Taste Skill
Taste Skill for Claude Code: Install It and Pick the Right Skill
Taste Skill is a free, open-source (MIT) set of Agent Skills by Leon Lin that pushes Claude Code, Codex and Cursor away from the generic AI landing page. In Claude Code, the quickest install is the plugin: run /plugin marketplace add Leonxlnx/taste-skill, then /plugin install taste-skill@taste-skill. v2.0.0 shipped on 2026-10-13.
How do I install Taste Skill in Claude Code?
All skills (npx)
npx skills add https://github.com/Leonxlnx/taste-skillProject skills are read from .claude/skills/. Add -g to put personal skills in ~/.claude/skills/. List loaded skills with /skills.
Default skill only (npx)
npx skills add https://github.com/Leonxlnx/taste-skill --skill "design-taste-frontend"Installs design-taste-frontend only. The default skill needs Node 22+ and installed Chrome, Edge, or Chromium. It installs nothing and needs no API keys. Network access is only to find pictures. Add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add Leonxlnx/taste-skill
/plugin install taste-skill@taste-skillRun inside Claude Code. /plugin update upgrades the plugin later. Installed skills are namespaced taste-skill:.
From a clone
./install.sh./install.sh symlinks skills into Claude Code. Use --codex for Codex, or --all-agents for both. ./install.sh --list shows install names.
What do the 13 Taste Skill skills do?
| Skill | Install name | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| taste-skill | design-taste-frontend | Default v2 art direction for landing pages, marketing sites, portfolios, and product pages. | A new public-facing page. Not for dashboards or app screens. |
| taste-skill-v1 | design-taste-frontend-v1 | Original v1, kept as legacy. Three 1-10 dials: DESIGN_VARIANCE, MOTION_INTENSITY, and VISUAL_DENSITY. | You want the legacy v1 dials instead of the v2 default. |
| gpt-tasteskill | gpt-taste | Stricter variant for GPT and Codex, with more layout variance and stronger motion direction. | The agent is GPT or Codex and you want this stricter variant. |
| redesign-skill | redesign-existing-projects | Audits an existing UI first, then fixes layout, spacing, hierarchy, and styling. | You want to improve a page that already exists. |
| image-to-code-skill | image-to-code | Generates site references, analyses them, and builds a frontend to match. | Images first, then a frontend built to match those references. |
| output-skill | full-output-enforcement | Full output, with no placeholder comments or half-finished work. | The agent cuts output short. |
| soft-skill | high-end-visual-design | Calm polished UI: soft contrast, whitespace, and spring motion. | That calm direction is already decided, or you need product UI instead of a public page. |
| minimalist-skill | minimalist-ui | Editorial product UI: restrained palette and crisp structure. | That editorial direction is already decided, or you need product UI instead of a public page. |
| brutalist-skill | industrial-brutalist-ui | Swiss type, sharp contrast, and experimental layout. | That brutalist direction is already decided. |
| stitch-skill | stitch-design-taste | Rules for Google Stitch, with an optional DESIGN.md export. | You are using Google Stitch. |
| imagegen-frontend-web | imagegen-frontend-web | Website comps as images only, no code. | Images first, and you only need website comps (no code). |
| imagegen-frontend-mobile | imagegen-frontend-mobile | Mobile screens and flows as images only, no code. | Images first, and you only need mobile screens and flows (no code). |
| brandkit | brandkit | Brand-kit boards: logo directions, palettes, and type. | You need logo directions, palettes, and type on a brand-kit board. |
The 13 skills follow the list on tasteskill.dev. The GitHub repo also keeps taste-skill-v2-experimental (design-taste-frontend-v2-experimental), the dial-driven rewrite that was the default before v2.0.0.
Which Taste Skill should I use?
- New public page: taste-skill (design-taste-frontend).
- Improve an existing page: redesign-skill (redesign-existing-projects).
- Direction already decided: soft-skill, minimalist-skill, or brutalist-skill.
- Images first: imagegen-frontend-web, imagegen-frontend-mobile, or image-to-code-skill.
- Agent cuts output short: add output-skill (full-output-enforcement).
- Dashboards and app screens: skip the default skill and use minimalist-skill or soft-skill.
Before and after: what changes with Taste Skill?
| Without Taste Skill | With Taste Skill |
|---|---|
| The agent picks the same safe template every time: centred hero, three feature cards, logo strip. | A script deals three of 20 researched directions and the agent commits to one, tied to a one-sentence idea from your brief. |
| Placeholder art and fake product screenshots built from styled divs. | Real pictures from open collections (Wikimedia Commons, Openverse, the Met), with credits placed on the page. |
| AI tells: em-dashes everywhere, numbered section eyebrows, a "Quietly in use at" logo strip, decorative dots. | Hard rules and a pre-flight checklist that flag these tells before the page ships. |
| The agent writes valid CSS but never looks at the result, so overlaps and broken scroll effects slip through. | The page is opened in a real browser at three widths and failed on slop, then the agent fixes its top three problems, up to three rounds. |
| Long pages come back half-finished with placeholder comments. | Add output-skill (full-output-enforcement) to require complete output. |
| A redesign throws away what already works. | redesign-skill audits the existing UI first, then fixes layout, spacing, hierarchy and styling. |
See the official v2 examples for screenshots; we do not reproduce their screenshots here.
Give the workspace some taste too
Taste Skill changes what your agent builds. It does not change how your coding app looks while you work. That second part is what Codex Theme is for.
If you spend the day in Codex Desktop, the free Theme Builder turns any image into a readable theme in your browser, with no upload and no sign-up. Prefer something ready-made? Start from one of the 24 themes. Running OpenCode instead? There is a separate OpenCode theme builder, and the community agent skins guide covers other agent apps.
codextheme.tools is unofficial and not affiliated with Taste Skill, Leon Lin or Anthropic.
Links: Codex Theme Builder · Ready-made themes · OpenCode theme builder · Community agent skins
Taste Skill FAQ
What does the default skill need?
Node 22 or newer, and Chrome, Edge, or Chromium installed. It installs nothing and needs no API keys. It uses the network only to find pictures. A build takes roughly 30-45 minutes and a few hundred thousand tokens.
Where does Claude Code read skills?
Project skills are in .claude/skills/. Personal skills are in ~/.claude/skills/, which is what -g does on npx skills add. List them with /skills. Plugin skills are namespaced taste-skill:. /plugin update upgrades that plugin later.
Can the default skill build a dashboard?
No. design-taste-frontend is for public-facing pages, not dashboards or app screens. Use minimalist-skill or soft-skill for product UI. The skills are framework-agnostic: React, Vue, Svelte, or plain HTML.
What does the v2 default workflow do?
It reads the brief and lists what only this client has. A script deals three of 20 researched directions, the agent picks one, and it states a one-sentence idea. It builds with real credited pictures from Wikimedia Commons, Openverse, and the Met (public domain, CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA). It checks the page in a real browser at three widths and fails it on slop, then looks at its screenshots and fixes the top three problems, up to three rounds. It was built from a study of 247 curated sites. Official examples in the repo under examples/v2 are a coffee shop and a techno night, each built from one brief.
How do Codex, v1, and the experimental skill fit in?
For Codex, run codex plugin marketplace add Leonxlnx/taste-skill, then codex plugin add taste-skill@taste-skill, and start a new Codex session. gpt-tasteskill (gpt-taste) is the stricter GPT and Codex variant. taste-skill-v1 (design-taste-frontend-v1) is the original legacy skill. The repo also keeps taste-skill-v2-experimental (design-taste-frontend-v2-experimental), the dial-driven rewrite that was the default before v2.0.0.
Sources (checked 2026-10-15): GitHub README (Leonxlnx/taste-skill) · tasteskill.dev · tasteskill.dev/docs · CHANGELOG · Official v2 examples