Neon

Neon is a dark-mode-first system that turns interfaces into glowing circuitry. Surfaces sit in near-black, and energy comes from luminous cyan and magenta edges, gradient text, and soft colored bloom.

It feels electric, nocturnal, and high-stakes. Reach for Neon when you want an interface to feel like a control panel from a brighter, faster future — gaming and esports, crypto and web3, music and nightlife, and anything that thrives after dark.

Design principles

• Dark always wins. The canvas is near-black; light is something you emit, never a background.
• Glow over shadow. Depth comes from colored box-shadow bloom, not gray drop shadows.
• Two charged accents. Cyan and magenta carry the system; purple bridges them in gradients.
• Restrained luminance. Glow is a spice — apply it to focal elements so everything doesn't scream.
• Technical typography. Mono numerals and tracked-out uppercase labels evoke a HUD.
• Texture sparingly. Faint grids and scanlines add atmosphere without noise.

Color

The base is a deep blue-black (#0A0A12) with surfaces lifting to #13131F and elevated panels to #1A1A2E. Text is a cool near-white (#E8E8FF) with muted lavender-gray (#8B8BA7) for secondary copy.

• Primary accent: electric cyan (#00E5FF) — main actions, focus, key data.
• Secondary accent: hot magenta (#FF2E97) — highlights, featured states, destructive actions.
• Bridge: purple (#A855F7) — connects the two in gradients and glows.
• Borders: a low-contrast #26263A by default, switching to a glowing accent on hover or focus.

Because the system is dark-native, "light mode" is intentionally not the home. If a light variant is required, use a charcoal #16161F rather than white, keeping the neon accents intact. Reserve pure saturated glow for interactive and focal elements only — let the near-black field do the resting.

Typography

Headings use a geometric, slightly technical sans with tight tracking for a confident, machined look; the most prominent headlines can carry a cyan-to-magenta gradient fill.

• Headlines: technical sans, 32-72px, -0.01em tracking, weight 600-700.
• Body: clean neutral sans, 16-18px, weight 400, for readability on dark.
• Numerals: monospace face — prices, stats, timers — for an instrument-like feel.
• Micro-labels: uppercase, +0.12em tracking, muted color, 11-13px.

Avoid thin weights, which shimmer and fade on dark backgrounds. Keep to regular (400), medium (500), and bold (700).

Layout & spacing

Use a 12-column grid on an 8px base unit with moderate density — dashboards can be information-rich, but each panel keeps internal breathing room. Container widths cap around 1280px.

Group related controls inside bordered panels with 20-24px internal padding. Let the near-black background show through as negative space between panels rather than filling everything. A faint 1px grid or dot texture at very low opacity can underlay the whole canvas for atmosphere.

Components

• Buttons: primary is a dark fill with a cyan outline and glow; hover intensifies the bloom and brightens the label. Destructive uses magenta glow.
• Inputs: dark surface, 1px #26263A border, with the border and a soft cyan glow appearing on focus.
• Cards: #13131F surface, 8px radius, thin border that lights up on hover; featured cards get a persistent accent glow ring.
• Navigation: a dark top bar or sidebar with an underline or left-bar glow marking the active item.
• Modals & overlays: centered dark panels with an accent-glow border over a heavily darkened, slightly blurred backdrop.
• Tables: dark rows separated by faint borders, mono numerals, and accent-colored status text instead of filled badges.
• Badges: pill outlines in cyan or magenta with a faint matching glow and uppercase tracked labels.
• Icons: line icons that carry a subtle glow when active or selected.

Motion

Motion is energetic but controlled — synthetic, not organic.

• Glows pulse gently on key metrics (a 2-3s ease-in-out loop at low amplitude).
• Hover states ramp glow intensity over 150ms ease-out; presses snap inward slightly (scale 0.98).
• Gradient text and borders can slowly drift their hue.
• Page transitions use quick 250ms fades with a faint upward slide.

Keep motion crisp — no soft bounce.

Accessibility

• Cool near-white text (#E8E8FF) on the base (#0A0A12) exceeds 15:1 contrast.
• Ensure accent-on-dark text and icons clear 4.5:1 — cyan and magenta both pass at these saturations on the near-black base.
• Never rely on glow alone to signal state; pair it with a border, icon, or label change.
• Focus states use a visible 2px accent ring plus glow, always present and never suppressed.
• Honor prefers-reduced-motion by disabling pulsing glows and gradient drift, leaving static accents.
• Keep glow bloom subtle enough not to reduce text contrast, and ensure interactive targets meet 44x44px.

Meets WCAG 2.2 AA.

Example prompt

Dashboard panel

Build a stats dashboard panel in the Neon style on a near-black background: dark cards with a thin cyan glowing border, large mono numbers, magenta delta indicators, and a subtle grid texture. Make the primary metric pulse with a faint cyan glow.

Install

Drop the folder into your agent's skills directory, or paste this file's contents into your prompt / rules file:

• Claude Code: copy skills/<name>/SKILL.md into .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md (project) or ~/.claude/skills/ (personal).
• Cursor: add the contents to a .cursor/rules/<name>.mdc file.
• Codex / other agents: paste into your AGENTS.md or system prompt.

Part of staqd — a library of 67 design-system skills for Claude, Cursor & Codex. This repo holds the 8 free skills; the full library lives at staqd.ai/skills.