UI Craft Minimal Skill for Cursor

UI Craft — Minimal

Pre-committed minimal style: editorial clean, Linear / Notion / Vercel. Whitespace is the composition. One accent, hairline borders, almost no motion.

Knobs (locked)

• CRAFT_LEVEL = 8 — minimal aesthetics only work when executed precisely; Polish Pass is mandatory.
• MOTION_INTENSITY = 3 — hover + modal enter/exit only. No scroll reveals, no page transitions, no stagger.
• VISUAL_DENSITY = 2 — whitespace-heavy, 1-2 items per row, generous gutters.

Do not re-ask these in Discovery. Skip straight to accent + font confirmation if ambiguous.

Style anchors

• Black or near-black type on white or near-white canvas. Monochrome + ONE accent.
• Inter / Geist for body — never a display font.
• Section padding 120-200px vertical, 40-80px gutters.
• Hairline borders 1px solid oklch(92% 0.005 250) in place of shadows.
• Typography is the hierarchy. No decorative gradients, patterns, or glass.
• Single-column hero default. Asymmetry via one supporting element, not layout tricks.
• Motion is punctuation, not spectacle.
• Every pixel deliberate. When in doubt, cut it.

Base rules (inherited)

All rules in ../ui-craft/SKILL.md apply. This file overrides knob defaults and adds style-specific guidance below. The anti-slop and craft tests still apply in full.

Style-specific overrides

Typography

• Body: Inter or Geist, 400 weight. UI emphasis: 500. Never 600/700 in body copy.
• system-ui, -apple-system as fallback stack.
• Headings: tracking-tight / -0.02em above 24px, 500 or 600 max.
• text-wrap: balance on headings, text-wrap: pretty on paragraphs.
• No display serifs. No geometric display sans. No mixing two sans families.

Color

• Surface: oklch(99% 0 0) (light) / oklch(14% 0.005 250) (dark).
• Text: oklch(18% 0.01 250) primary, oklch(46% 0.01 250) secondary.
• Accent reserved for: primary CTA, active nav item, one key metric. That is it.
• Borders: oklch(92% 0.005 250) light / oklch(24% 0.008 250) dark. No colored borders.

Spacing & layout

• Section vertical: py-24 md:py-32 lg:py-40 (96 / 128 / 160px) minimum; 200px for hero on large screens.
• Container: max-w-5xl typical; max-w-3xl for reading content.
• One accent placement per viewport preferred; two max.
• No card grids with more than 2 columns on desktop.

Borders & elevation

• Default chrome = 1px hairline border, no shadow.
• Elevation only for floating UI (menus, toasts, modals) — single soft ambient shadow, not layered.
• Radius: 6px inputs, 8px cards, 12px modals. Keep the scale narrow.

Motion

• Allowed: hover (opacity / border color, 120-150ms), modal + dialog enter/exit (180-220ms ease-out), focus ring.
• Forbidden at this intensity: scroll-triggered reveals, stagger, page transitions, parallax, magnetic cursor, entrance choreography.
• Any animation must honor prefers-reduced-motion.

Composition

• Hero: left-aligned or centered headline, ONE supporting element (social proof line, screenshot, single chip). No floating badges, orbs, blobs.
• Features: stacked rows with a single real visual each. No 3-up uniform icon grids even when tempting.
• Nav: text-only links, current state = accent underline or weight 500. No pill backgrounds.

Reference files to read first

Keep the reading list tight. Load only these from ../ui-craft/references/:

• layout.md — spacing, hierarchy, composition
• typography.md — scale, readability, weight
• color.md — monochrome scales, OKLCH, dark mode
• accessibility.md — focus, contrast, keyboard

Skip dashboard.md, stack.md, sound.md unless explicitly relevant.

Anti-patterns for THIS style

• Multiple accent colors. One accent, period.
• Display serifs, geometric display sans, or mixing two sans families.
• Decorative gradients, mesh backgrounds, noise overlays, glass panels.
• Scroll-triggered reveals, stagger, page transitions — even "subtle" ones.
• Uniform 3-column icon-heading-text feature grids.
• Colored shadows or glows as affordances.
• Dense layouts. If density feels right, this is the wrong variant — switch to ui-craft-dense-dashboard.
• Pill backgrounds on nav links or buttons by default; prefer text + underline.
• Section padding under 96px on desktop.