Igniteui Angular Generate From Image Design

Implementing Ignite UI Angular Views from Design Images

Required Steps Before Coding

Complete these steps in order before writing any implementation code:

1. Analyze the image and identify all visible regions and UI patterns.
2. Read references/component-mapping.md and references/gotchas.md.
3. This skill is Angular-only. Check package layout or licensing only when imports, packages, or theming depend on it.
4. To apply a theme, use the theming workflow from this skill and the dedicated igniteui-angular-theming skill; use the igniteui-theming MCP tools instead of styling from memory.
5. Call get_doc for every chosen component family before using it.
6. Only then start coding.

The igniteui-cli and igniteui-theming MCP servers are required. Before step 1, verify both by calling list_components (with framework: "angular") and detect_platform. If either tool is not available, configure the servers yourself by running npx -y igniteui-cli ai-config (or ig ai-config) from the project root, ask the user to reload the editor or agent session, and stop. Continue without them only if the user explicitly asks to — then fall back to the reference files of the igniteui-angular-components and igniteui-angular-grids skills and the igniteui-angular-theming skill's manual Sass workflow, and mark every API detail you could not verify as unverified.

Workflow

1. Analyze the design image - Read the image, identify every UI section, component, layout structure.
2. Confirm package layout if needed - this skill is Angular-only; check package layout or licensing only when imports, packages, or theming depend on it
3. Discover components - Call list_components with targeted filters to find matching components for each UI pattern
4. Look up component docs - Call get_doc for every chosen component family before coding
5. Generate theme - (a) To generate a theme, first extract colors and create a color palette using create_palette or create_custom_palette depending on the scenario. Then extract elevations and call create_elevations. Then extract typography and call create_typography. Then call create_theme with the palette, elevations, and typography. (b) After a theme exists, prefer using design tokens or scoped semantic CSS variables over raw literals. (c) For every Ignite UI component, call get_component_design_tokens, map extracted image tokens to token roles, then call create_component_theme with the tokens differing from the global theme for the specific component.
6. Install DV packages - if the design uses charts, maps, gauges, or sparklines, resolve and install the compatible DV packages (with approval)
7. Implement - Build the screenshot-first layout, data, and view components
8. Refine - Use the set_size, set_spacing, set_roundness tools to refine the view's visual fidelity against the image, then iterate on implementation and theming until the view matches the design closely
9. Validate - Build, test, run, compare against the image, and fix differences

Step 1: Analyze the Design Image

Read the input image carefully. For each visual section, identify:

• Layout structure: grid rows/columns, sidebar, navbar, content area proportions, and estimated fixed widths or percentages for major regions.

Note: Do not guess the exact CSS properties at this stage; just identify the high-level structure and relative proportions. Do not try to fit the view into exact breakpoints or pixel values. Try to generate a flexible layout that preserves the observed proportions and can adapt to different screen sizes. You will refine the exact CSS rules in Step 8 after building a first version of the view.

• Component type: chart, list, card, map, gauge, table, form, etc.
• Color palette: primary, secondary, surface/background, accent, text colors
• Typography: font sizes, weights, letter-spacing patterns
• Surface styling: borders, border-radius, shadows, elevation, divider treatments
• Data patterns: what mock data is needed (time series, lists, KPIs, geographic)
• Spacing system: translate observed padding and gaps into a small reusable scale derived from the design

Before writing code, create a decomposition table with one row per visible region containing:

Start every region with the most appropriate Ignite UI component from references/component-mapping.md. Only fall back to plain semantic HTML when the component DOM structure is fundamentally incompatible with the design after CSS overrides are considered. Document the reason for any plain-HTML fallback in a code comment.

Before writing code, produce a compact implementation brief that captures:

• chosen components per region
• fallback HTML regions
• theme strategy
• package needs
• major assumptions

After the table, translate the image into CSS Grid rows and columns first. Preserve desktop proportions before adding responsive behavior, then define explicit breakpoint stacking rules for smaller screens.

Step 2-3: Use MCP Tools for Discovery

This skill is Angular-only. Check package layout or licensing only when imports, packages, or theming depend on it.

If you need to confirm package layout or licensing state, act on the result immediately:

• If the project uses Open Source package layout, use igniteui-angular for all core imports.
• If the project is unlicensed or uses Open Source package layout, do not mark any core UI components as blocked or premium-only during implementation.
• If the result indicates a licensed package layout, follow the licensed import paths shown in the component reference when needed.

Then call list_components with framework: "angular" and relevant filters to find components matching each UI pattern. Common filters:

• chart, sparkline - for data visualization
• list view, card, avatar, badge - for data display
• nav, navbar, drawer - for navigation
• progress, gauge - for metrics
• map - for geographic displays
• grid - for tabular data

Use narrow search terms to reduce noisy MCP results. Search for the specific UI pattern you need, such as list view instead of list.

For component-to-Ignite-UI mapping, see references/component-mapping.md.

Step 4: Look Up Component API

For every chosen component category that appears in the list_components results, call get_doc with its doc name field (not the result title). The doc catalog covers only a subset of components — for categories without a doc, read the matching reference files from the igniteui-angular-components / igniteui-angular-grids skills and use search_api for member-level API lookups. Read one or the other before coding — it gives exact usage patterns, inputs, and template structure.

Call search_docs for feature-based questions (e.g., "how to configure [component] for [specific behavior or styling need]") — it searches only the docs in the catalog.

Step 5: Generate Theme with MCP

Use this skill for the image-to-view theming workflow only. The dedicated igniteui-angular-theming skill remains the source of truth for palette-token behavior, global theme rules, and broader theming-system guidance.

5a - Existing app guard (always run first)

Before generating any theme code, inspect the project's global stylesheet (typically styles.scss). Look for an active @include theme(...) or @include palette(...) call that already references a palette variable.

• Existing theme found -> the global palette is already set. Do not call create_theme or create_palette unless the user explicitly wants a global theme change. Instead:
  1. Inspect the existing theme definition and any exposed palette tokens or semantic CSS variables
  2. Reuse the current design system, variant, and palette tokens wherever they already match the design image
  3. Skip to 5c and apply only minimal scoped overrides for the new view's components
• No theme found / blank/default palette -> proceed with 5b to generate a fresh global theme.

5b - Global theme generation (new projects only)

Follow this order - MCP guidance first, image extraction second:

1. Read MCP guidance first - call theming://guidance/colors/rules (or get_theming_guidance) before looking at the image. This tells you the available theme inputs and any luminance or variant constraints.
2. Resolve the design system - infer it from the existing workspace, explicit user request, or the closest visual match in the design. Do not assume one if a stronger signal exists.
3. Extract from the image - now that you know the available slots, extract values only for the inputs you actually need.
4. Call create_theme or create_palette with the extracted seed values:

create_theme({
  primaryColor: "<color extracted from image for primary slot>",
  secondaryColor: "<color extracted from image for secondary slot>",
  surfaceColor: "<color extracted from image for surface/background slot>",
  variant: "<resolved theme variant>",
  platform: "angular",
  licensed: <detected licensing state>,
  fontFamily: "<font extracted from image or existing app>",
  designSystem: "<resolved design system>"
})

Read and act on any luminance warnings returned. If the design needs multiple surface depths that a single generated surface color does not cover, use create_custom_palette or define semantic CSS variables for the additional depths in styles.scss.

Use create_palette for straightforward designs with a small, coherent color system. Use create_custom_palette when the design has multiple distinct surface depths, several accent families, or when the generated palette cannot reliably match the screenshot.