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## Thinking Path > - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for work > - Its UI is the operator's daily surface: task lists, boards, budgets, agent status — all built on shadcn components and Tailwind > - Visual values (colors, spacing, type sizes, radii) were hardcoded at ~1,600 call sites: the same "small gray label" was 9/10/11px depending on the file, charts disagreed with chips about status colors, two toggle-switch implementations coexisted in two greens, and there was no visual regression coverage > - This made the UI drift-prone and made any restyle a hundreds-of-files project, which discourages design iteration > - This pull request extracts visual values into a single token layer in `ui/src/index.css`, adds a Storybook visual regression suite backed by external immutable baseline archives, and then applies a deliberate retune reviewed change-by-change on screenshot diffs > - The benefit is that Paperclip's look becomes a config surface: retheming is a token edit reviewed as a snapshot diff, drift is blocked by a token gate, and future UI PRs can prove exactly what changed visually without committing hundreds of PNGs ## Linked Issues or Issue Description No existing public issue covers this work (searched "design tokens", "visual regression", "design system" across issues and PRs). Related in spirit: Refs #8982 (theming a hardcoded panel — a one-off instance of the same problem class this PR addresses systematically). **Problem (feature-request form):** UI visual values are hardcoded per call site with no source of truth and no regression coverage; consistency depends on reviewer memory, and restyling requires mass file edits. **Proposed solution (this PR):** a single token layer + enforcement gate + externally stored visual snapshot suite, then an intentional restyle on top of that foundation. ## What Changed - **Token extraction (zero visual change, machine-verified during development):** committed codemods (`scripts/codemod-*.mjs`) moved ~1,600 hardcoded color/type/spacing/radius/shadow/misc values into named tokens in a non-inline `:root` block of `ui/src/index.css`. - **Visual regression suite:** `pnpm test:storybook-visual` covers 255 stories × light/dark = 510 Playwright screenshots at `maxDiffPixels: 0`, plus new primitive-coverage stories and deterministic-render fixes. - **External visual baselines:** committed PNG snapshots were removed. `tests/storybook-visual/baseline-manifest.json` pins an immutable archive URL/hash/size/count, and `scripts/storybook-visual-baseline.mjs` handles `download`, `verify`, `pack`, and trusted maintainer `upload` flows. - **Opt-in visual CI artifacts:** added a `Storybook Visual` workflow that runs on manual dispatch or PRs labeled `storybook-visual`, downloads/verifies the baseline, runs Playwright, and uploads Playwright report/test-result artifacts for review. Normal PR runs do not mutate baseline objects. - **Token gate:** `pnpm check:token-gates` — zero hex literals, zero arbitrary bracket values, zero raw font-sizes in `ui/src/components/**` and `ui/src/pages/**`, with a documented inline allowlist for legitimate opt-outs. - **Theme retune (intentional, snapshot-reviewed):** new base theme values; radius ladder derived from a single `--radius` knob; micro-type cluster collapsed to a named ladder (`--text-nano/micro/compact` + Tailwind `text-xs`/`text-sm`); letter-spacing collapsed to named steps. - **One status-color vocabulary:** charts, quota/budget bar fills, RUNNING/live chips, and liveness indicators all use the canonical `--status-*` hues. Light-mode legibility fixes for red alert surfaces that used dark-tuned text classes. - **One switch:** `ToggleSwitch` restyled to the registry capsule form, second hand-rolled implementation removed, and all call sites unified. - **Docs:** `DESIGN.md` is the design contract; `doc/design/` holds audit reports, decision logs, and updated guidance for external baseline review/update workflows. - Dead code removed (`agentStatusBadge` duplicate map), byte-identical contrast constants consolidated, semantic renames (`--project-seed`/`--project-none`, `--liveness-blue`). ## Verification - `pnpm check:token-gates` — 3/3 gates CLEAN during the design-system run - `pnpm typecheck` && `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/ui build` — green during the design-system run - `node --test scripts/__tests__/storybook-visual-baseline.test.mjs` — pass after external-baseline rework - `pnpm exec tsc --noEmit --pretty false --module NodeNext --moduleResolution NodeNext --target ES2022 --types node,@playwright/test tests/storybook-visual/playwright.config.ts tests/storybook-visual/storybook-visual.spec.ts` — pass after external-baseline rework - `git diff --check origin/pr/9134..HEAD` — pass after external-baseline rework - `find tests/storybook-visual -type f -name '*.png' -print | wc -l` — `0` - `node scripts/storybook-visual-baseline.mjs verify` — intentionally fails closed until the first trusted maintainer publishes the baseline archive and updates `baseline-manifest.json` ## Risks - **Large but shallow:** the PR still touches many UI files due to mechanical token extraction and retune work, but committed PNG snapshot churn has been removed from the branch. - **Baseline publication required before the visual suite can pass in clean clones:** the manifest currently has placeholder archive metadata. A trusted maintainer must publish the first immutable archive, then update `baseline-manifest.json`. - **Rendering platform variance:** the external baseline should be captured in the documented Linux/Chromium environment. Future CI runs verify against the pinned archive and fail closed on checksum/count mismatch. - **Visual CI is opt-in while stabilizing:** add the `storybook-visual` label or dispatch the workflow manually to produce downloadable Playwright report/test-result artifacts. - **Scheduled follow-ups, deliberately out of scope:** Tailwind palette classes map to semantic tokens in a dedicated pass; card/pill component consolidation; ESLint ratchet. Tracked in `doc/design/DECISION-SHEET.md`. ## Model Used Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic, `claude-fable-5`, Mythos-class tier) with extended thinking, running in Claude Code with tool use; mechanical phases delegated to Claude Sonnet subagents. Follow-up external-baseline rework assisted by OpenAI Codex (`gpt-5` coding agent with repository, terminal, and GitHub tool use). All bulk rewrites executed via deterministic, idempotent scripts committed in `scripts/`; intentional visual changes were human-reviewed on screenshot contact sheets. ## Checklist - [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context to this change - [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability details) - [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate planned core work - [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked them above - [x] I have either (a) linked existing issues with `Fixes: #` / `Closes #` / `Refs #` OR (b) described the issue in-PR following the relevant issue template - [x] I have not referenced internal/instance-local Paperclip issues or links (only public GitHub `#NNN` / `github.com/paperclipai/paperclip` URLs) - [x] My branch name describes the change (e.g. `docs/...`, `fix/...`) and contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details - [x] I have run targeted local verification and documented the intentional baseline-publication failure above - [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable - [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes - [x] I have considered and documented any risks above - [ ] All Paperclip CI gates are green *(pending new CI run after this rework)* - [ ] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups *(pending review)* - [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before requesting merge 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) and OpenAI Codex --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-authored-by: Dotta <bippadotta@protonmail.com> Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
75 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
75 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
# Changing Paperclip's UI — a field guide
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How to make visual changes now that the design system exists. Written for everyone: designers, engineers, and AI agents (AGENTS.md points here via DESIGN.md).
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## The one-minute mental model
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Paperclip's look lives in **three layers**, and you almost always work in the first one:
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1. **Tokens** — every color, text size, spacing, radius, and shadow is a named value in `ui/src/index.css`. Change a token, and every surface using it follows.
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2. **Components** — consume tokens, never raw values. One component per job (one Button, one Card, one ToggleSwitch).
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3. **Screenshots** — 510 baseline images (255 stories × light/dark) downloaded into `tests/storybook-visual/.snapshots/` from the pinned external archive in `tests/storybook-visual/baseline-manifest.json`. They are the proof of what the UI looks like. Any visual change shows up as a screenshot diff; no visual change proves itself the same way.
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The rules live in [`DESIGN.md`](../../DESIGN.md) (repo root). The reasoning behind past decisions lives in [`DECISION-SHEET.md`](DECISION-SHEET.md). If you disagree with a rule, change `DESIGN.md` first (with review) — don't quietly diverge in code.
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## The three commands
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```bash
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pnpm check:token-gates # am I allowed to write this? (no hardcoded values)
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pnpm test:storybook-visual # what does my change look like? (diff vs baseline)
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pnpm test:storybook-visual:update # accept my intentional changes as the new baseline
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```
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## Recipe 1 — change how something looks everywhere
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*"Make the corners rounder." "That amber is too loud." "Bump the smallest text size."*
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1. Find the token in `ui/src/index.css` (they're named and commented: `--radius`, `--status-task-todo`, `--text-micro`, …).
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2. Change the value.
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3. `pnpm test:storybook-visual` — it will "fail" on every affected story. That's the point: each failure writes a before/actual/diff image triplet into `tests/storybook-visual/test-results/`. Review them (or `npx playwright show-report` from `tests/storybook-visual/` for a browsable version).
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4. Happy? `pnpm test:storybook-visual:update`, review the generated bundle under `tests/storybook-visual/baseline-review/`, publish it from a trusted maintainer environment, then commit the token edit **and** the updated manifest metadata together.
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Notable single-knob tokens: `--radius` drives the entire corner ladder (sm→4xl are derived); the `--status-task-*` / `--status-agent-*` family is the app-wide status vocabulary (chips, charts, bars, live dots all follow it).
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## Recipe 2 — retheme the whole app
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The core palette follows the shadcn token names, so a theme built at ui.shadcn.com/create applies as token values:
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```bash
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cd ui && pnpm dlx shadcn@latest init --preset <CODE> --force --no-reinstall
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```
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Then **review the git diff and keep only the CSS-variable value changes** — the CLI also tries to rewrite `components.json`, `lib/utils.ts`, and add dependencies; revert those (it once deleted 240 lines of our utils). Never use `shadcn apply --preset` (it overwrites component files). After the token diff is clean: Recipe 1 steps 3–4, plus a sanity pass on the Paperclip-specific tiers (agent gradients, WCAG-tuned status hues) for clashes.
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## Recipe 3 — build or style a component
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- **Values**: tokens only. No hex, no `text-[11px]`, no `p-[13px]`. If no token fits, **add a token** — that's a feature, not a workaround.
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- **Type**: use the named ladder — `--text-nano` (10px) / `--text-micro` (11px) / Tailwind `text-xs` (12) / `--text-compact` (13) / `text-sm` (14). Letter-spacing: `--tracking-label` / `--tracking-eyebrow` / `--tracking-caps`.
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- **Status**: anything that means running/idle/paused/error/todo/done/blocked uses the status system (`ui/src/lib/status-colors.ts` helpers or `--status-*` tokens). Liveness is always blue.
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- **Primitives**: check `ui/src/components/ui/` and `doc/design/COMPONENT-INVENTORY.md` before writing a new component. Switches are `ToggleSwitch`; badges/chips route through `brandChipBadge`.
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- **Give it a story.** New visual surface = new Storybook story = automatic screenshot coverage forever.
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- `pnpm check:token-gates` before you push. If a value genuinely can't be a token (third-party config, canvas fills, intentional one-off decoration on demo pages), it goes on the allowlist **with an inline comment saying why**.
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## Recipe 4 — you changed something and snapshots failed
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That's the system working. Two cases:
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- **You meant it** → review the diffs (they're your design review), then `pnpm test:storybook-visual:update`, publish the packed baseline archive, and commit the manifest update with the change. A PR with visual changes but no baseline-manifest update is incomplete; baseline changes with no explanation are a red flag.
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- **You didn't mean it** → you broke something. The diff images show you exactly where. Do not update the baseline to make it green.
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Three stories are known to flake under full parallel load (they pass in isolation — see DECISION-SHEET). Re-run a single story with `npx playwright test --config tests/storybook-visual/playwright.config.ts -g "<story name>"` before assuming a real failure.
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## For AI-agent sessions
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(Running a session as the human? See [`AGENT-SESSIONS.md`](AGENT-SESSIONS.md) — this section is instructions for the agent itself.)
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This system was built to be steered by instruction. "Make all running indicators blue" or "collapse these three grays into one" should land as a token edit or a small codemod plus a snapshot diff — not a manual hunt. If a change is mechanical and touches many files, write an idempotent script in `scripts/` (see `codemod-*.mjs` for the pattern) instead of hand-editing. DESIGN.md is loaded via AGENTS.md; follow it exactly, and record consequential choices in DECISION-SHEET.md.
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## What's deliberately not done yet (don't fix ad hoc)
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- **Tailwind palette classes** (`bg-red-500`, ~3,100 sites) — scheduled for a dedicated cluster-by-cluster conversion pass; piecemeal fixes will collide with it.
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- **Hand-rolled cards/pills → `Card`/`Badge`**, sidebar agents-section unification — queued as a component-convergence pass with per-site snapshot verification.
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- **ESLint ratchet** — will eventually enforce the token rules at lint time; until then `check:token-gates` is the gate.
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See `DECISION-SHEET.md` for the full ledger.
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