Ticket 03: one rulebook for an interface, and taste is retired

.agents/skills/design-guard/SKILL.md

@@ -8,9 +8,10 @@ description: Judgment check before delivering any UI or user-facing output: scre
 Render the thing (screenshot, preview, generated document) and check *that*, not the source.
 DESIGN.md and VOICE.md are the measuring stick; this catches what automation can't.
 
-Is it a persuasion page (landing, marketing, portfolio, explainer)? Then skill `taste` carried
-the build rules and its pre-flight already ran; this guard re-checks the rendered result, and
-every `taste` section 11 tell that survived into the render is a finding here.
+Is it a frontend? Then the installed design method built it, its craft floor and its detector
+already ran, and a finish reviewer already scored it. Start from that verdict: re-check the render
+against the direction contract in the artifact's opening comment, and report what is still open
+rather than opening a fresh hunt.
 
 ## Visual
 

.agents/skills/design/SKILL.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ input, and holds open the three points where the owner decides.
 
 `docs/design/DESIGN.md` sections 1 and 2 and `docs/design/VOICE.md` carry the durable principles
 and the owner's standing defaults. DESIGN.md **section 3 is not written here**: it is recorded from
-the world that was actually built, after the finish review (step 5). A rulebook written before the
+the world that was actually built, after the finish review (step 4). A rulebook written before the
 build gets defended against reality instead of describing it.
 
 No design method installed (a project that started without an interface, a failed install recorded
@@ -85,6 +85,14 @@ Then hand the method its input, once, and let it run:
   hand over VOICE.md section 3 and the foundation decision from step 2.
 - **The accessibility floor** in principle 8 and `docs/compliance/COMPLIANCE.md` is not negotiable
   by any direction.
+- **The live-surface contract, on a redesign.** A surface that already has visitors carries
+  commitments the method does not know about and will not preserve on its own: URL structure and
+  slugs, page titles and structured data, primary navigation labels, form field names and their
+  order, analytics event and field names, the logo or wordmark, and legal or consent copy. Write
+  that list down from the live site before the direction round, hand it over as a constraint, and
+  check the built result against it. Anything on it that does change, changes on the owner's say-so
+  and ships with redirects. Losing the search ranking is the most expensive way a redesign can
+  succeed visually and fail commercially.
 
 The owner decides at three points, in this order. This is the order of work:
 
@@ -114,14 +122,7 @@ The owner decides at three points, in this order. This is the order of work:
 An addition inside a surface that already exists inherits that surface: it is not a new identity
 exercise, and it does not run this round again.
 
-## 4. Set the taste dials
-
-For pages meant to persuade (landing, marketing, portfolio, explainer), skill `taste` carries
-the per-page execution rules. Set its three dials (VARIANCE / MOTION / DENSITY) here, from the
-direction the owner chose, and record them in DESIGN.md section 3 so every later page build starts
-from the same read.
-
-## 5. Record
+## 4. Record
 
 After the finish review, DESIGN.md section 3 is written from the built world: the foundation from
 step 2, the tokens as they exist in code (code is the SSOT, DESIGN.md mirrors it), the component

AGENTS.md

@@ -105,7 +105,6 @@ trigger applies. The library:
 | `stack` | Choosing the tech stack or hosted platform; generates `docs/standards/<stack>.md`, wires gates |
 | `architect` | System design before building: boundaries, data, contracts, threats |
 | `design` | Standing up the project's design & voice system |
-| `taste` | Building or redesigning a landing page, marketing site, portfolio or explainer |
 | `scope-guard` | Before calling work done or proposing a commit |
 | `design-guard` | Before delivering any UI or user-facing output |
 | `verify` | Verifying a change actually works, end to end |

checks/config.json

@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@
     { "pattern": "skipSymlinkCheck\"?\\s*:\\s*true", "why": "retired instruction; skipSymlinkCheck takes the reason as a string value and config-invariants rejects a bare true, so an exemption states its case (INTAKE row 58)" },
     { "pattern": "COMPLIANCE\\.md.{0,4}§ ?[12]|§ ?[12].{0,40}COMPLIANCE\\.md", "why": "retired pointer; COMPLIANCE.md is one table of regimes with no numbered sections, and this project's register moved to docs/compliance/REGISTER.md, which begin copies from TEMPLATE-REGISTER.md" },
     { "pattern": "clear §2 back to its skeleton", "why": "retired begin instruction; the register is a cp from docs/compliance/TEMPLATE-REGISTER.md now, like the brief, the deploy runbook and the debt ledger" },
-    { "pattern": "definitions cover language|no implementation detail in this file", "why": "retired glossary rule; a CONTEXT.md entry may now settle how a term is measured (which period, which basis, who counts) and stops at the threshold value and the branching, which belong in a spec where a test can execute them (decision 0019)" }
+    { "pattern": "definitions cover language|no implementation detail in this file", "why": "retired glossary rule; a CONTEXT.md entry may now settle how a term is measured (which period, which basis, who counts) and stops at the threshold value and the branching, which belong in a spec where a test can execute them (decision 0019)" },
+    { "pattern": "\\btaste dials\\b|VARIANCE ?/ ?MOTION ?/ ?DENSITY", "why": "retired taste-skill machinery; a page is no longer configured by three numeric knobs set before the owner sees anything. The installed design method commits a direction contract, a color strategy and one authored motion instead (decision 0020)" },
+    { "pattern": "leonxlnx/taste-skill", "why": "retired upstream pointer; the frontend rulebook this repo adapted from it is gone and the installed design method owns that ground now (decision 0020 supersedes 0012)" },
+    { "pattern": "skill `taste`|\\.agents/skills/taste", "why": "retired skill; taste was removed on 2026-08-07 and nothing may point at it again. What each of its rules became is the table in decision 0020", "exclude": ["docs/specs/011-design-on-impeccable/"] }
   ],
   "styleBans": [
     { "pattern": "\\bdelve(s|d|ing)?\\b", "why": "AI-tell verb; say 'look at', 'go into' or just state the point" },

docs/decisions/0012-taste-skill-for-persuasion-pages.md

@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 # 0012: Frontend persuasion pages follow the `taste` skill, adapted from leonxlnx/taste-skill
 
-- **Date:** 2026-07-11 · **Status:** accepted · **Decider:** owner (Remon) + agent
+- **Date:** 2026-07-11 · **Status:** superseded by 0020 · **Decider:** owner (Remon) + agent
+
+<!-- Superseded 2026-08-07 by decision 0020: the design method impeccable now owns the making of an
+     interface, and `taste` is gone. The reasoning below stays readable as the record of why an
+     in-house rulebook was the right answer while nothing better was installed. -->
 
 ## Context
 

docs/decisions/0020-the-design-method-replaces-the-in-house-frontend-rulebook.md

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# 0020: The installed design method replaces Groundwork's in-house frontend rulebook
+
+- **Date:** 2026-08-07 · **Status:** accepted · **Decider:** owner (Remon) + agent
+
+## Context
+
+Decision 0012 gave this framework `taste`: an adapted, in-house rulebook for the page type models
+fail at most visibly. It was the right answer while nothing better was installed. Spec 011 installs
+impeccable per project as the method that makes an interface, and impeccable carries its own craft
+floor, its own list of category defaults to refuse, and a deterministic detector of 59 rules. Two
+anti-slop rulebooks side by side is exactly the situation AGENTS.md exists to prevent: one fact,
+one place. The owner chose retirement over coexistence on 2026-08-05.
+
+## Options considered
+
+1. **Retire `taste`, move what the method does not carry to the file that owns it (chosen):** one
+   rulebook governs a build, and the pieces that are genuinely Groundwork's (the accessibility
+   floor, the live-surface contract, the foundation choice) live where they were already owned.
+2. **Keep both, `taste` for persuasion pages and the method for the rest:** every page type would
+   need a routing rule, and the two would drift on the first upstream release. A build would have
+   to be judged against two lists that disagree.
+3. **Keep `taste` as the house overlay on top of the method:** an overlay is a patch on somebody
+   else's file by another name, and it re-creates the update cost the per-project install exists to
+   avoid (spec 011's settled decisions).
+
+## Where each retired rule went
+
+| `taste` section | Where it lives now |
+|---|---|
+| 1 Design read | Method: new-work section 1 (what is already true) and 2 (one round of questions per mode) |
+| 2 Three dials (VARIANCE / MOTION / DENSITY) | **Dropped.** See below |
+| 3 Foundation choice | Unchanged and unmoved: `design` step 2 and decision 0009. `taste` only restated it |
+| 4 Layout rules | Method: craft floor (cards, nested cards, kicker ban, section numbers, spacing), new-work section 6 (first viewport, scroll pacing); detector rules `kicker-above-heading`, `hero-eyebrow-chip`, `numbered-section-labels`, `oversized-h1`, `edge-flush-cards`, `cramped-padding`, `monotonous-spacing` |
+| 5 Typography | Method: craft floor (measure, scale, tracking floor), new-work section 4 (face selection, with its own list of overused faces); detector `overused-font`, `italic-serif-display`, `flat-type-hierarchy`, `line-length`, `tiny-text`, `wide-tracking`, `tight-leading` |
+| 6 Color and theme | Method: new-work section 4 (color strategy, the named default-palette calibration, light or dark chosen from the use scene); detector `ai-color-palette`, `cream-palette`, `gradient-text`, `dark-glow`, `radial-halo`. The rule to design both light and dark from the start is **dropped**: the method picks one theme from the real use scene, and a surface that needs both says so in its own brief |
+| 7 Imagery and assets | Method: craft floor (no glyphs for icons, no chrome standing in for content), new-work section 6 (author the assets, verified real imagery); detector `shape-assembled-illustration`, `broken-image`, `icon-tile-stack`. The icon family stays the owner's default in DESIGN.md principle 9 |
+| 8 Copy on the page | VOICE.md and the prose gate keep language, unchanged. Method: craft floor (the product's own language), `clarify`, and the truth rule in new-work section 3 (claims stay uninventable, demonstration data is labelled); detector `marketing-buzzword`, `aphoristic-cadence`, `theater-slop-phrase`, `em-dash-overuse` |
+| 9 Motion | Method: craft floor (one authored moment), new-work section 6 (motion as the form's own material); detector `bounce-easing`, `layout-transition`, `marquee`, `pulsing-dot`, `content-hidden-at-rest`. **Moved:** the reduced-motion obligation, which the method's own guidance never states, is now DESIGN.md principle 7, where it binds every direction |
+| 10 States and accessibility | Method: craft floor (states, contrast); detector `low-contrast`, `gray-on-color`. The legal floor stays DESIGN.md principle 8 and COMPLIANCE.md |
+| 11 Forbidden tells | Method: the craft floor's Refuse list and the 59 detector rules. Ticket 05 makes the detector a gate |
+| 12 Redesign protocol | Preserve-or-overhaul is the method's own four-way read (new-work section 1, plus "refinement preserves, redesign replaces"). **Moved:** the SEO and migration half, which the method does not carry at all, is now the live-surface contract in `design` step 3: URLs and slugs, titles and structured data, nav labels, form field and analytics names, wordmark, legal and consent copy |
+| 13 Pre-flight | Method: the finish reviewer and its verdict, reported with its open items (`design` step 3). `design-guard` re-checks the render against the direction contract |
+
+**Why the dials are dropped rather than moved.** They are a model-set configuration of a page,
+fixed before the owner sees anything, which is precisely the unwatched stretch spec 011 exists to
+close. The method decides the same things in the open and further down: a committed direction
+contract, a color strategy chosen at page scale, and motion authored once as the form's own. A
+numeric knob beside that contract would be a second, weaker answer to a question already settled.
+
+## Decision & consequences
+
+`taste` is gone from `.agents/skills/`, from the AGENTS.md table, from DESIGN.md principle 10, from
+`design`, from `design-guard` and from the explainer. Decision 0012 is superseded, not deleted: it
+stays the record of why an in-house rulebook was right while nothing better was installed. The
+retired wording is in the denylist in `checks/config.json`, so the dials and the upstream pointer
+cannot quietly return in a later session.
+
+Easier: one rulebook governs a build, and it updates by reinstalling rather than by hand. Harder:
+the rules now live in somebody else's file, so a rule this framework wants to keep has to be
+carried in a Groundwork file, as the reduced-motion floor and the live-surface contract now are.
+Watch for: an upstream release that drops a rule the table above credits to it. `maintain`'s
+dependency round is where that gets noticed, and the answer is to move the rule back into a
+Groundwork file, never to fork the method.

docs/design/DESIGN.md

@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@
 6. **States are designed, not inherited.** Hover, visible focus, disabled, loading, empty,
    error: every component ships with all of them. Empty states say what to do, not just "no data".
 7. **Motion is physics, not decoration.** 120-200ms ease-out on state changes; nothing bounces,
-   nothing autoplays, nothing moves that the user didn't cause.
+   nothing autoplays, nothing moves that the user didn't cause. A chosen direction may author more
+   motion than that on a surface meant to persuade, and whatever it authors collapses to static
+   under the user's reduced-motion preference: loops, parallax, scroll-driven choreography and
+   pointer physics all go still there, with the content still readable.
 8. **Accessible by construction.** Contrast of at least 4.5:1 for text, focus always visible,
    touch targets at least 44px, semantics before ARIA. WCAG 2.1 AA is the legal floor, not the
    ambition.
@@ -38,10 +41,9 @@
     gradient, and blue or purple as a reflex accent, are banned as defaults; pick the project's
     own accent (seed: the owner's deep teal). A gradient is only ever a small, deliberate,
     owner-approved accent, never the baseline. Any background motion stays subtle and secondary
-    to reading; usability wins over decoration. For pages meant to persuade (landing, marketing,
-    portfolio, explainer) the full anti-slop rulebook is skill `taste`: brief read first, three
-    dials, layout and motion rules, forbidden tells. There a deliberately higher motion level
-    may override principle 7, within `taste`'s reduced-motion and motivation rules.
+    to reading; usability wins over decoration. The full rulebook against the default look is the
+    installed design method's craft floor and its detector, which the skill `design` runs; these
+    ten principles are the floor it builds on top of and may not break.
 
 ## 2. Standing default direction (the owner's taste: seed, not straitjacket)
 
@@ -68,8 +70,6 @@ the `design` skill; deviate only on the owner's say-so.
 | Accent | `--color-accent` | TBD | one family, sparingly |
 | Danger / Warning / Success / Info | `--color-...` | TBD | used via opacity only |
 
-- **Taste dials:** TBD <!-- VARIANCE / MOTION / DENSITY, 1-10, set by `design` step 4 with
-     skill `taste`, e.g. 5 / 3 / 3 for a minimal register. Governs persuasion pages. -->
 - **Type scale:** TBD <!-- e.g. 32/24/18/16/14 + line heights; font family + weights -->
 - **Spacing ladder:** TBD <!-- e.g. 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 48 -->
 - **Radius:** TBD <!-- container / control / pill -->

docs/specs/011-design-on-impeccable/tickets/03-retire-taste.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # 03: taste is retired, and nothing points at a skill that is gone
 
 - **Blocked by:** 02-begin-and-design-route-into-impeccable.md
-- **Status:** ready
+- **Status:** done
 - **Traces to:** BRIEF SC-8
 
 **What to build:** The framework carries one rulebook for building an interface. `taste` is
@@ -15,13 +15,13 @@ decision record states where each went.
 
 **Acceptance:**
 
-- [ ] Every rule in `taste` is accounted for: covered by impeccable, moved to a named file, or
+- [x] Every rule in `taste` is accounted for: covered by impeccable, moved to a named file, or
       dropped with a reason. The mapping is written in the decision record, not in a commit message.
-- [ ] `.agents/skills/taste/` is gone and its row is out of the AGENTS.md skills table.
-- [ ] Every pointer that named it is repointed: DESIGN.md principle 10, `design`, `design-guard`,
+- [x] `.agents/skills/taste/` is gone and its row is out of the AGENTS.md skills table.
+- [x] Every pointer that named it is repointed: DESIGN.md principle 10, `design`, `design-guard`,
       and any doc the links gate finds.
-- [ ] Decision 0012 is marked superseded, naming the decision that replaced it, and stays readable
+- [x] Decision 0012 is marked superseded, naming the decision that replaced it, and stays readable
       as the record of why the earlier choice was right at the time.
-- [ ] The retired wording is in the denylist in `checks/config.json`, so a later session cannot
+- [x] The retired wording is in the denylist in `checks/config.json`, so a later session cannot
       reintroduce a rulebook that no longer exists.
-- [ ] `node checks/check.mjs`, the links gate and the self-test suites stay green.
+- [x] `node checks/check.mjs`, the links gate and the self-test suites stay green.