design-directions

# Design directions before implementation Two evidence lines support this step. First, frontier models return to a persistent frontend default. Generic redirection such as “cleaner” or “not cream” replaces one default palette with another; only a concrete specification changes the structure. With sampling controls no longer exposed, generate several directions and let a person choose. Second, Dow, Glassco, Kass, Schwarz, Schwartz, and Klemmer, “Parallel Prototyping Leads to Better Design Results, More Divergence, and Increased Self-Efficacy” (ACM TOCHI 2010), found parallel alternatives superior to serial iteration on quality, divergence, and self-efficacy. `/design-council` reviews one built direction. This skill cheaply creates the alternatives before that review when the route identifies a structural choice. ## Ownership The owner of divergence is `chief`, not the builder `design-guardian`. A builder who authors the options biases them toward the one they want to implement and turns the rest into straw men. `chief` sketches, the human owner chooses, and the builder implements. ## A direction is structural, not a palette Atlas already fixes dark-only and tokens-on-ramps; since 2026-09-08 gradients, glow, glass and further hues are open, so a direction may spend them, but a direction is still a structure, not a coat of effects. Do not copy example colours, fonts, or assets from reference documents. Directions differ on at least one axis: | Axis | Structural differe...