The gist

Skills is a command-line tool by Emil Kowalski that provides curated design and animation expertise. It addresses the problem of AI agents making poor aesthetic choices, such as using incorrect easing functions or border styles. By codifying rules from an experienced design engineer, it provides a shortcut for developers and designers to build more polished user interfaces and guide generative AI tools toward higher-quality output.

What it does

Codifies design and animation expertise from an experienced engineer.
Provides guidelines to prevent common UI mistakes made by AI agents.
Offers a vocabulary for prompting AI to generate better animations.
Distills and translates Apple's design principles for web development.
Reviews animations against a strict set of predefined rules.

How it works

Skills is a free, open-source tool installed via the command line with npx. Users add specific skill sets to their environment. These 'skills' are collections of rules and principles intended to be used as a reference or to guide AI agents in making better UI decisions. It doesn't take direct input or produce a file; its purpose is to improve the quality of an existing design or development workflow.

Best for

This tool is best for design engineers and front-end developers who want to enforce high-quality standards for UI animations and design, especially when using AI agents for development.

Watch out for

This is not a visual design tool or an automatic code generator; it's a set of codified principles to guide development. Its effectiveness depends on integrating these rules into your workflow or AI agent prompts.