Design Atlas
Type
agent skill collection
Verdict
Very useful
Licence
Ship licence, open source permissiveopen-source-permissivefree. The repo has no root licence file. Each design skill ships its own Apache-2.0 LICENSE.txt, and the canvas-fonts are under the SIL Open Font Licence. The document skills (docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx) are source-available only and are not covered here. About 178k GitHub stars at review. skills.sh installs: frontend-design 923k, canvas-design 111k, brand-guidelines 96k, theme-factory 87k.
Agent channels
skill
Pricing
free
Reviewed

← Atlas · Topics: agent-skills, typography-and-styles, landing-pages, color

Anthropic Skills ​

Type
agent skill collection
Verdict
Very useful
Licence
Ship licence, open source permissiveopen-source-permissivefree. The repo has no root licence file. Each design skill ships its own Apache-2.0 LICENSE.txt, and the canvas-fonts are under the SIL Open Font Licence. The document skills (docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx) are source-available only and are not covered here. About 178k GitHub stars at review. skills.sh installs: frontend-design 923k, canvas-design 111k, brand-guidelines 96k, theme-factory 87k.
Agent channels
skill
Pricing
free
Reviewed

What it is ​

This is Anthropic's public repo of example Agent Skills. It holds 19 skills, and the README describes them as for demonstration and education. Four are about visual design. frontend-design (71 lines, one file) is the anti-default skill for building or reshaping UI, and Impeccable says it started from it. It was rewritten again on 2026-09-03. canvas-design makes posters and art as a PNG or PDF by first writing a "design philosophy". theme-factory applies one of ten preset colour-and-font themes to slides, documents or pages. brand-guidelines applies Anthropic's own brand colours and fonts. The last three have not changed in substance since at least April 2026.

When to open it ​

  • Before any UI build, as a short and well-calibrated brief against templated output.
  • When you need a one-off poster, cover or art piece rather than an interface.
  • When you want a quick, consistent colour and font set for a deck or report without designing one.

Most useful ​

  • frontend-design tells list: five named clusters of AI defaults with values, for example warm cream near #F4F1EA with a serif and a terracotta accent near #D97757, near-black with one acid accent, and the SaaS card kit with one radius and the same soft grey shadow on every card. It also bans accenting one word in a headline and all-caps labels, and flags scattered fade-up entrances. The brief always wins over the list.
  • Two-pass plan: before coding, write 4–6 named hex colours, typefaces with roles, and a layout concept in one sentence plus ASCII wireframes. Then check whether a similar prompt would land in the same place, and revise if so. Other rules: line length under 80 characters, spend boldness in one place, and remove one accessory before finishing.
  • UX copy rules: write from the user's side, name a button by its result, keep one name for an action from button to toast, and never apologise in errors.
  • canvas-design: name a movement, write a 4–6 paragraph philosophy as a .md file, express it at 90% visuals and 10% text, and nothing may overlap or leave the canvas. A final pass refines what is there instead of adding more. It bundles 54 OFL fonts.
  • theme-factory: shows theme-showcase.pdf, waits for an explicit choice, then applies four hex colours and a header and body font. It can also generate a new theme and show it for review.

Using it with agents ​

In Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills and then /plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skills. That plugin installs all twelve example skills, including these four. For one skill, use npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design or copy the folder. On claude.ai the example skills are already available on paid plans, and the API can load them too. The descriptions do the triggering: building or restyling UI (frontend-design), a poster or static piece (canvas-design), theming an artifact (theme-factory), or Anthropic brand work (brand-guidelines). They produce code, .md + .pdf/.png files, or restyled artifacts. None of them writes a DESIGN.md or token file.

Watch out for ​

  • brand-guidelines is Anthropic's own identity (#141413, #faf9f5, accent #d97757, Poppins and Lora), not a neutral template. Using it on your product is exactly the cream-and-terracotta look frontend-design warns about, and it is someone else's brand.
  • canvas-design tells the agent to download extra fonts as needed, so check their licences. Its prompt also repeats "masterpiece" framing heavily, which can make results overwrought.
  • theme-factory themes use system fonts (DejaVu, FreeSans and FreeSerif). They are safe for documents and plain on the web.
  • frontend-design gives no numbers for spacing, type ratio or motion timing, and its ban list will age as models learn to avoid it.
  • Third-party skills copy these files: UI UX Pro Max's ui-styling ships the same 54 fonts and an Apache-2.0 licence file. If you reuse any of this text, Apache-2.0 asks for attribution and a note of your changes.

Reusable ideas ​

  • Keep a dated list of the defaults you reject, with concrete values, and always let the brief override it.
  • Plan tokens and a wireframe first, then test whether the plan is just a default before writing code.
  • For art pieces, write the idea down as a short manifesto before drawing, then refine instead of adding.
  • Ask the user to pick from a visual showcase before applying a theme, rather than choosing silently.

Impeccable, Hallmark, UI Skills, UI UX Pro Max, TypeUI