Impeccable

Impeccable (Lite)

Design and iterate production-grade frontend interfaces. This is a lite integration of Paul Bakaus's Impeccable design language for AI. For the full 23 sub-commands, CLI detection, Chrome extension, and E2E test suite, install: npx skills add pbakaus/impeccable

Quick Start (Lite mode)

Skip context gathering for rapid iteration. For full brand/product context, install the full version.

Shared Design Laws

Color

• Use OKLCH. Reduce chroma as lightness approaches 0 or 100. High chroma at extremes looks garish.
• Never #000 or #fff. Tint every neutral toward brand hue (chroma 0.005-0.01 is enough).
• Pick a color strategy:
  • Restrained: tinted neutrals + one accent ≤ 10%. Product default.
  • Committed: one saturated color carries 30-60%. Brand default.
  • Full palette: 3-4 deliberate roles. Brand campaigns.
  • Drenched: the surface IS the color. Brand heroes.

Dark vs Light

Never a default. Write one sentence of physical scene: who, where, under what light, in what mood. "SRE glancing at incident severity on a 27-inch monitor at 2am in a dim room" forces dark. "Editor reading a long-form article on an iPad in morning sunlight" forces light. Run the scene, not the category.

Typography

• Cap body line length at 65-75ch via max-width.
• Hierarchy through scale + weight contrast (≥1.25 ratio between steps).
• No Inter as display font.

Motion

• Don't animate layout properties (width, height, top, left).
• Ease out with exponential curves. No bounce, no elastic.
• UI durations < 300ms. Exit faster than enter.

Copy

• Every word earns its place. No restated headings.
• No em dashes. Use commas, colons, periods, or parentheses. Also no --.
• No AI filler: "elevate", "seamless", "unleash", "delve".

Absolute Bans

Match-and-refuse. If you're about to write any of these, rewrite with different structure.

The AI Slop Test

If someone could look at this interface and say "AI made that" without doubt, it's failed.

First-order check: Can someone guess the theme from the category alone? "Observability → dark blue", "Healthcare → white + teal", "Crypto → neon on black" — these are training-data reflexes. Rework.

Second-order check: Can someone guess the aesthetic from category-plus-anti-references? "AI workflow that's not SaaS-cream → editorial-typographic". Still a reflex. Rework again.

Design Tokens (OKLCH)

--color-ink: oklch(10% 0 0);          /* Body copy, even for small text */
--color-charcoal: oklch(25% 0 0);      /* Headings, larger body */
--color-ash: oklch(55% 0 0);           /* Labels, captions, metadata */
--color-mist: oklch(92% 0 0);          /* Hairline borders, dividers */
--color-cream: oklch(96% 0.005 350);   /* Page background (tinted, never pure white) */

Anti-Pattern Detection (Lite)

The full Impeccable CLI detects 27 anti-patterns. Install for npx impeccable detect.

Quick manual checks:

• No border-left > 1px as colored accent on any element
• No gradient text anywhere
• No glass cards as default decoration
• No hero-metric template
• No identical card grids
• Cards not nested inside cards
• Body line length 65-75ch
• Body line-height 1.6
• No em dashes in copy

Pre-Flight Checklist

• Color strategy selected (Restrained / Committed / Full palette / Drenched)
• Dark vs light decided by physical scene, not category
• All colors in OKLCH
• No #000 or #fff — tint every neutral
• Body line length 65-75ch
• No absolute bans violated
• AI slop test passed (both first-order and second-order)
• No em dashes in copy
• prefers-reduced-motion respected

Sources

• Paul Bakaus — Impeccable (impeccable.style)
• OKLCH color space
• Stripe Design System
• Linear Design

Workflow

Step 1: Set the physical scene

Write one sentence describing who, where, under what light, in what mood. "SRE glancing at incident severity on a 27-inch monitor at 2am in a dim room" forces dark. "Editor reading long-form on an iPad in morning sunlight" forces light. This single sentence determines dark vs light, color intensity, and typographic density. Never skip this step or default to a mode without scene reasoning.

Step 2: Choose color strategy

Select one of four based on the scene and register:

• Restrained: tinted neutrals + one accent <= 10% of any surface. Default for Product (dashboards, admin, tools)
• Committed: one saturated color carrying 30-60% of visual weight. Default for Brand (landing pages, marketing)
• Full palette: 3-4 deliberate color roles with clear semantic mapping. Brand campaigns, data-heavy interfaces
• Drenched: the surface IS the dominant color. Brand hero sections, immersive experiences

Step 3: Audit against the absolute bans

Check every element against the 6 absolute bans: side-stripe borders, gradient text, default glassmorphism, hero-metric template, identical card grids, modal-as-first-thought. If any ban is violated, restructure the element — do not tweak. Bans require different structure, not subdued execution.

Step 4: Run the AI Slop Test

First-order: Can someone guess the visual theme from the category alone? "Observability → dark blue dashboard", "Healthcare → white + teal cards", "Crypto → neon-on-black" — these are training-data reflexes. If yes, rework from a different visual lane.

Second-order: Can someone guess the aesthetic from category plus anti-references? "AI workflow that is NOT SaaS-cream → editorial-typographic". Still a reflex. Rework again. A genuine design is harder to predict from metadata alone.

Step 5: Apply design tokens and refine copy

1. Replace all hex/rgb colors with OKLCH design tokens. Tint every neutral. Reduce chroma as lightness approaches 0 or 100
2. Copy audit: remove every em dash (—). Replace with commas, colons, periods, or parentheses
3. Remove AI filler: "elevate", "seamless", "unleash", "delve", "transformative"
4. Cap body line length at 65-75ch. Set line-height to 1.6

Step 6: Polish and verify

1. Motion check: compositor-only properties, durations < 300ms, no bounce, exit faster than enter
2. Body line length 65-75ch, line-height 1.6 on all text blocks
3. Every word earns its place — no restated headings, no filler
4. Run the Pre-Flight Checklist before delivery

Error Handling