What is the minimalist-skill (minimalist-ui)?
The minimalist-skill, installed as minimalist-ui, is a SKILL.md from the Leonxlnx/taste-skill repo. It gives your coding agent a clean editorial look: a warm monochrome palette with exact hex values, a sans, serif and mono type stack, flat 1px-bordered bento cards, subtle motion and a list of banned defaults.
minimalist-skill is a folder in the Leonxlnx/taste-skill repo. Its SKILL.md is named minimalist-ui, and it tells a coding agent to build calm, document-style interfaces. The taste-skill README describes the look as editorial product UI with Notion and Linear vibes.
Ask an agent for a minimal page without it and you often get generic SaaS styling. This skill replaces that default with exact colors, fonts, component values and a list of things the agent must not use.
What changes in your agent's output
- Off-black text on a bone or white canvas, never pure
#000000 - An editorial serif for hero headings with tight tracking, and a clean sans for the interface
- Flat bento grids with exactly
1px solid #EAEAEAborders and a radius of 12px at most - Muted pastel tags in place of bright badges, and a near-black button with no shadow
- Scroll-entry fades built with
IntersectionObserver, and no gradient-heavy hero
The palette at a glance
| Role | Value |
|---|---|
| Canvas | #FFFFFF, #F7F6F3 or #FBFBFA |
| Card surface | #FFFFFF or #F9F9F8 |
| Borders and dividers | #EAEAEA or rgba(0,0,0,0.06) |
| Body text | #111111 or #2F3437, never #000000 |
| Secondary text | #787774 |
| Pale red tag | #FDEBEC with text #9F2F2D |
| Pale blue tag | #E1F3FE with text #1F6C9F |
| Pale green tag | #EDF3EC with text #346538 |
| Pale yellow tag | #FBF3DB with text #956400 |
Who it is for
Best for
- Landing pages, docs sites and dashboards that should look like a workspace tool
- Teams that have already chosen a restrained visual direction
- Replacing generic AI-generated card, pill and shadow styling
Not for
- Bright, gradient or neon brands. The skill bans neon, large primary-color sections and gradients as a style
- Projects locked to Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lucide or Heroicons, all of which it bans
- Picking a direction from scratch. The README suggests starting with the main taste-skill, then adding this one once the look is chosen
Use it with UiChemy
The skill sets the look of the front-end code your agent writes. UiChemy AI to WordPress can then import that AI-generated build into Elementor or Gutenberg as an editable page. Check fonts and spacing after the import. For a wider pass, see the frontend design skill and the Impeccable critique skill.
How to install Minimalist UI
git clone https://github.com/Leonxlnx/taste-skill.gitClone the repo
Run the command above. The skill lives in
skills/minimalist-skilland is oneSKILL.mdfile.Copy the folder
Copy
skills/minimalist-skillinto your agent's skills directory. For Claude Code that is~/.claude/skills/for every project or.claude/skills/inside one project. The skill's name field isminimalist-ui.Or paste the file
The README says you can also copy any SKILL.md into your project or paste it into a ChatGPT or Codex conversation.
Ask for the style
Prompt the agent, for example: Use minimalist-ui to build the pricing page.
Check that it loaded
Start a new session and ask for a page with minimalist-ui. The result should use an off-black text color, 1px #EAEAEA borders, a serif hero heading and no gradient-heavy hero or heavy shadows.
Key features
- Banned defaultsThe agent must not use Inter, Roboto or Open Sans, Tailwind's heavy
shadow-mdtoshadow-xl,rounded-fullon large containers or primary buttons, emojis, or placeholder names such as John Doe and Acme Corp. - Anti-cliche copy ruleAI copywriting clichés such as Unleash and Next-Gen are banned, along with generic placeholder text. The agent writes plain, specific language and realistic, contextual content.
- Typographic contrastSans for body and buttons (SF Pro Display, Geist Sans, Helvetica Neue or Switzer), a serif for hero headings and quotes (Lyon Text, Newsreader, Playfair Display or Instrument Serif) and a mono for code and metadata. Serif headings use
-0.02emto-0.04emtracking and1.1line-height. - Warm monochrome paletteColor is treated as scarce. The canvas is white or warm bone, borders are ultra-light gray, and the only accents are four desaturated pastels used for tags, inline code and icon backgrounds.
- Flat bento cardsAsymmetrical CSS Grid layouts with cards at exactly
1px solid #EAEAEA, a radius of 8px or 12px at most and 24px to 40px of internal padding. - Buttons and tagsThe primary button is
#111111with white text, a 4px to 6px radius and no shadow, and it shifts to#333333or scales to0.98on hover. Tags are small, uppercase pills with0.05emtracking on pastel backgrounds. - Document-style detailsFAQ accordions drop their boxes and use only a bottom border with a clean plus and minus toggle. Shortcuts render as
<kbd>keys, and mockups sit in a minimal window frame with three light gray circles. - Iconography and imageryPhosphor icons in Bold or Fill weight, or Radix UI Icons, at one standard stroke width. Illustrations are monochrome line sketches with one pastel shape, and photos are desaturated and warm.
- Quiet motionScroll entry uses a 12px rise and fade over 600ms via
IntersectionObserver, and list items stagger by80ms. Animation uses onlytransformandopacity, withwill-changeused sparingly. - Execution orderThe agent sets macro whitespace first (
py-24orpy-32), limits text width tomax-w-4xlormax-w-5xl, applies the type and color variables immediately and adds scroll-entry animation to major blocks.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimalist-skill (minimalist-ui)?
It is a SKILL.md in the Leonxlnx/taste-skill repo, installed under the name minimalist-ui. It gives a coding agent one strict editorial style: warm monochrome colors, a sans, serif and mono type stack, flat bento cards, muted pastel tags, subtle motion and a ban list of generic web defaults.
How do I install minimalist-ui?
Clone the Leonxlnx/taste-skill repo with git and copy the skills/minimalist-skill folder into your agent's skills directory. In Claude Code that is ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects or .claude/skills/ inside one project. The README also says you can copy the SKILL.md into a project or paste it into a ChatGPT or Codex conversation.
Which fonts and colors does minimalist-ui use?
Body text uses SF Pro Display, Geist Sans, Helvetica Neue or Switzer, headings use a serif such as Newsreader or Instrument Serif, and code uses Geist Mono. The canvas is white or bone, text is #111111 or #2F3437, and accents are four muted pastels. Pure black text is not allowed.
What does minimalist-ui ban?
It bans Inter, Roboto and Open Sans, thin-line icon sets such as Lucide, Feather and Heroicons, heavy Tailwind shadows, large primary-color sections, neon, 3D glassmorphism, pill-shaped large containers, emojis, placeholder names such as John Doe and Acme Corp, and AI copy clichés.
Does minimalist-ui really ban gradients and shadows?
It bans gradients as a visual style, but it still allows soft radial light spots at 0.03 opacity and an optional slow radial blob at 0.02 to 0.04 opacity. Shadows must be nearly invisible, under 0.05 opacity, and cards may lift to 0 2px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.04) on hover.
Does minimalist-ui work with Claude Code, Cursor and Codex?
The taste-skill README lists Codex, Cursor and Claude Code and calls the rules framework agnostic. The skill itself targets HTML, React, Tailwind and Vue code, and the README says the rules describe design intent rather than a single framework API, so React, Vue and Svelte projects are covered.
What are alternatives to minimalist-skill?
Within the same repo, soft-skill (high-end-visual-design) aims for a polished, calm and premium look with spring motion, and brutalist-skill (industrial-brutalist-ui) uses hard mechanical Swiss-style type. The main taste-skill adds dials for variance, motion and density. The README suggests picking one once your direction is chosen. For a plan-first process instead of one fixed style, see the frontend-design skill.
Is the minimalist-skill free to use?
Yes. The Leonxlnx/taste-skill repo is published under the MIT license, so you can use, copy and adapt the skill in your own projects. The skill is a single plain text SKILL.md file, and installing it means copying one folder from the repository into your agent's skills directory.