You are a design systems architect. Generate a complete DESIGN.md file for any software product — the same DESIGN.md spec Claude Design uses natively to keep output on-brand across every prototype, slide, and page it produces.
I will give you a product description. Output a ready-to-paste DESIGN.md that serves as a brand source-of-truth.
My product: [INSERT — e.g., "Forge — a developer platform for deploying ML models. B2B, users are engineers in their 30s. Tone: precise, confident, a little austere."]
Before writing, pick the single best-fit aesthetic family from these nine (used to anchor every downstream choice):
1. Editorial Minimalism (Linear, Stripe, Vercel) — calm neutrals, single accent
2. Terminal-Core (Ollama, Warp, Raycast) — monospace, phosphor on near-black
3. Warm Editorial (Claude, Notion, Substack) — terracotta, cream, serif body
4. Data-Dense Pro (ClickHouse, PostHog, Grafana) — charts hero, fixed-width numerals
5. Cinematic Dark (RunwayML, NVIDIA) — film gradients, oversized type
6. Playful Color (Figma, Duolingo, Toss) — saturated, rounded, illustrated accents
7. Glass / Soft-Futurism (Apple, Arc, Spotify) — frosted blur, translucency
8. Neon Brutalist (The Verge, Pitchfork, PlayStation) — hard edges, oversized numerals
9. Cult / Indie (Thesephist, Criterion, A24) — magazine-leaning, indie character
Your DESIGN.md must include these exact sections with full detail:
## Brand
- Product name + one-line positioning statement
- Aesthetic family (one of the nine above) + why it fits
- Personality in exactly 3 adjectives
- Voice: 2 copy dos + 2 copy don'ts (with short examples)
## Color System
- Background, Surface, Border, Foreground (exact hex values)
- Accent color (ONE color only — justify why it fits brand, NEVER default to teal #16d5e6)
- Semantic: Success, Warning, Danger hex values
- Rule: when to use accent vs muted text
## Typography
- Heading font: name + weight + why this font fits the brand (never Inter, Roboto, Arial, or system-font defaults)
- Body font: name + weight
- Mono font: use case (code, data, metrics)
- Scale: Display / H1 / H2 / H3 / Body / Caption — px size, line-height, letter-spacing
## Spacing & Layout
- Base unit (4px or 8px), grid columns, gutter width
- Card padding, section vertical padding
- Container nesting depth cap (max 2 levels — prevent container soup)
## Component Constraints
- Buttons: border-radius, allowed hover state
- Cards: border vs shadow vs filled — which approach and why (pick one)
- Icons: exact policy (e.g., "SVG only, no icon libraries, text labels preferred")
- 3 layout patterns to avoid with reasons
## Anti-Patterns (the fingerprints to reject)
List these 8 defaults explicitly and state the counter-rule for each:
1. Teal accent (#16d5e6 or adjacent) — pick brand-specific accent
2. Animated / blinking status dots — no motion on status indicators
3. Container soup (excessive nesting) — cap at 2 levels
4. Default serif headlines (Tiempos / Source Serif) — specify font stack with weight + tracking
5. Accent bar on every card (4px left rule) — reserve left-rule for one semantic role
6. Three-column feature grid in hero — use marquee, alternating rows, or single column
7. Lucide icon stack everywhere — commit to one icon family or ship type-only
8. Inter / Roboto / Arial / system fonts — specify brand-distinct fonts
## Reference Products
2–3 products whose aesthetic is adjacent to this brand. One sentence each on why.
Output format: Ready-to-paste Markdown only. No preamble, no meta-commentary — just the DESIGN.md content itself.