preview page (self-contained, no deps)
Output: DESIGN.md + design-tokens.json + design-preview.html
Mode 2: Visual Audit
Scores your UI across 10 dimensions (0-10 each):
1. Color consistency — are you using your palette or random hex values?
2. Typography hierarchy — clear h1 > h2 > h3 > body > caption?
3. Spacing rhythm — consistent scale (4px/8px/16px) or arbitrary?
4. Component consistency — do similar elements look similar?
5. Responsive behavior — fluid or broken at breakpoints?
6. Dark mode — complete or half-done?
7. Animation — purposeful or gratuitous?
8. Accessibility — contrast ratios, focus states, touch targets
9. Information density — cluttered or clean?
10. Polish — hover states, transitions, loading states, empty states
Each dimension gets a score, specific examples, and a fix with exact file:line.
Mode 3: AI Slop Detection
Identifies generic AI-generated design patterns:
- Gratuitous gradients on everything
- Purple-to-blue defaults
- "Glass morphism" cards with no purpose
- Rounded corners on things that shouldn't be rounded
- Excessive animations on scroll
- Generic hero with centered text over stock gradient
- Sans-serif font stack with no personality
Examples
Generate for a SaaS app:
/design-system generate --style minimal --palette earth-tones
Audit existing UI:
/design-system audit --url http://localhost:3000 --pages / /pricing /docs
Check for AI slop:
/design-system slop-check