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Agent skill

Design Principles

by Owl-Listener in Owl-Listener/designer-skills

Define actionable principles that resolve trade-offs when the team disagrees.

MITAuto-check passed

Install Design Principles

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill design-principles -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designer-skills design-principles --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/ux-strategy/skills/design-principles .claude/skills/design-principles && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
design-principles
GitHub stars
2.9k
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~300 tokens
SKILL.md length
127 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
107
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Define actionable principles that resolve trade-offs when the team disagrees.

  • Works in 6 steps: Gather inputs (research, values, strategy) → Workshop to surface candidates → Draft and debate ('Would anyone… → …
  • The same decisions keep getting relitigated
  • SKILL.md covers What You Do, Qualities of Strong Principles, Principle Structure and Process, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Design Principles is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Define actionable principles that resolve trade-offs when the team disagrees. Use when the same decisions keep getting relitigated. For a single project's framing, use design-brief.

Its SKILL.md is about 300 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

The repository describes itself as: Designer Skills Collection: agentic skills, commands, and plugins for design — from research to systems, UI, interaction, and delivery. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • The same decisions keep getting relitigated

Example prompts

  • “/design-principles”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Gather inputs (research, values, strategy)
  2. Workshop to surface candidates
  3. Draft and debate ('Would anyone disagree?')
  4. Prioritize for conflicts
  5. Test against past decisions
  6. Socialize widely

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9a6930c. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Design Principles loads about 300 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 50 tokens; SKILL.md has 127 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~50
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~300

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Owl-Listener/designer-skills at commit 9a6930c, republished under its MIT licence (© Owl-Listener). 127 words, ~300 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/design-principles/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
design-principles
description
Define actionable principles that resolve trade-offs when the team disagrees. Use when the same decisions keep getting relitigated. For a single project's framing, use `design-brief`.

Design Principles

You are an expert in crafting design principles that genuinely guide teams through decisions.

What You Do

You help teams articulate principles that are specific, actionable, and memorable.

Qualities of Strong Principles

  • Opinionated — takes a clear stance
  • Actionable — resolves debates
  • Memorable — short enough to recall
  • Distinctive — reflects this product's values
  • Testable — designs can be evaluated against it
  • Prioritized — rank order for conflicts

Principle Structure

For each: title (3-6 words), statement, rationale, application example, counter-example, trade-off.

Process

  1. Gather inputs (research, values, strategy)
  2. Workshop to surface candidates
  3. Draft and debate ('Would anyone disagree?')
  4. Prioritize for conflicts
  5. Test against past decisions
  6. Socialize widely

Best Practices

  • Involve the whole team
  • Reference in design reviews
  • Revisit as product evolves
  • Display prominently in team spaces

© Owl-Listener, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in ux-strategy/skills/design-principles of Owl-Listener/designer-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9a6930c

Used in 1 other repository

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in Owl-Listener/designer-skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Design Principles next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Design Principles compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Design Principles this skillOwl-Listener/designer-skills2.9k1 repos~300Automated safety check: PassMIT
Agent Trading Predictorruvnet/ruflo74k2 repos~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
LLM Trading Agent Securityaffaan-m/ECC276k2 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Trade Journal AnalysisHKUDS/Vibe-Trading35k—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
ActionsJetBrains/intellij-community21k—~341Automated safety check: PassCustom licence
Trading Ledgersickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k1 repos~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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All 107 skills in this repo

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  • Animation Principles

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  • Business Design

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Questions about Design Principles

What does Design Principles do?

Define actionable principles that resolve trade-offs when the team disagrees. Design Principles is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designer-skills. Define actionable principles that resolve trade-offs when the team disagrees.

When should I use Design Principles?

Design Principles fits situations like: the same decisions keep getting relitigated.

How do I install Design Principles in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill design-principles -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (ux-strategy/skills/design-principles in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .claude/skills/design-principles in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Design Principles in Codex?

Run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill design-principles -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (ux-strategy/skills/design-principles in Owl-Listener/designer-skills) into .agents/skills/design-principles in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Design Principles in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add Owl-Listener/designer-skills --skill design-principles -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/design-principles, .gemini/skills/design-principles, .github/skills/design-principles and .opencode/skills/design-principles in your project.

What does Design Principles need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Design Principles is instructions for the agent only.

Does Design Principles access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Design Principles safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Design Principles use?

Design Principles is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Design Principles use?

About 300 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 1.2k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Design Principles?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Design Principles: Agent Trading Predictor (ruvnet/ruflo, 74k stars), LLM Trading Agent Security (affaan-m/ECC, 276k stars), Trade Journal Analysis (HKUDS/Vibe-Trading, 35k stars) and Actions (JetBrains/intellij-community, 21k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Design Principles?

Owl-Listener (a GitHub user) maintains it in Owl-Listener/designer-skills, which has 2,862 GitHub stars. The repository holds 107 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 5, 2026.

Source: Owl-Listener/designer-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.