reference

Impeccable Rails — Reference

This skill is a lookup layer. When you need a concrete design value, read the relevant reference file rather than guessing. All values are distilled from Design for Developers (Twarog & Moller) and modernized for 2026 (OKLCH, fluid type, semantic dark-mode tokens, 50–950 weights, WCAG 2.2).

How to use

1. Identify what you need a number for, then open the matching file in references/:
   • Color — harmony, OKLCH weight ladders (50–950), dark-mode tokens, contrast/WCAG → references/color.md
   • Typography — modular scale, fluid clamp() sizes, line-height, letter-spacing, weights → references/typography.md
   • Spacing & layout — 4/5-point systems, grids/12-col, gutters, baseline units → references/spacing-layout.md
   • Components — buttons, borders, shadows, icons, inputs, forms, labels, dividers, checkbox, radio, textarea, toggle, dropdown, submit, badges, toasts, breadcrumbs, tables, lists, tooltips, cards, accordions, tabs, iconography, avatars → references/components.md
   • Component states — the state matrix (hover/focus/active/disabled/loading, valid/error, tab/accordion/table/toast variants); ready CSS in assets/components.css → references/states.md
   • Visual hierarchy — size/contrast/proximity/alignment/negative-space, F/Z patterns → references/visual-hierarchy.md
   • Process & styleguide — wireframing rules, styleguide build order (logo→palette→type→imagery→grid→components), component states, design-system concepts → references/process.md
2. For a single machine-readable source of all default tokens, use references/tokens.json.

Principles (so the numbers make sense)

• Pick values from a system, never ad hoc. A type scale, a spacing step, a weight on the ladder.
• Hierarchy is built from size, weight, color, and space — not decoration.
• Less is more: prefer space and subtle contrast over borders and heavy shadows.
• The numbers are defaults, not laws. They produce a coherent baseline; adjust with intent.

Modernizations applied (vs the 2024 source)

Topic	This skill uses
Color generation	OKLCH steps → HEX output (book's tint/tone/shade teaching kept)
Responsive type	Fluid clamp() default; −10–25%/breakpoint as fallback
Dark mode	Semantic surface/elevation tokens (NOT weight inversion)
Weight ladder	50–950 default; 100–800 kept as a mapping
Accessibility	WCAG 2.2, 4.5:1 unchanged; APCA noted as emerging