explaingit

zanwei/design-dna

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

695Audience · vibe coderComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

An agent skill that captures a website's visual style as structured JSON, then generates new interfaces matching that same style.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Design DNA))
    What it does
      Extracts design tokens
      Captures style and effects
      Generates matching UI
    Tech stack
      Agent Skills spec
      Node.js
      HTML CSS JS output
    Use cases
      Copy a site's visual style
      Build reusable design specs
      Share design tokens with a team
    Audience
      Vibe coders
      Designers
      Developers

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Turn a website you admire into a structured design specification you can reuse.

USE CASE 2

Generate a new UI that matches a reference design's colors, typography, and motion.

USE CASE 3

Share a saved Design DNA JSON file with a team so everyone builds to the same visual style.

What is it built with?

Node.jsHTMLCSSJavaScript

How does it compare?

zanwei/design-dnatj/histomeesho/bharatmlstack
Stars695696693
LanguageCGo
Last pushed2013-03-11
MaintenanceDormant
Setup difficultyeasyeasyhard
Complexity2/52/55/5
Audiencevibe coderops devopsdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Requires Node.js and npx to install via the skills CLI.

MIT license, so you can use, modify, and redistribute it freely, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

Design DNA is an agent skill that turns the visual style of an existing design into a structured, reusable specification, then uses that specification to generate new interfaces in the same style. You give it reference material such as screenshots, images, or live website URLs, and it studies the visual identity across three areas: measurable design tokens like color, typography, and spacing, qualitative style like mood and brand voice, and visual effects like animation, glassmorphism, or particle work that go beyond plain CSS. The tool works in three phases. First it lays out the full schema of fields it will fill in. Second, in an analyze step, it examines your reference images or URLs and produces a complete JSON profile describing every property of that design, filling in every field rather than leaving gaps, and noting when references conflict with each other. Third, in a generate step, it takes that JSON profile along with your own content and produces a working implementation, by default a self contained page built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, that matches the captured style. The resulting Design DNA JSON file is the central output. Because it is just a JSON file, it can be saved, checked into version control, shared with a team, reused across different projects, and refined over time. This turns a vague instruction like make it look like that other website into a precise, repeatable specification that any compatible AI agent can read and act on. If a first generated result still looks thin compared to the references, the README suggests running a polish pass by re-attaching the same images or URLs and asking the agent to compare hierarchy, motion, and overall detail against them. The skill follows the Agent Skills specification and installs through the skills command line tool, which supports many AI coding agents including Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and GitHub Copilot. Installing it requires Node.js and the ability to run npx commands. The project is released under the MIT license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Explain what a Design DNA JSON file captures about a website's visual style.
Prompt 2
Walk me through installing design-dna with the skills CLI for Claude Code.
Prompt 3
How do I generate a new page that matches the style of a screenshot I provide?
Prompt 4
What is the difference between the analyze phase and the generate phase in this skill?

Frequently asked questions

What is design-dna?

An agent skill that captures a website's visual style as structured JSON, then generates new interfaces matching that same style.

What license does design-dna use?

MIT license, so you can use, modify, and redistribute it freely, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is design-dna to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is design-dna for?

Mainly vibe coder.

Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

This repo across BitVibe Labs

Verify against the repo before relying on details.