Atlas

Get started · 5 min read

A reference system, not a dependency.

Atlas is a design language your coding agent reads and uses to generate UI that fits your stack. It's not a CSS framework you bolt on. shadcn projects stay shadcn. Tailwind stays Tailwind. Your agent just knows how to make them look like Atlas. This entire site was one-shot generated that way.

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The mental model

Three assets, three jobs. Read them in this order.

01Ground truth
The rules (markdown)
references/*.md define tokens, patterns, motion, responsive behavior. This is what the agent loads on every task.
02Language
The vocabulary (class names)
.atlas-btn, .atlas-card, .atlas-dot — the names aren't literal. They're your agent's shorthand for 'render X in the Atlas style'.
03Proof
The reference CSS
colors_and_type.css is one possible implementation. Works as-is for plain HTML. For shadcn or Tailwind, your agent translates — it doesn't overlay.

1

Give your agent the skill

This is the whole install. The skill is plain markdown plus one reference CSS file. Any coding agent that can read a repo can ingest it — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cody, etc. No proprietary format, no vendor lock-in.

# Claude Code — two commands (marketplace, then plugin)
/plugin marketplace add pacifio/ui
/plugin install atlas@atlas-ui

# Other agents — point them at the skill directory
# They read the markdown, learn the rules, and generate code in your stack.
SKILL.md (200 lines of positioning + quick ref) plus ~6 markdown references covering tokens, components, theming, patterns, responsive, motion. The CSS file is in the skill too — but as a reference implementation for the agent to look at, not something it mechanically copies into your project.

2

Let it generate code in your stack

The agent asks what stack you're on, then translates Atlas rules into the right idiom. Same visual result, native code. Pick your stack below to see what the output looks like.

One command. Works with any coding agent that can read a repo.
# Claude Code — two commands
/plugin marketplace add pacifio/ui
/plugin install atlas@atlas-ui

# Cursor, Windsurf, Cody, etc.
# Point the agent at this repo's skills/atlas/ directory.
# Everything an agent needs is plain markdown + one CSS file:
#
#   skills/atlas/SKILL.md                 — entry rules (read first)
#   skills/atlas/references/tokens.md     — every design token
#   skills/atlas/references/components.md — class vocabulary + variants
#   skills/atlas/references/theming.md    — dark/light + shadcn map
#   skills/atlas/references/patterns.md   — layout rules
#   skills/atlas/references/responsive.md — multi-surface guidance
#   skills/atlas/references/motion.md     — motion inventory
#   skills/atlas/colors_and_type.css      — reference implementation

3

What Atlas looks like, regardless of stack

Whatever codebase the agent generates into, the output obeys these rules: AMOLED black, 28px buttons, 4px grid, border-defined surfaces, near-white primary actions, blue reserved for focus and selection.

OKDRAFTFAIL⌘K
Live Queued
atlas-edge · production
Last deploy 2m ago · main@a9f3b1 · 42ms p95
The block above renders the reference CSS because this site is a plain-HTML-ish Next.js project. In a shadcn project, your agent would generate <Button variant="default">Ship it</Button> with the Atlas tokens mapped into shadcn's variables. Same visual. Different code.

What's in the repo

github.com/pacifio/ui — MIT. Three top-level folders:

For agents
skills/atlas/
SKILL.md
references/tokens.md
references/components.md
references/theming.md
references/patterns.md
references/responsive.md
references/motion.md
colors_and_type.css
The skill. Markdown rules are the ground truth; the CSS is reference.
For humans
kitchen-sink/
app/page.tsx
app/get-started/...
app/components/...
app/foundations/...
app/patterns/...
app/mockups/...
This site. One-shot generated by an agent reading the skill.
For install
.claude-plugin/
marketplace.json
plugin.json
Makes the repo a Claude Code marketplace (marketplace.json) that serves the atlas plugin (plugin.json). Install via /plugin marketplace add pacifio/ui then /plugin install atlas@atlas-ui.

Common questions

Yes — by not overlaying. Your agent reads the shadcn variable alias table in references/theming.md and overrides shadcn's CSS variables with Atlas values. Your shadcn components stay shadcn components; they just look like Atlas. No .atlas-* classes are emitted.

Next steps

Next

Browse components

50+ live previews with copy-ready HTML.

Components →
Next

Read the tokens

Every color, space, radius, shadow.

Foundations →
Next

Fork the patterns

Landing, dashboard, chat, mobile app.

Patterns →
Next

See full mockups

Email, e-commerce, multi-agent, news.

Mockups →
Found a bug? Missing a rule?
PRs welcome at github.com/pacifio/ui · MIT