/uplift

name: uplift
description: One-shot brand-faithful presales redesign of a website page. The user provides only the URL; everything else — extraction, tension identification, three differentiated variants (one fully cinematic), validation — is derived from the captured brand surface. Use when the user asks to "uplift", "refresh", or "redesign a site for presales" without wanting to coordinate the extract / direct / prototype chain themselves.
license: Apache-2.0
compatibility: Requires Node 22+, Playwright with Chromium resolvable from the project, playwright-cli on PATH, and the impeccable skill (github.com/pbakaus/impeccable) installed alongside stardust.

stardust:uplift

One entry point. One URL. Three presales-quality redesign variants.

`uplift` collapses the `extract → direct → prototype × 3` chain into a single opinionated command that picks every variability axis from the captured brand surface rather than asking the user. The output is the same as the long-form chain (state.json, brand-review.html, three proposed files, motion validation) — the user just doesn't have to coordinate it.

Opinionated defaults

• **Single-page extract** — the homepage by default (the brand

owner's first surface) unless `--page <slug>` overrides.

• **Brand-faithful Mode A** — palette + typography pinned. No

invented colors, no fonts outside the captured surface.

• **Three variants, fixed role contract** — A is the green-light,

B is the design-team motivator, C is the visionary cinematic pitch.

• **Cinematic register auto-picked** — C's motion register is

selected from the captured PRODUCT.md Brand Personality per `../prototype/reference/motion-registers.md` § Selection heuristic.

• **"What if..." candidates are evidence-shaped** — B and C each

pick one captured-but-underused trait, from the eight worked candidates in `reference/what-if-candidates.md` or a derived candidate per its § Extension rule. Different traits per variant.

• **Validation cascade runs** — every gate in

`prototype/SKILL.md` Phases 2.5–2.8 fires, including cinematic Pass 6 for variant C.

Inputs

• `<URL>` — required. The page to redesign. Defaults to homepage when

the URL has no path (`https://example.com/` → home).

• `--page <slug>` — optional. Override the slug if the URL points

elsewhere or the user wants a different surface.

• `--cinematic-register <name>` — optional. Override the auto-picked

register for variant C. One of `arrival`, `kinetic-display`, `live-systems`, `editorial`, `kinetic-grid`. Recorded as `registerSource: "user-override"` in C's provenance.

• `--two-variants` — optional. Render only A and C (skip B). Useful

when the brand surface is thin and a forced three-way differentiation would produce a weak middle (per the stop condition below).

• `--re-extract` — optional. Force a fresh crawl even when a prior

extraction of the same URL is < 7 days old (see § Setup, reuse-if-fresh).

There are no other flags. Everything else is derived from the captured brand surface or governed by the underlying skills' contracts.

Setup

1. Run the master skill's setup (`../stardust/SKILL.md` § Setup): impeccable dep check, context loader, state read. 2. Verify Playwright is available (`extract` will fail without it — surface the same install message extract would). 3. Read `stardust/state.json` if present. **Reuse-if-fresh:** when a prior extraction of the same URL is < 7 days old, skip Phase 1 and render against the existing capture, with a one-line notice ("reusing extraction from <date> — pass `--re-extract` for a fresh crawl"). `--re-extract` forces a fresh crawl regardless of age; extractions ≥ 7 days old re-extract without asking.

Procedure

Six phases plus a reference-grounding interphase. Phases 1, 4, 5 delegate to existing skills; phases 2, 2.5, 3, 6 are owned by `uplift`.

Phase 1 — Extract (delegate to the stardust `extract` skill)

Invoke `$stardust extract <URL> --single` (single-page mode). Extract owns:

• Live Playwright render with the standard wait recipe.
• `stardust/current/_brand-extraction.json` (palette + type + motifs
• voice + system components + photography).
• `stardust/current/pages/home.json` (full per-page capture).
• `stardust/current/brand-review.html` with the tensions detectors

applied — this is the load-bearing input for Phase 2.

• `stardust/current/PRODUCT.md` and `DESIGN.md` (descriptive — the

current state, not the target).

`uplift` does not crawl beyond one page. The brand surface from a single homepage is sufficient for three variants; multi-page extract is what the stardust `extract` skill (without `--single`) is for.

Phase 2 — Tension and trait identification (owned by `uplift`)

Read `stardust/current/brand-review.html` § Tensions surfaced and `_brand-extraction.json`. Produce two artifacts:

2a — `stardust/uplift-improvements.md`

At least **3** specific weaknesses observed in the captured site — as many as the evidence supports, no fixed count. Same load-bearing contract as the existing presales workflow: without specifics, "make it better" has no claim. Category tags (MAY repeat across items when the evidence supports it):

• `[dated-pattern]` — patterns the design world has moved past (be

specific: "centered hero with stock photo + double CTA in primary blue reads as the SaaS template circa 2019")

• `[ia-clutter]` — cluttered IA / unclear hierarchy / weak CTAs /

redundant sections

• `[contrast-or-density]` — contrast failures, accessibility gaps,

density issues

• `[cliché]` — conventions the brand could move past while staying

recognisably itself

• `[missed-opportunity]` — the captured surface doesn't capitalise

on its own strengths ("captured photography is excellent but the layout crops it to thumbnail-size")

**Specificity bar — every item.** Each item cites a measurement, tension ID, or screenshot observation from the capture, names the pattern at fault, and p