Design and review desktop interfaces built with GPUI Kit. Applies rules for layouts, colors, components, interaction states, and interface wording, with checks for keyboard access, focus behavior, and accessibility before finishing the work.
The normative Design Guides for GPUI Kit desktop applications. Read in full before designing or changing any screen, layout, spacing, visual hierarchy, color, density, component choice, interaction state, overlay, motion, data-heavy view, or interface copy in a GPUI Kit (gpui-kit / gpui-component) application, and before reviewing UI work for design quality. Also use when asked what the design rules are, or whether a UI decision follows them.
Review the instructions the agent will receive before you install.
The guide is references/design-guides.md. It is a requirement, not inspiration. Read the guide file itself before doing UI work. Do not answer from this page, from an existing screen in the codebase, or from training data.
If the file is missing, fetch https://gpui-kit.com/docs/design-guides.md.
The guide is a verbatim copy of that page, so its link to ./coding-guides.md
means the Coding Guides in the gpui-kit skill (or https://gpui-kit.com/docs/coding-guides.md).
Read the whole guide for a new screen or a redesign. For a narrow change, read
"Design thesis" and "Start from the task" first, then the section for the
change. Sections, in order (grep -n '^## ' references/design-guides.md):
| Section | Read when |
|---|---|
| Design thesis | Always |
| Learning from Shadcn | Choosing what to borrow from web component libraries |
| Start from the task | Always; task hierarchy, interaction promise, what to leave out |
| Visual language | Color, typography, spacing, radius, borders, elevation, density, icons |
| Layout patterns | Window structure, sidebars, toolbars, panels, forms, resizable regions |
| Components and composition | Picking a component, composing parts, when to build a new one |
| Interaction states | Hover, focus, pressed, selected, disabled, loading, validation, danger |
| Feedback and overlays | Dialog, sheet, popover, menu, notification, tooltip, dismissal, focus |
| Motion | Any animation or transition |
| Designing data-heavy interfaces | Tables, lists, trees, dashboards, dense inspectors |
| Interface language | Any user-facing text: labels, buttons, titles, errors, empty states |
| Internationalization and platform fit | Multi-locale copy, Chinese terminology, macOS/Windows conventions |
| Guidance for AI-generated interfaces | Always when an agent produces UI |
| Accessibility checklist | Before finishing |
| Design review checklist | Before finishing; run every item against the work |
A floor, not a substitute for the guide.
Button vs Link. Button for every in-app command, ghost or
outline when it should read quietly. Link only for external URLs and
email addresses.rgb(...); use cx.theme()
semantic tokens and rem-based helpers. Any spacing number quoted in the guide
is the current default scale, not a literal to repeat.Delete "Roadmap"? with a Delete
button, not Are you sure? with OK.Finish by running the Design review checklist against the work.
No reviews yet. Tell others what you thought.
No login needed. Share how it worked for you, ask a question, or note where it did not run.
No comments yet. Be the first to write one.
Build desktop applications with GPUI Kit, a Rust framework. Guides setup, component selection, state management, themes, and background work, and explains UI integration tests that simulate input and check component behavior.