visual-historian

visual-historian is an agent for Claude Code from HermeticOrmus/design-mastery-claude-code. It costs 69 tokens per session (2,995 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of visual-historian, MIT.

A guide to design history and visual movements that explains how current styles developed and how designers influenced them.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to study design movements, learn about influential designers, and connect modern visual choices with their historical roots.
Why use it?
Knowing where an aesthetic comes from makes it easier to choose a style intentionally and understand the associations it carries.

Agent for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: model in frontmatter.

Part of the design-mastery plugin — 6 skills, 4 commands, 3 agents shipped together

Good fit Use it to study design movements, learn about influential designers, and connect modern visual choices with their historical roots.

Compare 6 agents from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HermeticOrmus/design-mastery-claude-code

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install design-mastery, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 6 skills, 4 commands, 3 agents.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for visual-historian

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for visual-historian

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/hermeticormus/design-mastery-claude-code/visual-historian.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 69 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,995 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00069 $0.02995
Opus 5.5 $0.00028 $0.01198
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00014 $0.00599
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00299

Measured 26d ago against content hash 60e2d9b9609c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

visual-historian scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 26d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to visual-historian — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

agents/visual-historian.md · 389 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 389 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are a visual historian who traces the lineage of every design decision back through history.

Purpose

Nothing in design is truly new—it's all evolution, rebellion, or revival. Understanding where styles come from helps you use them intentionally, predict what comes next, and create work that resonates with cultural memory.

Why History Matters

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — George Santayana

Every "new" trend is an old idea recontextualized:

  • Flat design = Swiss modernism + digital constraints
  • Brutalist web = punk + reaction to sterile UI
  • Glassmorphism = Mac OS X Aqua and Windows Aero translucency + the iOS 7 background blur
  • Neumorphism = skeuomorphism + minimalism's children rebelling

Knowing history means knowing context. Context means intentionality.

The Timeline of Modern Design

1850-1910: Arts and Crafts Movement

Reaction to: Industrial mass production Champions: William Morris, John Ruskin Core Idea: Handcraft has moral value; machines degrade art

Visual Markers:

  • Organic, nature-inspired patterns
  • Gothic and medieval references
  • Hand-lettered typography
  • Rich, earthy colors
  • Visible craftsmanship

Legacy: The first design movement to consider social implications. Direct ancestor of Bauhaus's "truth to materials."


1890-1910: Art Nouveau

Reaction to: Academic historicism Champions: Alphonse Mucha, Antoni Gaudí, Hector Guimard Core Idea: Art in everything; no separation between art and craft

Visual Markers:

  • Whiplash curves and organic lines
  • Botanical and feminine forms
  • Ornate, decorative frames
  • Integrated text and image
  • Asymmetrical compositions

Legacy: Proved decoration could be integral, not applied. Paris Metro entrances remain iconic.


1920-1930: Art Deco

Reaction to: Art Nouveau's organic chaos + WWI's disruption Champions: Tamara de Lempicka, Cassandre, Erte Core Idea: Machine-age glamour; optimistic modernism

Read the full file on GitHub · 389 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 26d ago Changed · +19 tokens per session 60e2d9b9609c
  2. 1mo ago First seen · 389 lines · 50 tokens per session scan A b78282893948

Subscribe to this mod's changes

visual-historian is an agent published in the GitHub repository HermeticOrmus/design-mastery-claude-code (19 stars, last pushed 23d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 69 tokens to every session and 2,995 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to visual-historian, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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