ihlamury

cal-ui-skills

Cal's UI design system. Use when building interfaces inspired by Cal's aesthetic - light mode, Inter font, 4px grid.

ihlamury 84 12 Updated 7mo ago

Resources

1
GitHub

Install

npx skillscat add ihlamury/design-skills/cal-ui-skills

Install via the SkillsCat registry.

About this skill

Cal's UI design system provides opinionated constraints for building interfaces with Cal's aesthetic, including light mode, Inter font, and a 4px grid. It standardizes colors, typography, and spacing, solving inconsistent UI design. Use it when creating Cal‑inspired interfaces or when an agent must generate light‑mode UIs with these tokens.

SKILL.md

Cal UI Skills

Opinionated constraints for building Cal-style interfaces with AI agents.

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

  • Building light-mode interfaces
  • Creating Cal-inspired design systems
  • Implementing UIs with Inter font and 4px grid

Colors

  • SHOULD use light backgrounds for primary surfaces
  • MUST use #FDFDFD as page background (surface-base)
  • SHOULD reduce color palette (currently 16 colors detected)
  • MUST maintain text contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for accessibility

Semantic Tokens

Token HEX RGB Usage
surface-base #FDFDFD rgb(253,253,253) Page background
surface-raised #EDEDED rgb(237,237,237) Cards, modals, raised surfaces
surface-overlay #1C1C1C rgb(28,28,28) Overlays, tooltips, dropdowns
text-primary #6B6B6B rgb(107,107,107) Headings, body text
text-secondary #A1A1A1 rgb(161,161,161) Secondary, muted text
text-tertiary #404040 rgb(64,64,64) Additional text
border-default #E5E5E5 rgb(229,229,229) Subtle borders, dividers
destructive #FCC9C1 rgb(252,201,193) Error states, delete actions

Typography

  • MUST use Inter as primary font family
  • SHOULD use single font family for consistency
  • MUST use 70px / 700 for primary headings
  • MUST use 16px / 400 for body text
  • SHOULD reduce font weights (currently 5 detected)
  • MUST use text-balance for headings and text-pretty for body text
  • SHOULD use tabular-nums for numeric data
  • NEVER modify letter-spacing unless explicitly requested

Text Styles

Style Font Size Weight Color Count
heading-1 Inter 70px 700 #2A2A2A 1
text-23px Inter 23px semi_bold #C1C1C1 1
text-22px Inter 22px semi_bold #494949 1
text-21px Inter 21px 500 #676767 1
text-21px Inter 21px semi_bold #383838 1
text-19px Inter 19px 500 #2C2C2C 1
text-19px Inter 19px 500 #3C3C3C 1
text-19px Inter 19px 500 #D4D4D4 1
text-18px Inter 18px 500 #404040 1
body Inter 16px 400 #A4A4A4 1

Typography Reference

Font Families:

  • Inter (used 65x)

Font Sizes: 8px, 9px, 10px, 11px, 12px, 13px, 14px, 15px, 16px, 18px, 19px, 21px, 22px, 23px, 70px

Spacing

  • MUST use 4px grid for spacing
  • SHOULD use spacing from scale: 1px, 2px, 3px, 4px, 5px, 6px, 7px, 9px
  • SHOULD use 5px as default gap between elements
  • NEVER use arbitrary spacing values (use design scale)
  • SHOULD maintain consistent padding within containers

Borders

  • MUST use border-radius from scale: 1px, 2px, 3px, 4px, 6px, 7px, 8px, 9px, 10px, 11px
  • SHOULD limit border widths to: 1px, 3px
  • SHOULD use 3px as default border-radius
  • NEVER use arbitrary border-radius values (use design scale)
  • SHOULD use subtle borders (1px) for element separation

Border Radius Reference

Scale: 1px, 2px, 3px, 4px, 6px, 7px, 8px, 9px, 10px, 11px

Layout

  • MUST design for 1920px base viewport width
  • SHOULD use consistent element widths: 16px, 8px, 11px, 10px, 52px
  • SHOULD maintain text-heavy layout with clear hierarchy
  • NEVER use h-screen, use h-dvh for full viewport height
  • MUST respect safe-area-inset for fixed elements
  • SHOULD use size-* for square elements instead of w-* + h-*

Detected Layout Patterns

  • Main Content: width: 1565px, height: 814px
  • Main Content: width: 1920px, height: 1080px
  • Main Content: width: 1180px, height: 717px
  • Main Content: width: 1178px, height: 701px

Components

Buttons

Variant Background Text Border Height Radius
Ghost transparent #6B6B6B none - -

Interactive States

Focus

  • MUST use 2px outline with accent color (#5E6AD2)
  • MUST use 2px outline-offset
  • NEVER remove focus indicators

Hover

  • Buttons (primary): lighten background by 10%
  • Buttons (secondary): use #EDEDED background
  • List items: use #EDEDED background

Disabled

  • MUST use opacity: 0.5
  • MUST use cursor: not-allowed

Interaction

  • MUST use an AlertDialog for destructive or irreversible actions
  • SHOULD use structural skeletons for loading states
  • MUST show errors next to where the action happens
  • NEVER block paste in input or textarea elements
  • MUST add an aria-label to icon-only buttons

Animation

  • NEVER add animation unless it is explicitly requested
  • MUST animate only compositor props (transform, opacity)
  • NEVER animate layout properties (width, height, top, left, margin, padding)
  • SHOULD use ease-out on entrance animations
  • NEVER exceed 200ms for interaction feedback
  • SHOULD respect prefers-reduced-motion

Performance

  • NEVER animate large blur() or backdrop-filter surfaces
  • NEVER apply will-change outside an active animation
  • NEVER use useEffect for anything that can be expressed as render logic