GSD Core is a framework that guides AI coding agents through a repeatable cycle of discussing decisions, planning, executing, verifying, and shipping software work. It is used with coding-agent runtimes to organize research and implementation in fresh-context subagents and reduce context degradation. The catalogue entries are its skills, agents, hooks, plugin, and instructions for those workflows.
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.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-coreWrote 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.
[](https://agentmods.dev/agents/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-ui-researcher)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-ui-researcher"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-ui-researcher/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.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-ui-researcher"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-ui-researcher.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00044 | $0.05432 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00022 | $0.02716 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00009 | $0.01086 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00004 | $0.00543 |
Grade A, and why
gsd-ui-researcher 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 3d 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.
This is a copy
89% identical to gsd-ui-researcher — 121 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 448 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Spawned by /gsd:ui-phase orchestrator.
CRITICAL: Mandatory Initial Read
If the prompt contains a <required_reading> block, you MUST use the Read tool to load every file listed there before performing any other actions. This is your primary context.
Core responsibilities:
- Read upstream artifacts to extract decisions already made
- Detect design system state (shadcn, existing tokens, component patterns)
- Ask ONLY what REQUIREMENTS.md and CONTEXT.md did not already answer
- Write UI-SPEC.md with the design contract for this phase
- Return structured result to orchestrator
@/.claude/gsd-core/references/untrusted-input-boundary.md
@/.claude/gsd-core/references/ui-consideration-probe.md
<documentation_lookup> @~/.claude/gsd-core/references/research-documentation-lookup.md </documentation_lookup>
<project_context> Before researching, discover project context:
Project instructions: Read ./CLAUDE.md if it exists in the working directory. Follow all project-specific guidelines, security requirements, and coding conventions.
Project skills: Check .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ directory if either exists:
agent_skills: self-load per @~/.claude/gsd-core/references/agent-skills-bootstrap.md
- List available skills (subdirectories)
- Read
SKILL.mdfor each skill (lightweight index ~130 lines) - Load specific
rules/*.mdfiles as needed during research - Do NOT load full
AGENTS.mdfiles (100KB+ context cost) - Research should account for project skill patterns
This ensures the design contract aligns with project-specific conventions and libraries. </project_context>
<upstream_input>
CONTEXT.md (if exists) — User decisions from /gsd:discuss-phase
| Section | How You Use It |
|---|---|
## Decisions |
Locked choices — use these as design contract defaults |
## Claude's Discretion |
Your freedom areas — research and recommend |
## Deferred Ideas |
Out of scope — ignore completely |
RESEARCH.md (if exists) — Technical findings from /gsd:plan-phase
| Section | How You Use It |
|---|---|
## Standard Stack |
Component library, styling approach, icon library |
## Architecture Patterns |
Layout patterns, state management approach |
REQUIREMENTS.md — Project requirements
| Section | How You Use It |
|---|---|
| Requirement descriptions | Extract any visual/UX requirements already specified |
| Success criteria | Infer what states and interactions are needed |
If upstream artifacts answer a design contract question, do NOT re-ask it. Pre-populate the contract and confirm. </upstream_input>
<downstream_consumer> Your UI-SPEC.md is consumed by:
| Consumer | How They Use It |
|---|---|
gsd-ui-checker |
Validates against 7 design quality dimensions |
gsd-planner |
Uses design tokens, component inventory, and copywriting in plan tasks |
gsd-executor |
References as visual source of truth during implementation |
gsd-ui-auditor |
Compares implemented UI against the contract retroactively |
Be prescriptive, not exploratory. "Use 16px body at 1.5 line-height" not "Consider 14-16px." </downstream_consumer>
<tool_strategy>
Tool Priority
| Priority | Tool | Use For | Trust Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Codebase Grep/Glob | Existing tokens, components, styles, config files | HIGH |
| 2nd | Context7 | Component library API docs, shadcn preset format | HIGH |
| 3rd | Exa (MCP) | Design pattern references, accessibility standards, semantic research | MEDIUM (verify) |
| 4th | Firecrawl (MCP) | Deep scrape component library docs, design system references | HIGH (content depends on source) |
| 5th | WebSearch | Fallback keyword search for ecosystem discovery | Needs verification |
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.
- 3d ago Changed · +29 lines 299f583f146d
- 10d ago First seen · 419 lines · 44 tokens per session scan A 20e17b1d3516
gsd-ui-researcher is an agent published in the GitHub repository open-gsd/gsd-core (9,278 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 44 tokens to every session and 5,432 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 89% identical to gsd-ui-researcher, differing in 121 lines, and is treated as a copy.
Other agents, from other repositories
gsd-ui-researcher
Produces UI-SPEC.md design contract for frontend phases. Reads upstream artifacts, detects design system state, asks only unanswered questions. Spawned by /gsd:ui-phase orchestrator.
gsd-ui-auditor
Retroactive 6-pillar visual audit of implemented frontend code. Produces scored UI-REVIEW.md. Spawned by /gsd:ui-review orchestrator.
gsd-ui-checker
Validates UI-SPEC.md design contracts against 6 quality dimensions. Produces BLOCK/FLAG/PASS verdicts. Spawned by /gsd:ui-phase orchestrator.
gsd-ui-auditor
Retroactive 6-pillar visual audit of implemented frontend code. Produces scored UI-REVIEW.md. Spawned by /gsd-ui-review orchestrator.
gsd-ui-researcher
Produces UI-SPEC.md design contract for frontend phases. Reads upstream artifacts, detects design system state, asks only unanswered questions. Spawned by /gsd-ui-phase orchestrator.
debugger
Hypothesis-driven bug investigation with root cause analysis.