design-guidesolid
Install: claude install-skill getpaperclipai/paperclip
# Paperclip Design Guide
Paperclip's UI is a professional-grade control plane — dense, keyboard-driven, dark-themed by default. Every pixel earns its place.
**Always use with:** `frontend-design` (visual polish) and `web-design-guidelines` (web best practices).
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## 1. Design Principles
- **Dense but scannable.** Maximum information without clicks to reveal. Whitespace separates, not pads.
- **Keyboard-first.** Global shortcuts (Cmd+K, C, [, ]). Power users rarely touch the mouse.
- **Contextual, not modal.** Inline editing over dialog boxes. Dropdowns over page navigations.
- **Dark theme default.** Neutral grays (OKLCH), not pure black. Accent colors for status/priority only. Text is the primary visual element.
- **Component-driven.** Prefer reusable components that capture style conventions. Build at the right abstraction — not too granular, not too monolithic.
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## 2. Tech Stack
- **React 19** + **TypeScript** + **Vite**
- **Tailwind CSS v4** with CSS variables (OKLCH color space)
- **shadcn/ui** (new-york style, neutral base, CSS variables enabled)
- **Radix UI** primitives (accessibility, focus management)
- **Lucide React** icons (16px nav, 14px inline)
- **class-variance-authority** (CVA) for component variants
- **clsx + tailwind-merge** via `cn()` utility
Config: `ui/components.json` (aliases: `@/components`, `@/components/ui`, `@/lib`, `@/hooks`)
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## 3. Design Tokens
All tokens defined as CSS variables in `ui/src/index.css`. Both light and dark t