§ Generative
/design
Generate with Spruce reasoning applied.
What it does
Most AI design tools take a prompt and produce output — calibrated to the average of training data, generic by default. /design takes context and produces output that fits: reading from `.spruce.md`, composing within the tokens /foundations established, applying the seven dimensions of Spruce reasoning to a coherent artifact in one pass.
/design ships in one pass — making calls autonomously based on context, then noting the significant ones in the output. If you want to direct each call yourself, use /decide. If you want to see three different directions for the same brief, use /remix.
Specimen
/design · Stillpoint home
The Stillpoint home page /design generated, composing the foundation's tokens and primitives into a complete marketing surface. Subsequent corrective commands in the catalog refine specific layers without rebuilding the page.
When to use it
- Starting a fresh artifact — page, feature, screen, or component — once /spruce-up and /foundations have established the context and substrate.
- The task is well-specified enough that walking through every decision would slow you down.
- You want autonomous output to refine, not a guided walkthrough.
- Building something concrete that should sit naturally inside the project’s existing system.
How to use it
/design takes a brief and produces output. Describe a page, feature, component, or moment with enough specificity that the output has a clear target. The command composes within the project’s foundations (color tokens, type scale, spacing, primitives) so output sits inside the established system. Significant decisions are noted in a brief change-list at the end so you can redirect specific calls.
- /design pricing page
- /design checkout-success state
Anti-patterns it addresses
- Vague prompts like “design something” or “make a UI” produce vague output. /design works best with a specific brief.
- Generated artifacts that ignore the project’s foundations — arbitrary colors, off-scale spacing, or type that doesn’t reference the established tokens.
- Output that compounds AI defaults (Inter on white, blue accents, 8px radii) because /spruce-up wasn’t run first and the command had no context to reason from.
- Output without noted decisions, leaving you unable to see what was made autonomously and unable to redirect specific calls.