Agent skill

Writing Design Plans

by Owl-Listener in Owl-Listener/designpowers

A skill your agent uses when you have a design brief or strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task

MITAuto-check passedFrontend & Design

Install Writing Design Plans

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Owl-Listener/designpowers --skill writing-design-plans -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Owl-Listener/designpowers writing-design-plans --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/designpowers.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/writing-design-plans .claude/skills/writing-design-plans && 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
writing-design-plans
GitHub stars
251
Token cost
~1k tokens
SKILL.md length
395 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
33
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when you have a design brief or strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task

  • Works in 6 steps: Review Inputs → Identify Design Tasks → Order the Work → …
  • You have a design brief
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, Process, Integration and Anti-Patterns
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Writing Design Plans is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designpowers. Use when you have a design brief or strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task

Its SKILL.md is about 1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Frontend & Design. The repository describes itself as: An agent design team you control: 10 agents that run an inclusive design process while you direct. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • You have a design brief
  • Strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task

Example prompts

  • “/writing-design-plans”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Review Inputs
  2. Identify Design Tasks
  3. Order the Work
  4. Write the Plan
  5. Task Sizing
  6. Save and Review

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit cb00757. 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 (its code samples are markdown).

    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

Writing Design Plans loads about 1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 48 tokens; SKILL.md has 395 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~48
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1k

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/designpowers at commit cb00757, republished under its MIT licence (© Owl-Listener). 395 words, ~1,019 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/writing-design-plans/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
writing-design-plans
description
Use when you have a design brief or strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task

Writing Design Plans

A design plan breaks an approved design direction into discrete, reviewable tasks. Each task is small enough to evaluate clearly and specific enough that the result is predictable.

When to Use

  • After design-discovery and/or design-strategy have produced an approved direction
  • Before any implementation work begins
  • When a design task is too large to complete and review in one step

Process

Step 1: Review Inputs

Gather:

  • Design brief (from design-discovery)
  • Strategy document (from design-strategy, if applicable)
  • Personas (from inclusive-personas)
  • Existing design system inventory
Step 2: Identify Design Tasks

Break the work into categories:

  1. Structure tasks — information architecture, page hierarchy, navigation
  2. Component tasks — individual UI components that need designing
  3. Layout tasks — how components compose into screens
  4. Interaction tasks — states, transitions, feedback patterns
  5. Content tasks — copy, labels, error messages, help text
  6. Accessibility tasks — specific inclusive design requirements per component
Step 3: Order the Work

Design work has natural dependencies:

Structure → Layout → Components → Interactions → Content → Review
     ↑ accessibility woven through each step, not a final phase ↑

Order tasks so that:

  • Foundation work (structure, layout) comes before detail work (interactions, content)
  • Each task can be reviewed independently
  • Accessibility is addressed within each task, not deferred
Step 4: Write the Plan
markdown
# Design Plan: [Feature/Project Name]

> **For agentic workers:** REQUIRED: Use designpowers:designpowers-critique to review completed work against this plan.

**Goal:** [One sentence — what this plan delivers]

**Design Direction:** [Reference to the design brief or strategy]

**Personas:** [Reference to personas this plan serves]

---

## Task 1: [Task Name]

**Files:** [Which files will be created or modified]

- [ ] Step 1: [Specific action]
- [ ] Step 2: [Specific action]
- [ ] Step 3: [Specific action]

**Accessibility check:** [What inclusive design criteria this task must meet]

**Verification:** [How to confirm this task is complete and correct]

---

## Task 2: [Task Name]
...
Step 5: Task Sizing

Each task should be:

  • 2-5 minutes of focused work — small enough to hold in your head
  • Independently reviewable — someone can evaluate it without seeing everything else
  • Specifically described — exact files, exact components, exact acceptance criteria
  • Accessibility-inclusive — each task addresses its own inclusive design requirements

If a task takes longer than 5 minutes, break it down further.

Show full SKILL.md (147 more words)Show less
Step 6: Save and Review

Save to: docs/designpowers/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<feature>-plan.md

Present the plan to the user. Walk through:

  • Does the task order make sense?
  • Are any tasks missing?
  • Are the accessibility checks appropriate for each task?
  • Is the scope right, or should anything be deferred?

User must approve the plan before execution begins.

Integration

  • Called by: design-discovery, design-strategy
  • Calls: Implementation begins via the relevant design skills (ui-composition, interaction-design, etc.)
  • Pairs with: designpowers-critique (reviews work against the plan)

Anti-Patterns

PatternProblem
Tasks without accessibility checksEvery task affects the user experience. Every task has accessibility implications
Tasks that say "make it look good"Vague tasks produce vague results. Be specific about what "good" means
Accessibility as the final taskBy then it is too late. Accessibility is in every task
Plan without persona referencesIf you do not know who you are designing for, you cannot verify the design works

© 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 skills/writing-design-plans of Owl-Listener/designpowers.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit cb00757

Compare with similar skills

Writing Design Plans 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.

Writing Design Plans compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Writing Design Plans this skillOwl-Listener/designpowers251—~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Web Artifacts Builderanthropics/skills180k40 repos~769Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
React Doctormakeplane/plane61k12 repos~657Automated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Impeccablebestofjs/bestofjs3.1k26 repos~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Figma Design System Builderwarpdotdev/warp65k2 repos~4.4kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
Web Interface Guidelines Reviewervercel-labs/openreview1.7k97 repos~308Automated safety check: PassNone

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Questions about Writing Design Plans

What does Writing Design Plans do?

A skill your agent uses when you have a design brief or strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task. Writing Design Plans is an agent skill from Owl-Listener/designpowers.

When should I use Writing Design Plans?

Writing Design Plans fits situations like: you have a design brief; strategy and need to break implementation into reviewable chunks — creates step-by-step plans with verification criteria for each task.

How do I install Writing Design Plans in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Writing Design Plans in Codex?

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

Can I use Writing Design Plans 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/designpowers --skill writing-design-plans -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/writing-design-plans, .gemini/skills/writing-design-plans, .github/skills/writing-design-plans and .opencode/skills/writing-design-plans in your project.

What does Writing Design Plans need to run?

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

Does Writing Design Plans 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 Writing Design Plans 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 Writing Design Plans use?

Writing Design Plans 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 Writing Design Plans use?

About 1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.1k 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 Writing Design Plans?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Writing Design Plans: Web Artifacts Builder (anthropics/skills, 180k stars), React Doctor (makeplane/plane, 61k stars), Impeccable (bestofjs/bestofjs, 3.1k stars) and Figma Design System Builder (warpdotdev/warp, 65k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Writing Design Plans?

Owl-Listener (a GitHub user) maintains it in Owl-Listener/designpowers, which has 251 GitHub stars. The repository holds 33 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on June 23, 2026.

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