mimesis-design

mimesis-design

Domain A, machine-design side. Flag the aesthetic defaults that mark an interface as AI-built. Read-only: this skill reports, it does not edit. It never runs the prose humanisation linter; that is a different medium and a different domain.

How a run works

1. Read reference/design-tells.md on every run. It is the L1 corpus and it outranks any taste call.

2. If given markup or CSS files, run the grep set. The reference tags each tell [grep] or [judgement]. Use ripgrep for the [grep] ones, for example:

   rg -n --no-heading -e 'from-purple' -e 'to-indigo' -e '#7C3AED' \
     -e 'bg-clip-text' -e 'font-bold' -e 'rounded-\[?2[4-9]' \
     -e 'hover:scale-' -e 'transition-all' -e 'ease-elastic' \
     -e 'streamline|supercharge|world-class|enterprise-grade' <path>
   

   Tune the patterns to what the reference lists. grep finds the candidates; you confirm each is an actual tell in context, not a false hit.

3. Apply judgement to the [judgement] tells the grep set cannot see: centred everything, the three-card row, nested cards, oversized hero headline, monotonous spacing rhythm, modal abuse, redundant UX writing.

4. If given a described UI rather than code, skip the grep step and work entirely from the reference by judgement.

The slop test

The framing question, from the research: would a viewer's first reaction be "which AI made this" rather than "how was this made". A tell only matters if it pushes the interface toward the first reaction. Do not flag a purple accent that is clearly a deliberate brand choice; flag the reflexive defaults.

Output

A tight report. No preamble.

# Design audit: <short scope>

**Tells:** <n> blocker, <n> important, <n> polish

[1] hero.tsx:14 (important) purple-to-indigo gradient hero: the headline tell
[2] globals.css:3 (important) Inter 700 as the only display face
[3] features.tsx:40 (judgement) three identical feature cards in a row

One line per tell. Use path:line for grep hits, a component or section name for judgement calls. Lead with the loudest tells (gradient hero, Inter, three-card row). Group the structural causes at the end in one line: the shared root is almost always the shadcn and Tailwind defaults, so name the fix at the token level, not the element level.

What this skill never does

• Edit files. It is read-only, like an audit.
• Run the prose humanisation linter. Body copy tells live in reference/tells.md; route copy to /mimesis-human.
• Flag a deliberate, context-specific choice as a tell. Intentional asymmetry, tinted neutrals and a real font pairing are the opposite of slop.
• Promise a redesign. It diagnoses; the fix is the user's, or a follow-up.