The files my AI agents read before they write anything.
I am a product designer. I have been one for 17 years. Most mornings now I don't open Figma, I open Claude Code. The thing that makes that work is not the model. It's the files the model reads first.
This repo is those files, published as they actually exist.
| File | What it does |
|---|---|
taste.md |
My design defaults, with the why behind every rule. Loaded before any UI gets written. |
More will land here over time. Each file gets a post explaining how it was written and what it changed.
Point your agent at the file and tell it to read the file before it works. In Claude Code that means putting it in the repo and referencing it from CLAUDE.md. In Cursor, a rules file. The mechanism matters less than the habit: the agent reads your defaults before it starts, every session, without you retyping them.
You can fork this. It will make your output look like mine, which is probably not what you want.
The useful part is the method, not the content:
- Start from your corrections, not your principles. Open your last few projects. Find what you changed after the first AI pass. Anything you corrected more than twice belongs in the file. The principles you would write from scratch are the taste you wish you had, not the taste you have.
- Write the why next to the what. "No shadows" is a rule. "Separation comes from hairlines and tone, not shadows" is a rule an agent can extend to cases you didn't list.
- Keep it to one page. One file, read in full, every session. The moment it needs a table of contents it's documentation, and nobody reads documentation. Including the agent.
- Prune it. I've deleted lines that stopped being true. A taste file you never prune becomes a brand guideline for who you used to be.
- My actual taste file: the full story behind
taste.md - My actual Claude Code workflow as a designer: the loop these files sit inside
Code and configuration: MIT. Prose and the files themselves: CC BY 4.0. Use them, change them, ship with them. Attribution appreciated, a link back to mahdif.com is plenty.
Mahdi Farra, a design leader who codes. mahdif.com · LinkedIn