What is UI Craft?
UI Craft is an MIT licensed design engineering system for AI coding agents. It installs through a Go CLI or an agent plugin, adds 25 slash commands and two review agents, and checks each build against a 10-item acceptance bar so the interface avoids generic AI styling.
UI Craft gives an AI coding agent design knowledge it usually lacks: opinionated rules for how an interface should look, move and feel, plus tooling to verify the result. It is stack-agnostic and does not ship templates or components.
Ask for a surface with /craft dashboard and the agent asks up to three questions, picks a named composition and a theme preset, then builds until the output passes a 10-item acceptance bar.
The four-rung ladder
The README describes one ladder. You only climb to a higher rung when you want the next capability, and most people stay on the first rung.
| Rung | What you do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 0 Ask | Install, then ask for UI as usual | Better hierarchy and your own tokens without extra effort |
| 1 Direct | Run /craft, /critique, /polish or /animate | A focused pass on one surface |
| 2 Persist | Run /brief, /tokens or /remember | Design context that later sessions read |
| 3 Enforce | Run /finalize, review agents and MCP gates | Checks in review and CI, plus a 0 to 100 score |
What it checks
- The MCP gates are named check_anti_slop, tokens_lint, acceptance_bar and score_ui.
- Two review agents, design-reviewer and a11y-auditor, cover design and accessibility passes.
- Critiques combine Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics, six classic design laws and five persona walkthroughs.
- Every finding is tagged by business impact, from blocks-conversion to minor-polish.
Who UI Craft is for
Best for
- Developers who want production-grade dashboards and landing pages from an agent without manual retouching.
- Teams that need design rules to persist across sessions through briefs and tokens.
- Projects that want a repeatable score in review or CI, alongside skills such as Frontend Design or UI/UX Pro Max.
Not for
- Anyone who wants only a single lightweight prompt file. The full system installs a binary, commands, agents and gates.
- Intel Mac users who need tested binaries. The README says that build ships without test coverage.
Use it with UiChemy
Use UI Craft to get the design right in code or in Figma, then bring the approved page into WordPress with UiChemy. For a lighter style guide, see DESIGN.md. Click Get Started on uichemy.com.
How to install UI Craft Skill: Design Engineering System for AI Agents
curl -fsSL https://ui-craft.smoothui.dev/install | bash && ui-craft installInstall the binary
On macOS or Linux run the install script from the README. On Windows run
irm https://ui-craft.smoothui.dev/install.ps1 | iex.Run the installer
Run
ui-craft install. It detects your agents, lets you pick components, and backs up existing configs before writing.Or use the plugin route
In Claude Code, run
/plugin marketplace add educlopez/ui-craftthen/plugin install ui-craft. The README says it installs the skill, commands, agents and gates in one go.
Check that it loaded
Run /start in your agent. It reads your project and lists what UI Craft can do right now. You can also run ui-craft doctor to check each harness install.
Key features
- The /craft commandDescribe a surface such as a dashboard and /craft asks three questions or uses defaults. It names a composition and applies a production theme preset before building.
- 10-item acceptance barA build is not reported done until it passes a ten-item bar, which asks whether a designer would retouch the result. A failed box means the work continues.
- 25 slash commandsThe agent plugin installs 25 slash commands, including /craft, /critique, /polish, /animate, /brief, /tokens, /remember, /finalize and /start.
- Scoreable critiqueReviews score an interface against Nielsen's heuristics, six design laws such as Fitts and Hick, and five persona walkthroughs, then tag each finding by business impact.
- MCP quality gatesThe ui-craft-mcp server exposes check_anti_slop, tokens_lint, acceptance_bar and score_ui, so checks run deterministically rather than from agent judgment.
- Two review agentsdesign-reviewer and a11y-auditor are installed by the CLI and by the plugin, giving separate design and accessibility reviews.
- Design memoryBriefs, tokens and remembered decisions persist in a
.ui-craft/folder, so later sessions start from the same design context. - Discovery phaseBefore building, the skill reads CSS variables, the Tailwind config, font imports and component themes. With no design system it asks four questions: style, accent color, font and animation stack.
- Cross-harness CLIOne Go binary detects Cursor, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode and other supported agents, then writes each chosen component into that agent's native config, with backups and rollback.
Frequently asked questions
What is UI Craft?
UI Craft is a design engineering system for AI coding agents by educlopez. It supplies a skill, slash commands, review agents and MCP quality gates, so an agent builds interfaces to a documented standard and checks the result against an acceptance bar.
How do I install UI Craft?
The recommended route is the install script from the README followed by ui-craft install, which detects your agents. Alternatives are the Claude Code plugin, a Cursor plugin clone, a skill-only route, or a plain git clone into your skills folder.
Which AI coding agents does UI Craft support?
The README names Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini and OpenCode for the CLI, with pre-built mirrors for Codex, Cursor, Gemini and OpenCode in the skills route. Other agents that follow the Agent Skills spec can use the skill-only install.
What does the /craft command do?
/craft dashboard builds a surface from a short brief. It asks up to three questions, or none if the defaults are enough, chooses a named composition and theme preset, then builds until the output passes the ten-item acceptance bar.
What are the UI Craft MCP gates?
They are four deterministic checks in the ui-craft-mcp server: check_anti_slop, tokens_lint, acceptance_bar and score_ui. The Claude Code plugin registers them automatically, while other installs may need a manual .mcp.json entry.
Is UI Craft free?
Yes. The repository is MIT licensed. The CLI, skill, commands, review agents and MCP gates are all part of the open repository, and the README gives no paid tier or account requirement for using them.
Does a skill-only install include everything?
No. The skill-only route installs the skill with the commands mirrored as sub-skills. It leaves out review agents, MCP gates and hooks, which need the CLI or the Claude Code plugin from the README.
What are alternatives to UI Craft?
For a lighter prompt-style skill, try Frontend Design or UI/UX Pro Max. For platform-specific rules, see Apple Design. Choose UI Craft when you want scored checks and persistent design memory.