Claude Code /design Skill: The Best Workflow
Claude Code /design Skill: The Best Workflow
Claude Code just got its biggest front-end design upgrade in a long time: the new /design skill. It takes the best of the standalone Claude Design web app and drops it directly inside Claude Code — so you generate visual artboards, edit them component by component, and iterate live without ever leaving your editor. I've been running it on real design work, and the single biggest win isn't the artboards. It's that you can finally stack your other skills on top of the design process. Here's exactly how it works and the three-step workflow I use every time.
What Is the /design Skill in Claude Code?
The /design skill takes the functionality of the standalone Claude Design web app and inserts it into Claude Code itself. Before this, if you wanted that visual, artboard-style design experience, you had to work inside the Claude Design web app, then awkwardly transfer your design over — export it, zip it, drop it in a folder, point Claude Code at it, and do all that annoying manual work. Now you get both in one place.
When you run /design and ask it to create something, it generates an artboard — a visual canvas with multiple design options you can choose from. Click any component of the design and a property panel on the right lets you change almost everything: colors, text, size, weight, spacing. You can ask for multiple versions of the same output side by side, and once you like a particular version, you tell Claude Code to actually go code it.
The core value is that you stop bouncing between two applications. Everything — generation, editing, and the final build — happens in one continuous flow.
Where Does the /design Skill Work?
The /design skill works both in the Claude desktop app and in the terminal. The experience is slightly different in each:
- Claude desktop app — the design populates inside a side panel, so everything stays in one window. This is my preferred setup because generation, tweaking, and coding all live in the same place.
- Terminal — instead of a side panel, it creates an artifact that opens up in your browser. Slightly less convenient than the all-in-one desktop view, but functionally the same. You still get the property bar, the zoom, and the ability to click into individual components.
Either way, using it is simple: type /design and prompt it for what you want to create.
Why Is Stacking Skills the Real Upgrade?
Here's the thing most people will miss. Convenience is nice, but the real reason the /design skill matters is that you can now stack it with your other Claude Code skills.
Inside the standalone Claude Design web app, you can't invoke something like the Impeccable skill or the Taste skill. You're locked into whatever the web app does on its own. But because /design runs inside Claude Code, you have access to everything else you already use.
So when I run /design, I can tell it to invoke Impeccable at the same time. Impeccable is a free, open-source Claude Code skill focused entirely on front-end design — its whole job is to recognize what AI slop looks like, strip it out, and apply better design principles to whatever you're building. Pairing it with /design means my outputs are noticeably better, not just faster to produce.
That's the difference: the web app gives you a design tool. /design gives you a design tool plus your entire skill library working together.
What Is the Three-Step /design Workflow?
Generating a design is easy — the harder question is how to consistently get outputs you actually like. There's a simple three-step workflow I run every single time I do front-end design in Claude Code: inspiration, skills, and iteration.
Step 1 — Feed It Inspiration
Don't just hand Claude a blind prompt that says "give me three designs." Give it examples. Take screenshots of posters, layouts, and design styles you like, drop them into the prompt window, and tell Claude to create something in the same vein.
This applies to more than posters. Whether you're building a landing page, a hero section, or a social graphic, feeding reference images gives Claude a concrete aesthetic to pull from instead of guessing.
So where do you find inspiration? A few of my go-to sources:
- Pinterest — search something like "Instagram infographic" and you get endless design directions.
- Land-book — great for web design, landing pages, and hero sections.
- Dribbble — a deep well of UI and graphic design work.
Build yourself a reference library over time. Save designs you like so you're not restarting the inspiration hunt every single time you want to build something. Pull from the library, drop the screenshots in, and go.
Step 2 — Stack the Right Skills
Once your inspiration is in the prompt, layer on the skills the web app can't touch. In practice, my prompt tells /design to:
- Generate three versions, one pulling from each reference screenshot.
- Use the Impeccable skill to enforce real design principles.
- Use the Higgsfield MCP to generate any outside assets it needs — images, graphics, backgrounds.
That last point is a direct benefit of working inside Claude Code. Because you're not trapped in the web app, you can pull in whatever you want. If you have an image generator wired up through an MCP like Higgsfield — or another tool like fal.ai — Claude can generate custom assets mid-design and drop them straight into the poster. You don't have to use outside images, but the option is there, and it's a big one.
I'll often leave asset generation to Claude's discretion: "If you feel like you need to generate outside assets for the posters, do that as well." The result is designs that clearly reflect the inspiration you fed in, built with better design principles and custom assets — all in one pass.
Step 3 — Iterate With the Tweaks Panel
This is where the speed really shows up. A fresh design starts with no tweakable controls — you'll see a note saying "describe what you want to adjust and Claude will add a tweaks panel for it."
So you ask for one. I'll tell Claude: "Add tweakable controls, and make the tweaks very aggressive — I want to edit almost anything through the panel." Claude then builds a tweaks panel on the right side of the artboard, and now you can adjust things live: paper color, text size, font weight, kerning, spacing — everything.
The whole point is iteration speed. Instead of prompting Claude, waiting for a generation, checking if you like it, then prompting again and waiting again, you just move sliders and see changes instantly. The tweaks also work as an idea generator — seeing the controls often sparks changes you wouldn't have thought to prompt for.
And you're not limited to small tweaks. You can still make big swings with a prompt. For example, I didn't like the copy on one poster, so I told Claude: "For the second design, keep the direction but change the content. Go do a web search, make sure you actually understand what /design brings to the table, and rewrite the infographic to explain it properly." It came back with a much more informative version — same look, better substance.
From there you just keep going: inspiration, skills, iteration. When you settle on the one you want — say the middle version — you tell Claude to focus only on that design and iterate until it's exactly right. Then you take it and do whatever you want with it.
Who Is the /design Skill Actually For?
Big picture, the /design skill makes front-end design meaningfully easier inside Claude Code itself. For a long time we've leaned on outside tools to get this kind of live, on-the-web design experience. Now it's built in.
The clearest fit is the Claude Code user who has liked the Claude Design web app but hated switching between the two. That's the niche. If you live in Claude Code and design work has meant constantly context-switching to a separate app and shuttling files back and forth, /design erases that friction. And if you do any front-end design at all, the ability to stack Impeccable, Taste, and asset-generation MCPs on top of a visual artboard is worth trying on your next project.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the /design skill in Claude Code?
The /design skill brings the standalone Claude Design web app's functionality directly into Claude Code. You run /design, prompt for what you want, and it generates a visual artboard with multiple design options you can edit component by component — then have Claude Code code it up, all without leaving your editor.
How is /design different from the Claude Design web app?
The web app is a separate application — you design there, then manually transfer your work into Claude Code by exporting, zipping, and importing. The /design skill removes that entirely by running inside Claude Code. Critically, it also lets you stack other skills like Impeccable and Taste, which the standalone web app can't do.
Can I use the /design skill in the terminal?
Yes. In the Claude desktop app, designs appear in a side panel so everything stays in one window. In the terminal, /design creates an artifact that opens in your browser. Both give you the property bar, zoom, and per-component editing — the desktop app is just more convenient because it's all in one place.
What is the Impeccable skill?
Impeccable is a free, open-source Claude Code skill focused on front-end design. Its job is to recognize AI "slop," strip it out, and apply stronger design principles to whatever you're building. Stacking it with /design produces noticeably better outputs than the web app on its own.
How do I get better results from the /design skill?
Use the three-step workflow: feed it inspiration screenshots from sources like Pinterest, Land-book, and Dribbble; stack skills like Impeccable and asset generators like the Higgsfield MCP; then add an aggressive tweaks panel and iterate live until you like the result.
If you want to go deeper into building front-end designs with Claude Code, join the free Chase AI community for templates, prompts, and live breakdowns. And if you're serious about building with AI, check out the paid community, Chase AI+, for hands-on guidance on how to make money with AI.
