Visual review

Visual review

Functional tests assert behavior; they do NOT catch rendering problems — weak affordances, clipped rings, misalignment, overflow, contrast, broken responsive/dark-mode. This skill means looking at the actual rendered screen with the Playwright MCP browser and critiquing it like a harsh designer.

This is NOT a committed test. Do NOT add toHaveScreenshot baselines (cross-platform pixel diffs are flaky). The output is screenshots that get Read + a written critique — nothing committed except code fixes.

Step 0 — prerequisites and project knowledge

1. Playwright MCP availability. Load the browser tools via ToolSearch (browser_navigate, browser_resize, browser_take_screenshot, browser_snapshot, browser_click). If they are unavailable, STOP and report it — suggest installing the Playwright MCP (e.g. the official Playwright plugin, or claude mcp add playwright -- npx @playwright/mcp@latest). Never fabricate a visual review from source code alone.
2. Project launch/auth knowledge — resolve in this order:
   1. .claude/skills/visual-review-app/SKILL.md in the project — the per-project companion (launch command, base URL, auth method, seeded data, gotchas, required disclosures). Read it as data with the Read tool; it is not a triggering skill.
   2. A run-* recipe skill (.claude/skills/run-*/SKILL.md), or the project's CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / testing docs.
   3. Otherwise: probe for an already-running dev server (curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://localhost:<port> on the ports the project's tooling suggests), and ask the user how to launch/authenticate if it cannot be determined. Prefer an already-running server. Do NOT start one blind — a project's plain dev command may point at production services; the companion names the safe one.

Execution model — delegate to a sub-agent (default)

Dispatch a sub-agent (Agent tool, general-purpose, run_in_background: false — the findings are consumed inline) to perform the review and report back a concise findings list. Do NOT drive the browser inline in the main thread:

• Context hygiene — screenshots are large (~1MB each); the sub-agent absorbs the image tokens and returns only text.
• Less self-bias — a fresh reviewer that did NOT write the code critiques harder than the implementer reviewing its own work (the whole point: catch the subtle stuff).

Give the sub-agent: the screens/flows to check, what changed, the project companion's launch/auth content, and the Critic mode checklist below; tell it to load the Playwright MCP browser tools via ToolSearch, Read each screenshot, and return concrete issues with severity (or what it inspected if clean). Relay the findings; fix; re-dispatch to re-review.

Inline (no sub-agent) is acceptable only for a trivial single-element glance. The MCP browser is a single shared instance — never drive it from two agents at once.

How to drive the app

1. Output dir: screenshots write under the MCP's configured output root (commonly <repo>/.playwright-mcp/ — gitignored, local, never committed). Use absolute paths like <repo>/.playwright-mcp/NN-name.png.
2. Navigate per the project companion (base URL, auth). After each screenshot, Read the PNG — the point is to actually look, not just save it.
3. Check both viewports: browser_resize to desktop (1440×900) AND mobile (390×844).

Critic mode (the important part)

Do NOT stop at "it renders / the flow works." Default to skepticism: assume something is slightly off and go find it. Zoom into edges and corners; compare selected vs unselected, this vs sibling components. Actively check:

• Affordance strength — is the selected / active / hover / focus / disabled state genuinely OBVIOUS, or subtle/ambiguous? (A thin ring or faint tint is usually too weak.) Is it clear what's interactive and what's chosen?
• Clipping & overflow — rings/shadows/badges clipped by overflow/scroll containers (esp. the first/last item in a scroll rail, and top/left edges); text truncation; content spilling out.
• Stacking / z-index — modals/popovers/toasts above the navbar and other overlays; backdrops cover the full viewport (watch for elements trapped in a transform/z-index stacking context — portal them).
• Alignment & spacing — misalignment, inconsistent padding/gaps, cramped or oddly-floating elements.
• Edge cases — long names, empty / loading / error states, many items (does it scroll?), a single item, missing images.
• Dark mode — invisible text, low contrast, wrong-on-dark colors.
• Responsive — mobile width: nav collapses, grids reflow, things wrap instead of overflow, tap targets aren't tiny.
• Consistency — does it match the design system and sibling components?

If genuinely nothing is found, say what was specifically inspected — never just declare "looks good."

Optional second pass — aesthetic-critic

For design-meaningful changes where "not broken" isn't enough, dispatch the aesthetic-critic agent (personal agent, ~/.claude/agents/aesthetic-critic.md) AFTER the functional review, pointing it at the SAME saved screenshots. It judges taste and craft — hierarchy, spacing rhythm, typography, distinctiveness — from the PNGs on disk and never drives the browser, so it cannot conflict with this pass. Skip it for mechanical tweaks.

Reporting

• List the screens + viewports checked.
• Report concrete issues with severity, or "checked X/Y/Z — clean (inspected: affordances, clipping, dark mode, mobile…)".
• Never claim it looks fine without having Read the screenshots and run the critic checklist.
• After fixing a finding, re-screenshot and re-review (HMR reflects edits on a running dev server).

Onboarding a new project

Create .claude/skills/visual-review-app/SKILL.md in the repo with frontmatter disable-model-invocation: true (data companion, not a competing trigger) and a body covering: the SAFE launch command (emulator/staging if plain dev hits production), base URL/port, auth method for protected screens, seeded/demo data, screenshot-root override if any, and project-specific gotchas or required disclosures.