| 1 | # UI |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ## Philosophy |
| 4 | |
| 5 | A developer tool people use daily to browse code and manage repos. Optimise for: |
| 6 | |
| 7 | 1. **Speed-first** — minimise clicks, maximise information density |
| 8 | 2. **Scannable** — find what you need in under a second |
| 9 | 3. **Quiet confidence** — premium without flashy; the UI should disappear |
| 10 | 4. **Code-centric** — code is the hero, everything else supports it |
| 11 | |
| 12 | |
| 13 | |
| 14 | | Readable density | Compact without cramped. Maximise info per viewport. | |
| 15 | | Clear hierarchy | Strong contrast between labels, content, and muted elements | |
| 16 | | Functional spacing | 8px on items, 12–16px on sections. No wasted space. | |
| 17 | | Keyboard-first | Every action reachable without a mouse | |
| 18 | | Dark-mode primary | Developers live in dark mode. Light mode is supported, secondary. | |
| 19 | |
| 20 | **Do:** small type (`text-xs` / `text-sm` for most UI), small buttons, monospace for |
| 21 | paths, SHAs, and branch names, opacity modifiers for text hierarchy, tight spacing. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | **Don't:** large type outside page titles, shadows in dark mode (use borders), bright |
| 24 | backgrounds, hover animations that move or resize things. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | ## Where the portfolio framing bites |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Steid is portfolio-first, not a Gitea clone. The profile page is the product — repos |
| 29 | are one kind of thing on it, alongside writing and projects. Any layout inherited from |
| 30 | a GitHub-shaped forge needs checking against that before it's copied. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | ## Stack |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Topcoat bundles assets and ships Tailwind **without Node**, plus htmx and Alpine |
| 35 | integrations, Fontsource, and Iconify. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | That's worth noting: the previous attempt dropped Tailwind purely to avoid an npm |
| 38 | build step and hand-rolled CSS instead. Topcoat removes that objection, so Tailwind is |
| 39 | back on the table at no tooling cost. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | Suggested, none of it settled until Milestone 5 needs real pages: |
| 42 | |
| 43 | |
| 44 | |
| 45 | | Styling | Tailwind via Topcoat's bundler | |
| 46 | | UI font | Inter (Fontsource) | |
| 47 | | Mono font | IBM Plex Mono | |
| 48 | | Icons | Iconify | |
| 49 | | Interactivity | Topcoat signals; htmx where signals fall short | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | Topcoat's own client reactivity is early and acknowledged as limited, which is why the |
| 52 | htmx integration exists. Reach for signals first, fall back without ceremony. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | ## Prior art |
| 55 | |
| 56 | Attempt #1 (`steid-backup/AGENTS/UI.md`) has a complete 643-line design system — |
| 57 | OKLCH light/dark palettes with concrete token values, a type scale, spacing scale, and |
| 58 | component markup for sidebar, file tree, commit bar, breadcrumbs, badges, empty |
| 59 | states. It was written for Tailwind + DaisyUI. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | It is worth mining when Milestone 5 arrives, with two caveats: it specifies DaisyUI, |
| 62 | which is a separate choice from Tailwind and not bundled by Topcoat; and it was |
| 63 | written for a GitHub-shaped forge rather than a portfolio-first one. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | It is also, on its own, longer than every other doc in this directory combined — for |
| 66 | an app that had about nine pages. Take the palette and the principles. Don't |
| 67 | re-specify components before there are components. |