Before this workflow, follow the once-per-session update preflight.

Verify (look at it, don't just read it)

Registry-first artifact boundary

When .styleseed/project.json and .styleseed/artifacts/index.json exist, resolve the requested artifact ID first, then read only .styleseed/bundles/<artifact-id>.md and .styleseed/manifests/<artifact-id>.json. Never fall back to the global legacy bundle for a registry project. Legacy projects may use .styleseed/effective-rules.md only when no registry exists.

If either registry file exists, require a complete, valid registry. Read the selected artifact's bundle and manifest above and check with ss-resolve --artifact <artifact-id> --check. An incomplete or invalid registry is an error, not permission to read a legacy bundle or restart setup. Verify each affected artifact against its own required renders and validation contract.

Only projects without either registry file use .styleseed/effective-rules.md and .styleseed/manifest.json, checked with ss-resolve --from-lock STYLESEED.md --check. During an authorized build or repair, invoke /ss-resolve or $ss-resolve from the corresponding project-owned configuration when that selected bundle is missing or stale. In inspection-only mode, report that condition without rewriting bundles or claiming current compliance. With no registry or lock, establish scope before a compliance claim. Judge pixels against that compiled method. A lock value cannot excuse a core failure, and a recipe/profile cannot replace the output grammar.

/ss-score reads the code and scores it. But some of the worst "AI-made" tells never appear in source — they only exist in pixels: a hero that doesn't actually dominate, a lower third of dead whitespace, cramped cards, a web font that silently failed to load and fell back to Times, two colors that look like two accents once rendered, text that's unreadable on its real background. A human sees these in half a second; a code-reading gate misses all of them.

/ss-verify closes that gap: it renders the UI, screenshots it, and you look at the image — then score the same StyleSeed gate against what you see, fix, and re-render. This is the gate that most predicts whether a real user will say "this looks designed."

During a build, run it as the final gate after /ss-score. A direct screenshot/pixel inspection does not require a new code-score loop; report code evidence as not checked if unavailable.

Inspection and repair scope

A request to inspect, verify, or report is inspection-only unless it also authorizes fixes. Render and capture in a temporary workspace without modifying product source, configuration, or real user data. Report findings even when they fail. Use existing test fixtures for states; never empty a live database to produce an empty-state screenshot.

Within an authorized build or repair, fix only in-scope implementation defects and re-render. Do not change approved identity or waive core floors to raise a score. A missing tool or failed gate calls for an honest report, not an invented pass or an unrelated installation.

When NOT to use

• Pure logic/config with no visual artifact → use relevant functional/configuration checks, not a design score. A renderable component without a host can use the temporary harness below.
• No way to render at all (no browser, no Playwright, headless blocked) → say so, fall back to /ss-score, and tell the user the visual gate was skipped. Never claim you verified visually if you didn't actually see a screenshot.
• A quick pre-commit pass → /ss-lint. /ss-verify is heavier (it boots a renderer).

For a compiled spatial contract, follow the spatial roles guide. For a configured spatial contract, run the installed scripts/inspect-spacing.mjs browser function with explicit bindings for every declared role, following the guide. Treat failures and unsupported measurements as unresolved, not a visual pass; inspect content observations too. At required narrow/wide viewports, check actual gaps, insets, token resolution, grouping, repeated alignment, overflow, and loading/error layout. Inspect screenshots as well as geometry. Numeric compliance cannot establish good rhythm or human acceptance. Preserve unrelated spacing when repairing.

Step 1 — Render it through the active adapter

For social-carousel, slide-deck, document-report, or single-frame, use the companion renderer and open every required exported frame/page at readable resolution. Verify dimensions, crop/safe zones, font availability, asset placement, and the export manifest. Do not force a browser workflow onto a PIL, slide, PDF, or image renderer.

For product-ui, get a real screenshot in priority order:

A. Running project (Next / Vite / etc.) — the normal case.

1. Start the dev server in the background (npm run dev / pnpm dev / framework command); wait for the ready line and capture the port.
2. Screenshot the route with headless Chromium via Playwright. If the project has playwright in node_modules, use it; else use a globally cached Chromium. Minimal script:

   import { chromium } from "playwright";           // or an absolute path into node_modules
   const b = await chromium.launch();
   const c = await b.newContext({ viewport: SURFACE, deviceScaleFactor: 2 });
   const p = await c.newPage();
   await p.goto(URL, { waitUntil: "networkidle" });
   await p.evaluate(() => document.fonts.ready);      // don't shoot before fonts load
   await p.waitForTimeout(400);
   await p.screenshot({ path: OUT, fullPage: true });
   await b.close();
   

   Copy
   Surface viewports: mobile {width:390,height:844} · desktop {width:1440,height:900}. Pick from the lock's Surface, or --surface.
3. If a browser MCP (claude-in-chrome) is available instead, navigate + screenshot with that.

B. Static HTML file → open it directly with file://… and screenshot (same script).

C. Isolated component (no host page) → render it into a minimal throwaway page that imports the component with realistic props, then screenshot that.

Then actually READ the screenshot back (Read the PNG). You must see it. Shoot at deviceScaleFactor: 2 so text is crisp enough to judge.

Step 2 — Score what you SEE (the visual gate)

Look at the image and run the StyleSeed gate perceptually. These are the checks that need eyes, not source:

□ Squint test    — blur your focus / imagine it at 50%. Does it still read "AI-generated"?
                   (bland gradient, pill button + generic sans, icon-chip row, even flat grid) → FAIL
□ Focal          — does ONE element actually dominate at a glance? If your eye lands nowhere,
                   or on an all-even grid, the focal point failed regardless of what code intended
□ Balance        — dead whitespace (a lower third of empty), or cramped/colliding elements?
                   Is the visual weight distributed, or all top-left / all-centered?
□ Fonts loaded   — is the intended typeface actually rendering, or a Times/Arial fallback?
                   (a silent font-load fail is a top "looks cheap" tell — invisible in code)
□ One accent (seen) — count the hues you actually SEE. Two things competing for "the color" = FAIL,
                   even if the code named one token
□ Contrast (seen) — any text you have to strain to read on its real rendered background?
                   Light-grey-on-white labels, low-contrast on a colored/照片 panel
□ Rhythm/optics  — are edges aligned, gaps consistent, cards optically even? Off-by-a-few-px
                   misalignments that read as "sloppy" but pass a code check
□ Type scale fit — on desktop, does the body text look too small for the canvas? does the hero
                   feel undersized? (the surface-scale tell, judged by eye)
□ Grammar fit   — does the screen visually serve the selected grammar's user job, attention
                   model, composition, density, action hierarchy, and characteristic tells?
□ Recipe fit    — do geometry, containment, controls, collections, navigation, density, and
                   motion visibly match the selected recipe rather than the old universal soft-card look?
                   Would the same layout still appear if the product changed? If yes, FAIL
□ Motion (if any) — capture before/after or a mid-transition frame; is it purposeful, or the
                   "cheap fade/bounce on everything" tell? does it block the first read?

Step 3 — Render states or sequence variants too

The happy-path screenshot hides the most common real-world failure: no empty / loading / error state. Where the surface has a data view, render those variants with test fixtures, an existing preview query param, or props in a temporary harness, and screenshot each. A blank white void for "no data" is a fail you can only catch by looking at the empty state. (Static marketing pages with no data surface → N/A, note it.)

For sequential artifacts, inspect the cover/first frame, every content frame, and close/CTA as a set: continuity, progression, one message per frame, repeated-template fatigue, source labels, folios, and safe-zone survival. For documents/decks, inspect every page/slide plus a representative thumbnail or overview view.

Step 4 — Fix, re-render, repeat

In inspection-only mode, return findings and evidence without edits. In an authorized repair, fix the code, then re-render and look again. Stop on pass, after at most three repair-and-render passes, or at a permission/tool blocker. Do not reset the limit by switching skills. Always report the latest image if available, effective rule set, changes, gate status, and unresolved failures. A failed result may be shown for review, but never labeled accepted.

Rules

• You must actually see the rendered artifact. No render, no visual verdict — fall back to /ss-score and say the visual gate was skipped. Never fabricate "looks good."
• Re-render after every fix. The reason this skill exists is that source and pixels diverge; verifying a visual fix by reading the diff defeats it.
• Build gates, in order: /ss-score (code) first to catch structural issues cheaply, then /ss-verify (pixels) as the final bar. /ss-build runs code-gate in its loop; finish a renderable screen with /ss-verify.
• Clean up: stop only the dev server you started; remove only your own temporary harness files.
• Shoot at 2× and at the locked surface's viewport — judging a desktop app on a 390px shot (or vice-versa) invalidates the type-scale and balance checks.