/design-loop

/planr-pipeline:design-loop {target}

The generalized design shotgun: concept list → confirm before any spend → N parallel variants → a live localhost board (the board is the chooser; chat is only the wait) → file-handshake feedback (pins on exact regions, ratings, remix) → session-chained iteration → approval → taste memory. Works with an OpenAI key (image generation) and without one (claude-svg: agent-authored SVG — for logos/UI often better: exact hex, real type, vector output).

Engine: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/lib/design-engine/cli.mjs (node <abs-path> <cmd> …). Resolve PLUG exactly as design-step2-generate.md C.1 does (this file's path minus /commands/design-loop.md); always substitute absolute paths — shell vars don't reach subagents (hard rule 6).

R1: this loop STOPS at approval. It never auto-chains into /plan or /ship.

Task tracking

Create one task per phase (TaskCreate, advance with TaskUpdate; pre-2.1.142 runtimes: TodoWrite; no task tool: inline). Verify each phase's outputs on disk before advancing.

1. Phase A — Context + taste + concepts
2. Phase B — Concept gate (no spend before confirm)
3. Phase C — Parallel variant generation
4. Phase D — Board loop (feedback → iterate)
5. Phase E — Approve + taste + handoff

Phases (execute in order)

Phase	Procedure
A — context, taste read, concept list	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/procedures/design-loop-step0-context.md
B — the concept gate	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/procedures/design-loop-step1-gate.md
C — parallel variants	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/procedures/design-loop-step2-variants.md
D — board + iteration loop	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/procedures/design-loop-step3-board.md
E — approve, taste, handoff	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/procedures/design-loop-step4-approve.md

Hard rules (verbatim — paid-for lessons; the procedures encode the detail)

1. Concept gate before credits — never generate anything the user hasn't confirmed.
2. AskUserQuestion is the blocking wait, never the chooser — the board chooses; put the BOARD_URL in the question text.
3. Feedback is a FILE next to the board HTML — read it only after the user says done; never parse feedback from chat. feedback-pending.json is consumed on read.
4. Variant subagents own their lifecycle and report VARIANT_X_DONE/FAILED/RATE_LIMITED — failures explicit, never silently skipped; all-fail → sequential fallback, reason stated.
5. Generate to /tmp first, then cp (the engine does this; keep it when hand-authoring).
6. Absolute paths in every subagent prompt.
7. Never print/echo keys; disclose cwd-.env key usage before generating; check it's gitignored.
8. Anti-convergence: different font family + palette + layout per variant — "if you could swap two variants' headlines unnoticed, one failed — regenerate it."
9. No key ⇒ claude-svg is first-class, not an apology.
10. Vision/structural quality gate before human review; one retry.
11. Taste updates on BOTH approve and reject; conflicts flagged, never silently resolved.
12. R1: stop at approval.
13. Every artifact dir gets a scoped .gitignore (the engine writes it).
14. Board survives a dead agent; agent survives a dead daemon (re-board the same dir).