hallmark/ROADMAP.md

Hallmark — Roadmap

A forward-looking plan for what to build next, drawn from the gaps the latest research surfaced and from where the field is heading. Ordered by impact-to-effort.

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Now — actively working on

N.1 Better themes + more custom-designed themes

Status now. The 22 catalog themes work but a handful (Plain, Specimen, Salon, Linen) bleed into each other on first read — same paper-band, similar accent footprint, similar display roles. Real distinctiveness lives in only ~12 of them. Custom-theme construction (the custom-theme.md branch) exists but is rarely reached for; users mostly stay on catalog defaults.

Build.

1. Tighten the existing 22 — audit each theme's three diversification axes (paper-band / display-style / accent-hue) and pull any pair that overlaps on 2+ axes back to distinct territory. The themes that ship today should each carry a stronger fingerprint.
2. Add 4–6 new catalog themes in underserved corners of the axis space — e.g. mid-band warm chromatic (something between Salon and Garden), dark-monochrome editorial (no current Midnight equivalent for serif-led editorial), high-contrast print-poster (a Brutal cousin that's quieter), warm dark with handwritten accent. Each new theme ships with its own tokens block in site/css/tokens.css and a stamp axis declaration.
3. Surface the custom branch more often. Right now custom requires 3+ vibe words. Lower the bar so a single distinctive brand colour or unusual font request routes to custom, not the closest catalog cousin.

Why it matters. Catalog rotation is the headline differentiator — if half the catalog is interchangeable, the rotation doesn't deliver. More distinct themes = more visible variety per session = users feel the discipline working without reading the rules.

N.2 Nanobanana image generation inside Hallmark (image-led theme)

Status now. assets.md lists Nanobanana as the canonical generated-still source (Tier C in the enrichment hierarchy) but the integration is recommend-only — Hallmark tells the user to go generate something and bring it back. No first-class image-led theme exists; image-heavy briefs route to a typography-only macrostructure and feel underserved.

Build.

1. First-class Nanobanana hook. When the brief signals "needs imagery" (e-commerce, travel, food, lookbook, gallery) and the user hasn't supplied real assets, Hallmark generates a brief for Nanobanana (style, subject, framing, palette tokens), invokes the API, ingests the returned image, and wires it into the build. Cache by prompt hash so re-runs are cheap.
2. New image-led theme (working title: Plate) — a theme tuned for image-heavy compositions. Generous photographic framing, neutral chrome around full-bleed imagery, hairline rules, restrained type so the picture leads. Pairs with the Photographic macrostructure and the H6 Photographic-Fold archetype. Distinct from existing themes because it assumes imagery exists and treats text as caption-grade.
3. Token discipline for generated stills. Nanobanana outputs need to thread back to the theme's accent / paper — extract dominant hue from the returned image, suggest as accent override, let the user confirm. Prevents the "generated image clashes with the theme palette" failure mode.

Why it matters. Today Hallmark is a typography-led tool. Half of real-world landing pages need imagery (consumer brands, hospitality, e-commerce). Adding first-class Nanobanana support + an image-led theme covers that gap without forcing the user to leave the skill, and it positions Hallmark as a complete builder rather than a type-only specialist.

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Tier 1 — Ship next (high impact, contained scope)

1.1 Theme-aware microinteraction tokens

Status now. microinteractions.md describes a duration multiplier per theme as a table — but the multipliers aren't actually expressed in CSS. Atelier and Salon should feel slower than Brutal and Sport, but right now they share the same --dur-short / --dur-long.

Build. Move --dur-micro, --dur-short, --dur-long into per-theme overrides in tokens.css, scaled by the table in microinteractions.md. Newsprint and Terminal use 0ms for spatial motion (they're print/terminal metaphors). One pass through the file; small diff.

Why it matters. Today a Salon page and a Brutal page animate at the same speed. They shouldn't. The principle of structural variety should extend to motion variety.

1.2 DESIGN.md output protocol

Status now. Hallmark produces code. It does not produce a portable design spec.

Build. When Hallmark generates new work, also emit a DESIGN.md in the project root containing: chosen tone, palette tokens (with OKLCH values), type stack, spacing scale, structural fingerprint, motion tokens, and the named anti-patterns the page must continue to avoid. Other AI tools (Cursor, v0, Bolt) can read this file directly to keep iterating on the same design language.

Why it matters. Closes the loop between Hallmark and the rest of the agent ecosystem. The skill stops being a one-shot generator and becomes a system that hands its decisions forward.

1.3 hallmark variant — three fingerprints, user picks one

Status now. Hallmark produces one designed output per brief.

Build. New verb: hallmark variant <target> produces three structurally distinct versions of the same brief — different fingerprints across the six axes — and presents them as a side-by-side comparison. The user picks the one that fits, or asks for a fourth. This is the workflow taste-skill v3.0 parameterises with dials; Hallmark would expose it as a verb.

Why it matters. The biggest cause of "AI feel" isn't bad output — it's the user accepting the first output because they don't know it could be different. Showing three forces a judgement call and surfaces taste.

1.4 Theme switcher polish on the landing page

Status now. The 12-theme picker is good but a few rough edges remain.

Build.

• Trap the focus inside the popover when open (currently focus can escape).
• Make the swatch dots match each theme's exact paper/ink/accent (some currently approximate).
• On theme apply, briefly flash the orange accent rule under the trigger label to confirm — silent success via a 200ms colour pulse, not a toast.
• The kbd hint (press T) currently sits next to the trigger but only on hover — also reveal on :focus-within of the navbar, for keyboard users who haven't reached for the mouse.

Why it matters. The landing page itself is the strongest demo of Hallmark's microinteraction taste. It has to be exemplary.

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Tier 2 — Build after Tier 1 lands (still concrete, more scope)

2.1 references/structural-cookbook.md — concrete recipes

Status now. structure.md catalogues the axes of structural variety. It doesn't show what a left-margin-headed, single-column, hairline-divided, unstyled-link, no-image, no-reveal page actually looks like assembled.

Build. A cookbook file with 12–20 complete structural fingerprints, each with a short HTML/CSS sketch, a paragraph explaining when to reach for it, and a real-world reference (NYT Mag, Stripe, Linear, Pentagram, etc.). The cookbook teaches the model patterns the same way recipe books teach cooking — through worked examples, not just principles.

Why it matters. Models are pattern-matchers. Catalogued patterns + named recipes are easier to reach for than principles + axes.

2.2 references/tactile-rebellion.md — controlled imperfection

Status now. Hallmark assumes pixel-precision is the goal. The 2026 cultural movement is the opposite: handmade textures, controlled imperfection, wabi-sabi. 73% of designers (per CreativeBloq's 2026 trends report) are deliberately adding imperfections to differentiate from AI.

Build. A new reference file covering: when to apply texture (sparingly; one element per page max); how to do it without falling into kitsch (real letterpress reference, not "letterpress filter"); free SVG noise/grain generators; hand-drawn SVG path techniques; controlled-jitter typography (a 0.5° rotation on a single mark is taste; on every word it's chaos).

Why it matters. This is where the field is going and the current canon (impeccable, kami) has nothing on it. First-mover advantage.

2.3 references/data-viz.md — Tufte-leaning anti-slop charts

Status now. Nothing about charts. Yet a dashboard or analytics page is half data viz, and AI-generated charts are especially bad — rainbow palettes, 3D pies, gridlines everywhere, sparkles instead of lines.

Build. A reference file covering: small multiples over single dense charts; tabular numbers; restraint in colour (one accent for the focal series, neutrals for context); axis design (minimum gridlines, no chartjunk); when to use bars vs lines vs sparklines; banned chart types (3D anything, donut charts where pie would do, dual-axis line charts).

Why it matters. Data-density is the next frontier of "looks AI-generated" — and Tufte is the canonical reference no current skill cites.

2.4 Multi-page coherence rules

Status now. Hallmark's structural-variety rule says "two consecutive pages in the same session should not share more than three of the six structural axes." That's correct for variety but wrong for brand consistency across a real product where every page should feel like the same site.

Build. A new reference: references/coherence.md. When working within a multi-page project, lock the first three axes (typography, colour, divider language — the brand axes) and vary the remaining three (heading placement, body composition, button voice — the page-voice axes). Different pages of the same site, not different sites. Add a test: "if I removed the navigation, would these two pages look like they're from the same product?" Yes. Continue. No. Re-anchor.

Why it matters. Right now the structural-variety rule is too strong. Real products need coherent variety, not chaotic variety.

2.5 hallmark extract — read existing code, output DESIGN.md

Status now. Hallmark generates from briefs. It can't ingest existing systems.

Build. New verb: hallmark extract <directory>. Reads the codebase. Identifies tokens (colour vars, type ramps, spacing scale, easings). Identifies the structural fingerprint actually in use. Writes a DESIGN.md the user can hand to other agents — or to Hallmark itself for redesign work. SkillUI does this for visual designs; Hallmark would do it taste-aware.

Why it matters. Most users come to Hallmark with an existing codebase, not a greenfield brief. The skill needs an entry point for the existing case.

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Tier 3 — Long horizon (research-grade, ambitious)

3.1 hallmark explain — pedagogy verb

A verb that explains the choices made, axis by axis, in plain language. "I picked left-margin headings because the brief was editorial and the audience is reading-led; I picked hairline dividers because the tone was austere and ornament would have warmed the page; I picked silent success on the form because the user can see the row was saved." Teaches users to make the same choices themselves over time. The skill becomes a teacher, not just a generator.

3.2 Negative-capability rules

PencilPlaybook embeds perceptual psychology in its anti-patterns — not just "don't use side-stripe cards" but "side-stripe cards trigger a horizontal cognitive scan that splits the user's attention from the content; the brain has to process two reading axes at once, which costs ~120ms per card." That's a different kind of teaching.

Build a references/why.md that, for each major anti-pattern, includes the perceptual or cognitive reason it fails. Models that understand an anti-pattern reach for the alternative more reliably than models that just know the anti-pattern.

3.3 Emotion-first prompting

Today: tone words (editorial, brutalist, austere). Tomorrow: emotion words (anxious, optimistic, nostalgic, sceptical). The brief "build me a page that feels nostalgic but also forward-looking" should produce different work than "build me a page that feels confident and warm" — even if the audience and use case are the same.

This requires a new mapping: emotion → tone → fingerprint. Worth building once the field has converged on what these mappings are. (Currently nobody has mapped them.)

3.4 Sound and haptic policy

Currently microinteractions.md says "no sound on web" — correct default. But Hallmark could ship a tiny module covering: when sound is appropriate (gaming, AAA brands, accessibility-augmenting); haptic feedback (Vibration API on mobile); and how to do them without crossing into kitsch. Small file; long horizon.

3.5 Live preview as a Claude Code MCP server

The most ambitious direction. Today Hallmark writes code into files; the user runs a static server to preview. A Claude Code MCP server could:

• Watch the file
• Render it in a sandbox
• Take a screenshot
• Feed the screenshot back to the model for self-critique against the slop test
• Iterate

This closes the loop between generation and audit, automatically. The skill audits itself before handing back. Anthropic's canvas-design skill is a step toward this for static art; Hallmark could be the interactive equivalent.

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Things to not do

A list of tempting directions that would make Hallmark worse, not better. Forcing the discipline.

• Don't add a fifth verb before the existing four are battle-tested. default / audit / refine / redesign is enough surface area for the next six months. Adding polish / typeset / colorize / animate / ... (impeccable's path) trades comprehensibility for surface area. Resist.
• Don't add more than 12 themes. The cognitive cost of 16 themes is higher than the value of 16 themes. If anything, cut underperforming ones.
• Don't ship a UI library. Hallmark is a taste skill, not a component kit. shadcn/ui and Geist exist; refer users to them. Building components inside Hallmark dilutes the focus.
• Don't add A/B testing or analytics to the skill. It's not a SaaS product.
• Don't build a Figma plugin. The skill works in code; that's a feature, not a limit. Designers who want Figma have other tools.
• Don't add prompts to "match a brand" by URL scraping on the default verb. That's SkillUI's job — point users there. Exception: hallmark study accepts URLs as a source for DNA extraction (read-only; never to clone the surface). The same refusal heuristics that govern image-mode study apply — marketplaces, template demos, and disclosed competitors are auto-refused before WebFetch fires.
• Don't add image generation. Out of scope; AI imagery is its own problem space, and the right answer is usually "use real photos" or "no image."

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Measurement

How we know Hallmark is getting better, not just bigger:

1. Slop test pass rate. Every output should pass all 20 questions. Track failures and categorise.
2. Structural-fingerprint diversity. Across the last 10 outputs of the skill, how many unique fingerprints? Target ≥ 8/10.
3. Microinteraction tells per output. Target 0. (transition-all, hover:scale-105, bouncy easing on UI, etc. are flagged.)
4. User picks the first output without revision. A high "first try" rate is the single best taste indicator. Track it.
5. DESIGN.md re-import round-trip. A user runs hallmark extract then hallmark with the extracted DESIGN.md in scope. The result should match the original within token boundaries. If it drifts, the extraction or the application is wrong.

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What's already shipped

For reference. Everything below is in current 0.4.0.

• ✓ Skill: 5 verbs (default, audit, refine, redesign, study)
• ✓ References: typography, color, layout-and-space, motion, microinteractions, structure, interaction-and-states, responsive, copy, anti-patterns, macrostructures, component-cookbook, study, hero-enrichment, custom-craft, assets
• ✓ 16 themes with structural fingerprints (including Studio, Pastel, Riso, Quiet)
• ✓ 21 named macrostructures + 36 component archetypes with within-archetype variation knobs
• ✓ Sticky-top banner theme picker with random + ?theme= URL parameter
• ✓ Per-theme component archetype swap (hero + footer rebuild on theme change)
• ✓ Hero enrichment: demo video / mockup / illustration / abstract background, with Lottie demoted to last resort
• ✓ Custom-craft canon: pure CSS art, hand-built SVG, declarative animation, View Transitions, Three.js when justified
• ✓ Asset-source catalogue: Lucide / Phosphor / Heroicons (icons), Simple Icons / SVGL (logos), Nanobanana 2 / Recraft V4 (generated illustration), Storyset / Humaaans (library), Mixkit / Coverr (video), Unsplash / Nappy (photography)
• ✓ Working install path: cp skill/* ~/.claude/skills/hallmark/
• ✓ Slop test 33 questions: visual (8), structural (2), microinteractions (10), variety (3), implementation (6), hero enrichment (4)
• ✓ View Transitions on theme switch, with reduced-motion fallback
• ✓ Copy-to-clipboard with silent success on install code blocks
• ✓ Keyboard shortcut (T cycle, Shift+T reverse, R random)

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Deferred

• Tier 2.3 — Data-viz / chart canon. Small multiples, axis restraint, banned types (3D donut, dual-axis), Tufte principles. Mentioned in hero-enrichment.md but full reference not yet written.