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robinbrilrobinbril/claude-code-harness/skills/pick-ui-library/SKILL.md

pick-ui-library

Skill3 starsChanged 24 days agoMITView on GitHub

Pick the right library for a given frontend task from a curated, opinionated list — numbers, OTP inputs, charts, command menus, virtualization, drag and drop, toasts, state, styling, and more. Only runs when explicitly invoked; it does not trigger on its own.

45 other projects use a version of this, 31 of them edited; 2 new projects in the last 4 weeks, against 1 the 4 before.

Adopted by

Rising: 2 new projects took it in the last 4 weeks, 2× the 4 weeks before.thin data

Week of Sep 13: 1 new projectWeek of Sep 20: 0 new projectsWeek of Sep 27: 0 new projectsWeek of Oct 4: 0 new projectsWeek of Oct 11: 0 new projectsWeek of Oct 18: 0 new projectsWeek of Oct 25: 0 new projectsWeek of Nov 1: 2 new projects
Sep 2026Oct 2026Nov 2026
New projects taking a version of this file each week, over the 8 weeks our latest run read: only 3 in all, so this is a hint, not a trend.

Most recently taken up by

Used with

Projects with it also use write-swift, remove-animations and 5 more.

Other files people use alongside this one.

Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
  • sanmidableSkill

    write-swift

    Also in 23 projects that use this

  • sanmidableSkill

    remove-animations

    Also in 4 projects that use this

  • jtfasulo7Skill

    animation-performance

    Apply when building scroll-scrubbed animations, marquees, continuous SVG/canvas animations, or fixing reports of "laggy", "stuttering", "doesn't render", "disappears and reappears", "jumps". Encodes the perf rules learned from the realtor-website rebuild.

    Also in 11 projects that use this

  • arkanSkill

    break-ui

    Try to break a piece of UI by feeding it worst-case data — long names, unbreakable emails, one-letter names, missing fields, huge counts, zero items, long labels, non-Latin text, emoji, extreme numbers — then render it behind a "Demo data / Worst case" toggle and report everything that broke, with the fix for each. Use when the user asks to stress-test, break, or find edge cases in a component or screen, or to "try the worst case". For visual design critique use emil-design-eng; for motion use review-animations.

    Also in 11 projects that use this

  • AnasX7Skill

    explain-interface

    Helps you figure out how something was built on the web.

    Also in 3 projects that use this

  • AnasX7Skill

    transitions-polish

    Polish and refine existing motion against the transitions.dev motion-token scale — duration, distance, scale, blur, and easing — plus the rules for WHEN each token applies (open/close asymmetry, hover-in vs hover-out, stagger offsets, and intent delays). An add-on to the transitions-dev skill, focused on tuning what already animates rather than adding new transitions. Use when the user asks to "polish my transitions", "refine the motion", "tune the timing / easing", "make the animation feel better / less janky", "tighten the durations", "fix the stagger", "align to the motion tokens", "audit the motion", "review my animations", "scan for ad-hoc transitions", "tokenize my animations", or runs the commands transitions review or transitions polish. Also drives the Refine panel's Small refinement feature. Triggers on "motion polish", "transition polish", "refine motion", "timing feels off", "too slow / too fast", "stagger", "delay", "open close timing", "hover in out".

    Also in 3 projects that use this

  • +1 more from AnasX7

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

4 rules. 1 is common, 2 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.

  • 1

    Common

    Most of the 31 edited versions we read keep these.

  • 2

    Distinctive

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 1

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    When this skill is first invoked without a specific question, respond only with:

    line 11
  2. Distinctive:

    Do not provide any other information until the user asks a question.

    line 15
  3. Very specific:

    Check what's already installed: Look at package.json first.

    line 22
  4. Common:

    If the task isn't covered by the list, say so explicitly and recommend from your own knowledge — but be clear you've left the curated list.

    line 24

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 31 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Picking The Right Library

Initial Response

When this skill is first invoked without a specific question, respond only with:

I'm ready to pick the right library for your task, my picks come from Emil Kowalski's curated list.

Do not provide any other information until the user asks a question.

A lookup skill. When invoked with a task ("I need toasts", "what should I use for drag and drop?"), match the task to the curated list below and recommend the library. These are deliberate, taste-driven picks — don't substitute alternatives outside this list unless the user asks for one or the task genuinely isn't covered.

How to use this

  1. Identify the task, not the library the user named. "I need to show a dropdown" is a UI-primitives task (base-ui), even if they asked about something else.
  2. Check what's already installed. Look at package.json first. If the project already uses a listed library, use it. If it uses a competitor (e.g. react-window instead of Virtuoso), flag the recommendation but don't churn the dependency without being asked.
  3. Recommend one library, state what it's for in one sentence, and install/wire it up if that's part of the request. Don't present a menu of options when the list has a clear answer.
  4. If the task isn't covered by the list, say so explicitly and recommend from your own knowledge — but be clear you've left the curated list.

The list

UI components & primitives

TaskLibrary
Unstyled, accessible UI components (dialogs, popovers, menus, selects…)base-ui
Command menus (⌘K palettes)cmdk
Toasts / notificationsSonner
One-time password / verification code inputsinput-otp
Customizable GUIs / control panelsLeva — dialkit is an alternative

Motion & visuals

TaskLibrary
General-purpose animation (springs, layout animations, enter/exit)motion (Framer Motion)
Animating numbers (counters, prices, stats)NumberFlow
Animated text componentstorph
3D globesCobe
Dynamic OG images (HTML/CSS → SVG/PNG)Satori
Syntax highlightingshiki

Reach for motion when you need springs, layout animations, exit animations, or gesture-driven values. A simple hover or fade doesn't need it — plain CSS transitions are the right tool there.

Charts

TaskLibrary
Real-time / streaming chartsLiveline
General charts (static or interactive dashboards)recharts

The split: if data points arrive live and the chart scrolls with time, use Liveline. Everything else is recharts.

Interaction & performance

TaskLibrary
Drag and dropdnd kit
Virtualization (long lists, large tables)Virtuoso

State & styling

TaskLibrary
State managementzustand
Constructing className strings conditionallyclsx
Type-safe, variant-driven styling for Tailwindcva
Theme switching / dark mode (no flash on load)next-themes

The styling split: clsx for ad-hoc conditional classes; cva when a component has real variants (size, intent, state) that deserve a typed API. They compose — cva uses clsx-style inputs internally.

Common mismatches to catch

  • Toasts built by hand or with a modal library → Sonner exists for exactly this.
  • A <div>-based dropdown/dialog with manual focus handling → base-ui, which handles accessibility, focus trapping, and dismissal.
  • Animating a number by re-rendering text → NumberFlow handles digit transitions properly.
  • Rendering a 1,000+ row list directly → Virtuoso before reaching for pagination hacks.
  • A useState-per-component web of props for shared state → zustand.
  • Template-literal className ternaries three conditions deep → clsx (or cva if it's variant-shaped).

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