Design shotgun

Skill josephneumann/claude-corps/skills/design-shotgun

Use when you need 3-5 intentionally different UI directions before committing to a single design approachFrom its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add josephneumann/claude-corps --skill design-shotgun

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SKILL.md

3.8 KB, 809 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

/design-shotgun $ARGUMENTS

Generate multiple intentional design directions for a feature brief or plan. This is divergence before commitment.

Do NOT write code. Do NOT edit the plan. Your output is design options plus a recommendation strong enough to carry into /product-review DESIGN or /plan-design-review.

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS = brief text, plan path, or empty
--count N = number of directions, default 3, clamp to 3-5
If empty, use the most recent plan in docs/plans/
If no brief or plan exists: ask the user for a short feature description, then stop until you have one

Phase 1: Ground in Reality

Before inventing directions:

Read the brief or plan
Check for DESIGN.md, design-system docs, or existing UI patterns
Reuse product vocabulary that already exists in the repo
Extract hard constraints:
- target users
- device posture
- accessibility expectations
- trust or safety requirements
- existing brand or component constraints

If the repo already has a strong design language, push variation through hierarchy, interaction model, pacing, and emotional tone. Do not propose something that obviously fights the product's established visual system.

Phase 2: Generate Distinct Directions

Produce N directions that are meaningfully different, not cosmetic reskins.

Each direction must include:

1. Name

A short memorable label.

2. Core Idea

Two to three sentences describing the concept and the user impression it creates.

3. Information Hierarchy

What the user sees first, second, and third.

4. Interaction Model

What the main interaction pattern is:

dashboard
guided flow
command surface
editorial narrative
split-pane workspace
feed/timeline
another concrete pattern

5. Mobile and Responsive Posture

How the concept changes on smaller screens. Not "stack it on mobile." Be specific.

6. Accessibility and Trust Watchouts

What needs care so the design stays usable and credible.

7. Why This Is Not Generic

Name the exact choices that keep it from becoming AI slop. If the direction still sounds like "clean modern cards," rewrite it.

8. Implementation Risk

Call out where this direction is easy, medium, or high risk for the current codebase.

Phase 3: Force Separation

After drafting the directions, compare them directly. If any two would produce roughly the same screen with different styling, rewrite until they diverge on structure or behavior.

Use a compact comparison table:

Direction	Best For	Main Risk	Distinguishing Move
...	...	...	...

Phase 4: Recommend One

Pick a single recommended direction and explain:

why it fits the product and codebase best
what it sacrifices versus the other options
what must be preserved if the team proceeds

Required Ending

Finish with:

Recommended Handoff

Give the user the exact next step:

/product-review DESIGN if the concept still needs product challenge
/plan-design-review if a plan exists and needs design completion

Design Handoff Block

Provide a short block that can be pasted into a plan:

Recommended direction: ...
Primary user impression: ...
Hierarchy: ...
Interaction model: ...
Responsive posture: ...
Accessibility/trust requirements: ...
Must-not-lose differentiators: ...

Rules

Default to 3 directions unless the user asks for more
Do not exceed 5 directions
Specificity over vibes
Reuse existing design language when present
Variation must be structural, not palette-swapping
No implementation plan, no component inventory, no code suggestions

What ships with it

Read from the repository

Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most design frontend skills give in 809 tokens

Counted across 1,179 of the 2,086 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06

Commit to a bold aesthetic directionin 31 of 1179, across 24 files
Prefer component composition over inheritancein 28 of 1179, across 14 files
Animate only transform and opacity propertiesin 27 of 1179, across 22 files
Memoize expensive computations with useMemoin 26 of 1179, across 13 files
Use semantic HTML elementsin 24 of 1179, across 23 files
Virtualize long lists for performancein 21 of 1179, across 10 files
Use CSS variables for design tokensin 20 of 1179, across 14 files
Implement loading, empty, and error statesin 20 of 1179
Lazy load heavy components with Suspensein 19 of 1179, across 8 files
Respect prefers-reduced-motion media queriesin 18 of 1179, across 10 files
Prioritize CSS-only animations for HTMLin 18 of 1179, across 16 files
Use compound components for related UI elementsin 18 of 1179, across 7 files

Said here and by no other author read

Extract hard constraints from the project
Reuse existing product vocabulary
Ensure directions differ in structure and behavior
Include name and core idea for each direction
Define information hierarchy and interaction model
Specify mobile and responsive posture

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.