designpowers

A model-agnostic multi-agent design team: 10 role-specialist agents that run an inclusive-design pipeline while the human directs (MC Dean, MIT; ~220★). Distributed as markdown skills + agents, it’s cross-harness — a Claude Code plugin (CLAUDE.md + .claude/settings.json), a Gemini CLI extension (GEMINI.md + .gemini/settings.json), and portable to Cursor/Windsurf/Copilot/Aider via the same markdown instruction files. A domain-specialized instance of role-split orchestration built on agent-skills.

The 10 agents (a role-split team)

design-strategist (flows/IA/personas/journey maps), design-scout (competitive research/pattern evidence), inspiration-scout (aesthetic references/mood boards), design-lead (visual: layout/color/type/components), motion-designer (animation + reduced-motion), content-writer (UI copy at ~Grade-6 reading level), design-builder (spec → production code), accessibility-reviewer (WCAG/COGA, looping fixes), design-critic (reviews against brief/plan/principles), heuristic-evaluator (Nielsen’s 10 heuristics + cognitive walkthroughs). Backed by 36 skills covering the pipeline: Discover → Research → Strategise → Taste → Inspire → Plan → Design → Build → Taste Check → Review → Fix → Ship → Retrospective.

Human-as-director (the orchestration/governance model)

• Direct mode (default): the human approves every agent handoff before it proceeds.
• Auto mode: the pipeline runs unsupervised, pausing only when the accessibility-reviewer flags a critical issue, the critic recommends a rethink, or reviewers conflict.
• At each handoff the human can approve (“ok”/“go”), correct mid-pipeline, redirect to another agent, skip phases, or query any agent by name — “your word overrides everything.” A Design Taste step captures aesthetic judgment early and carries it through every decision; an optional design memory observes cross-project habits as a mirror (never auto-applied to steer work).

This is the human-checkpoint pattern (gated handoffs; a bounded Auto mode with escape hatches) applied to a creative pipeline.

Why it’s here

Two of the spoke’s threads, applied to a vertical. It’s a domain role-team like gstack‘s 23 role-skills — here 10 design agents instead of a software crew — reinforcing that role-split orchestration generalizes past coding. And it ships cross-harness off shared markdown (like superpowers), another vote for portable-skill conventions over single-tool lock-in. Its distinctive substance is accessibility-as-default: inclusive personas (permanent/temporary/situational), cognitive-load/wayfinding skills, and a reviewer that loops fixes rather than a final-phase audit — “accessibility is not a phase.”

Tier

T3 — a single first-party project repo (self-described), modest adoption; factual on structure but its efficacy/“inclusive by default” claims are unverified. freshness: volatile — active repo; agent/skill roster may change.

Related

agent-orchestration · agent-skills · agentskills-spec · gstack · agent-guardrails · conductor · superpowers