empty-state-auditlisted

# Empty State Audit ## Install Save this file as `~/.claude/skills/empty-state-audit/SKILL.md`, or `.claude/skills/empty-state-audit/SKILL.md` to scope it to one repo. Claude Code auto-discovers it. Invoke with `/empty-state-audit` or by asking "what does my app look like with no data?". ## Why this exists Every product is empty first, and almost none are designed for it. Interfaces get built against seed data, so the state every early visitor actually sees is the one nobody looked at. Empty is not merely unpolished. It is actively read as a signal: "0 reviews · 0 downloads · 0 sellers" tells a visitor nobody else is here, and for anything social or transactional that is the strongest possible reason to leave. The product works perfectly and still loses the user. The wrong fix is as damaging as the problem. Padding an empty screen with plausible-looking placeholder data is a lie that survives into production and gets discovered exactly when someone was deciding whether to trust you. **The goal is honest and inviting, not full.** ## Step 1 — Actually run it empty Do not reason about this from the code. Get a truly empty database and look. ``` # a scratch database, migrations only, no seed DATABASE_URL="<empty-db-url>" npm run dev ``` Walk every significant screen as a signed-out visitor, then as a brand-new signed-in user. Two different empties, and the second is usually worse because the app has promised something by then. If a genuinely empty database is impracti