Design system

Design the look, informed by the competition — not generic taste. Positioning grounds the words; the design pillar grounds the look. From a finished demand report it authors a design system: an aesthetic direction, the one thing someone should remember, and one SAFE/RISK choice per design dimension (typography, color, layout, spacing, motion, decoration), plus a DESIGN.md source of truth and a preview page. Unlike the rest of metalworks, design is taste, so grounding here is directional, not cited: the competitive landscape informs the bet (“rivals skew serif → lean serif, or break to sans”); it does not cite it. Two honesty signals carry the weight instead — every choice is labelled SAFE (category baseline) or RISK (a deliberate departure), and the system records its grounding tier.

/demand-report a calm focus timer for makers
/design

from metalworks import Metalworks

mw = Metalworks()
research = mw.research("a calm focus timer for makers")

system = mw.design(research, brand_name="Cadence", taste="editorial")  # author under a preset
print(system.grounding_tier)                          # renderer | web | model_knowledge
print(system.taste)                                   # the preset it was authored under
for c in system.choices:
    print(c.dimension, c.stance, "—", c.decision)     # SAFE / RISK per dimension
open("preview.html", "w").write(mw.render_design_preview(system))

metalworks research design <report-id> --taste brutalist --out ./brand

The grounding tier (read this first)

The system records how grounded the look actually is, so a confident design that never saw a competitor can’t masquerade as a grounded one:

Tier	What happened
`renderer`	A real teardown — a headless browser screenshotted rival sites and read their actual fonts/colors. Richest; needs the browser (install below).
`web`	No live teardown, but real competitor names/taglines from the landscape informed it.
`model_knowledge`	No competitor data — the system is category convention, not this brand’s landscape. Returned `partial` with a caveat.

Taste presets

A small, curated set of opinionated directors — pick one with taste= (Python/MCP) or --taste (CLI). The chosen preset is recorded on system.taste and drives the preview/logo-picker chrome. The same report under two presets yields a visibly different system.

Preset	Voice
`editorial` (default)	The house voice — editorial monochrome, dark-first. Preserves the original output.
`brutalist`	Raw, structural, anti-decorative; one loud signal color, hard edges.
`warm-minimal`	Calm and warm; soft paper ground, a single muted earthy accent.
`technical`	Instrument-grade tool aesthetic; mono/grotesque type, dense, precise.

What you get back

Field	What it is
`aesthetic`	The direction in one line (e.g. “editorial monochrome, dark-first”).
`memorable_thing`	The one thing someone should remember on first sight.
`choices[]`	One `DesignChoice` per dimension: the `decision`, a `stance` (`safe`/`risk`), and the rationale.
`landscape_signals[]`	Directional reads of the competition (observation → the move it implies).
`taste`	The preset it was authored under (`editorial` / `brutalist` / `warm-minimal` / `technical`).
`grounding_tier`	`renderer` / `web` / `model_knowledge` — how grounded the look is.
`design_md`	The rendered `DESIGN.md` — your per-project source of truth.

The choices carry no evidence_refs by design — design grounding is directional, not cited. This pillar authors a system, not pixels: hand the DESIGN.md to your build step to apply it.

A real teardown needs the browser

The renderer tier — a real screenshot-and-style teardown of competitor sites — needs the browser extra and Chromium:

pip install "metalworks[browser]"
metalworks browser install        # downloads Chromium (the post-install step)

Without it the pillar still works, just at the web or model_knowledge tier — always clearly labelled. On a server, set FIRECRAWL_API_KEY to render without a local browser.

Get started

Build a startup

Your project

Research

Design

Build

Distribution

How it works

The grounding tier (read this first)

Taste presets

What you get back

A real teardown needs the browser

​The grounding tier (read this first)

​Taste presets

​What you get back

​A real teardown needs the browser

The grounding tier (read this first)

Taste presets

What you get back

A real teardown needs the browser