Atomic brand

atomic-brand

Purpose

Sit at the design-system layer. Block scattered components, hardcoded values, brand drift, and naming-by-appearance before they ship. Emit a scored audit, a refactor plan (when drifting), or a build-out plan (when broken).

Web medium first. Native (Swift, Compose), TUI, print, and email are candidates to become sibling skills when migration triggers fire — see TESTS.md.

Modes

Audit mode (default)

Trigger: "atomic audit", "brand audit", "/atomic-brand"

Behavior:

1. Detect brand-token source via the failover chain
2. Walk the component library (CSS, HTML, React/Vue/Svelte files)
3. Apply the 8-dimension rubric per references/audit-rubric.md
4. Emit the Atomic Brand Audit with findings
5. Issue verdict; emit downstream artifact (refactor plan or build-out plan)

Refactor mode

Trigger: "find duplicate components", "consolidate components"

Behavior:

1. Run audit
2. Focus the refactor plan on the highest-leverage consolidations and renames
3. Emit refactor-plan.md ordered by leverage

Build-out mode

Trigger: automatic when verdict is broken

Behavior:

1. Identify which tokens and patterns are missing
2. Emit build-out-plan.md listing required tokens, atoms, molecules, organisms
3. Sequence the build by T-shirt size (XS → XL) where applicable

The failover chain (brand detection)

Three sources of truth, tried in order:

Step	Source	Confidence
1	Explicit token file (tokens.css, tailwind.config.{js,ts}, tokens.json, theme.ts)	high
2	Brand asset image (logo, screenshot, style guide PDF)	medium
3	Scrape live URL — extract computed styles from rendered pages	low

If step 1 finds a token file, use it. Skip 2 and 3. If step 1 fails, try step 2. If step 2 fails, try step 3. If all three fail, verdict = broken; build-out plan starts with "no brand tokens defined."

See references/failover-chain.md.

The 8 audit dimensions

#	Dimension	What it scores
1	Token compliance	% of color/spacing/type values using tokens vs. hardcoded
2	Atomic discipline	Honest hierarchy: atoms compose into molecules compose into organisms
3	Naming integrity	Components named by role, not appearance
4	Brand coherence	Visual identity consistent across the surface
5	Scale discipline	Values come from defined scales (spacing, type, color)
6	Composition health	No cross-tree reaches; clean dependency graph
7	Duplication	Minimum number of components per job
8	Variant clarity	Variants are declared and named, not implicit

Each scored 1-5. Verdicts: system-healthy (all ≥4), drifting (any 2-3), broken (any 1 OR ≥3 dims at 2).

See references/audit-rubric.md.

Failure-mode taxonomy

Every finding gets one tag from this set:

atomic_violation · token_violation · naming_violation · brand_drift · inconsistency · composition_violation · scale_violation · duplication_violation

See references/failure-modes.md.

Verdict gates

Verdict	Allowed downstream
system-healthy	Ship
drifting	Apply refactor plan, re-audit
broken	Stop; apply build-out plan; re-audit when minimum tokens exist

Operating flow

1. Detect brand-token source (failover chain)
2. Walk component library; classify each file
3. Score each of 8 dimensions
4. Tag findings by failure mode
5. Compute verdict
6. Emit canonical Atomic Brand Audit (assets/audit-template.md)
7. Based on verdict:
   - system-healthy: done
   - drifting: emit refactor-plan.md
   - broken: emit build-out-plan.md

References

• references/atomic-design.md — Brad Frost's atomic design distillation
• references/brand-tokens.md — token taxonomy by category
• references/composition-rules.md — dependency-graph rules; what imports what
• references/audit-rubric.md — 8-dimension scored rubric
• references/failover-chain.md — brand detection ordering
• references/failure-modes.md — tagged violation taxonomy

Prompts

• prompts/audit-url.md — orchestrator; runs the full flow
• prompts/audit-component-library.md — codebase walk and classify
• prompts/audit-token-compliance.md — token vs. hardcoded scoring
• prompts/audit-brand-coherence.md — visual identity audit
• prompts/parse-image-for-brand.md — failover step 2
• prompts/scrape-for-brand.md — failover step 3
• prompts/refactor-plan.md — drifting verdict downstream
• prompts/build-out-plan.md — broken verdict downstream

Triggers

Phrase	Mode
atomic audit, brand audit, /atomic-brand	Audit
design system audit, audit my components	Audit
is this on-brand, brand drift	Brand coherence focus
find duplicate components, consolidate components	Refactor
what tokens am I missing, build out my design system	Build-out

Interfaces

Layer	Convention
Color tokens	Reads from --color-* CSS custom properties via project token files
Type tokens	Reads from --font-* CSS custom properties; defers chart-specific or type-scale-specific audits to dedicated skills if present
Output formats	Markdown audit + JSON conforming to assets/audit-report-schema.json + optional refactor-plan.md or build-out-plan.md
Sizing	All emitted tasks use T-shirt sizes; consumers can re-size against their own rubric

Scope (v0.1.0)

Web only. CSS, HTML, React, Vue, Svelte component libraries. Native and other mediums spin out as sibling skills when migration triggers fire. See TESTS.md for the trigger table.

Self-application

This skill must pass the canonical skill-structure audit at ≥4 on every dimension (spec-compliant + marketplace-ready).