You are halfway through a dashboard refresh when the agent offers three ways to shape the same screen. Your choice decides whether the result is usable or merely decorated. Choose a design skill for the work it can guide, not its title. The catalogue measures 11,027 design skills.
Design skills work best when the interface job is clear
A skill is a folder of instructions the model opens when it decides it needs them. The context is everything the model can see while it answers you. Before selection, the agent sees only the skill’s name and description. Once selected, the whole body enters the context for that session.
The catalogue lists 10,180 skills for Claude Code, 5,832 for Codex, and 109 for Cursor. A skill can be labelled for more than one of them, so read the label as a filter, not a ranking.
Choose accessibility guidance for keyboards, screen readers, dialogs, or ARIA labels. Choose visual design guidance for pages, dashboards, typography, colour, or motion. Choose diagram guidance when the difficult part is explaining structure or flow.
What a design skill costs before it opens
A token is the unit your AI plan bills by, about three quarters of a word. The median skill that loads every session costs 62 tokens. The p90 is 147 tokens.
The maximum is 1,267 tokens every session, from finesse-brief. At 20 sessions a day, the 62-token median becomes 1,240 tokens across a day. That is close to the catalogue’s 1,296-token median CLAUDE.md file.
A short, focused skill is easier to keep active. A long skill can still earn its place when its output matches the work.
Read the line behind the grade
The scan grades 10,764 skills A, 146 B, 116 C or D, and 1 E or F. Its findings include 338 network calls, 41 external URL sends, 40 requests for root access, 37 hidden instructions, and 32 recursive force deletes.
The lowest listed examples are understand-figma, cad, and qa-critical-ux. Each has a C grade and a recursive force delete finding.
The scan prints the line behind each finding. Read it as evidence to inspect, not as a final judgement on whether the skill suits your work.
Six design skills worth opening first
The figures after each name show session tokens, file lines, and copy status. The original is the first copy of a file we saw; everything matching it afterwards is a copy.
- accessibility: guides accessible panels, views, dialogs, keyboard navigation, screen-reader announcements, and ARIA labels. 54 tokens every session, 302 lines, original, 1 copy.
- frontend-design: helps build polished websites, dashboards, pages, and reusable web components. 77 tokens every session, 93 lines, original, 6 copies.
- design-consultation: studies a product and its market, then proposes a visual system for style, fonts, layout, spacing, and motion. 46 tokens every session, 958 lines, original, 0 copies.
- archify: turns requirements or Mermaid diagrams into interactive architecture, workflow, sequence, and data-flow diagrams. 130 tokens every session, 138 lines, original, 3 copies.
- claude-design: shapes one-off HTML landing pages, presentations, and prototypes through a considered design workflow. 16 tokens every session, 651 lines, original, 19 copies.
- design-is: audits an existing design against Dieter Rams’ principles and recommends a next step. 91 tokens every session, 313 lines, original, 0 copies.
When a component mod is the better tool
Use a component-library mod when you need a known button, dialog, menu, or form added consistently. A design skill can set direction, review an interface, or explain patterns. It cannot replace the shipped code and integration work of a component library.
Questions people ask
How much does a design skill cost when I use it fully? An on-demand skill has a median full body of 1,150 tokens. That larger body enters only when the agent invokes the skill.
Should I always choose the shortest skill? No. Choose the skill whose output matches the job. Use accessibility guidance for inclusive controls, visual guidance for direction, and diagram guidance for structure.
What should make me inspect a skill closely? Downloads that execute remote code are a clear reason to read the evidence. The scan found 23 such findings, even though the grade alone cannot tell you whether the advice is useful.
Do it now
npx agentmods add <slug> installs one skill by its catalogue slug. Browse all design skills.