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.
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. |
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). |
grounding_tier | renderer / web / model_knowledge — how grounded the look is. |
design_md | The rendered DESIGN.md — your per-project source of truth. |
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 or marketing site to apply it.
A real teardown needs the browser
Therenderer tier — a real screenshot-and-style teardown of competitor sites — needs
the browser extra and Chromium:
web or model_knowledge tier — always
clearly labelled. On a server, set FIRECRAWL_API_KEY to render without a local browser.