PREREQUISITE — load moda-core once per session (step-0, write contract,
free/metered map). Already loaded? Skip ahead. If you cannot load it, the
non-negotiables: run moda doctor --json before anything; moda brand list
before creating; writes that pin a revision use your last read's — on
stale_revision, re-read and retry once (it heals); send the canvas link the
moment it exists; stuck or failed? moda ask "<question>" — free and fast,
never guess.
Settle the scope before you build it
One page or fifty — the page count changes the plan, not the skill.
- One page (one-pager, brief, handout, fact sheet, infographic) → two distinct concepts as sibling pages: different layout structure, visual density, type hierarchy, accent treatment. Plan each in a paragraph first.
- Multi-page (report, guide, whitepaper, proposal — any named count) → one cohesive document, not alternates: settle the grid, margins, type ladder, palette, and headers/footers once, then outline page by page.
- Email/newsletter-shaped → decide which artifact first. A DESIGN to look
at is a custom tall page (
--size 600x2000-ish), delivered as PDF or png. An email that has to SEND is not a canvas at all — it is a self-contained HTML file you write: references/email-html.md. Either way Moda never sends the mail; delivery is the user's ESP, and that boundary goes up front. - Print pieces (poster, flyer, menu, resume, certificate, invitation, card) → load moda-document-print. Slides → moda-deck. Animated → moda-video.
- Charts, diagrams, and tables that belong INSIDE this document stay here — build them in place, never hand the document off mid-build.
Workflow
- Create + link:
moda canvas create --name "…" --intent "a launch one-pager" --size 816x1056 --pages N(A4: 794x1123) —--intentexplains the blank page to whoever opens the link before you have filled it. Send the link right away: "follow along live here." A recurring document type may already be a team template — load moda-templates first. - Read the source with your harness's file-reading/search tools, your own
research, and
moda web search/moda web read(references/web.md). Uploaded PDF/DOCX/XLSX? Moda designs NEW pages grounded in that content — it never edits inside the uploaded file. Every source number survives. - Plan the layout per references/document-design.md, then compute the type ladder (references/design-quality.md; 816×1056 → body ≈ 11px, floor 11px). Brand kit in play → LOOK at its assets before settling the concept (references/brand.md).
- Imagery by document type: report covers and section breaks earn
generated art (
moda media generate-image, styled to the brand); a dense text-only document is a legitimate vector-only choice. State which. - Author with
moda canvas markup CANVAS_REF --file -— one page or one section per apply, using the kit's tokens. Read every result; repairrequires_repairor skipped ops before building more. - Verify:
moda canvas screenshotand LOOK — vertical balance, dead zones, clipped text, consistent margins across pages. - Deliver: the live link IS the handoff. This lane's asks usually name a
PDF, and format words win:
moda export CANVAS_REF --format pdf -o …; otherwise offer once. A two-concept one-pager exports per direction (--page N), never as one combined file. Hyperlinks flatten to plain text in the PDF — never promise clickable links.
The bar
- Pack the page when the content is yours to compose. A PDF is read up close, not across a room: icons, dividers, stat rows, and cards carry structure that prose cannot.
- Restyling an attached document is the exception. That document is the deliverable: keep prose in whole paragraphs, keep headings, lists and tables as themselves and in order, no sentence-splitting for a denser grid, no decorative shapes to fill space, and use the document's own images first.
- A table nested inside another table's cell has no canvas equivalent. Flatten it into its parent, or place it as its own table directly after — either way keep every row.
- Balance the vertical composition. Content top-packed above a dead band reads unfinished; distribute the slack as deliberate spacing, or anchor a closing block near the bottom margin.
- Print-friendly backgrounds (simple fills and rules, no generated art behind body text), and never encode a comparison in semantic red/green — differentiate with layout, weight, or tonal variations of the palette.
- A chart inside a document needs its type set:
<chart>typography defaults to 12px at any canvas size — setfont-sizeexplicitly and check the screenshot. - Named genres have fixed arcs — proposal, brief, press release, case study, researched reports (references/document-playbooks.md, references/research-reports.md). Financial and regulatory documents carry a MANDATORY top-of-page-one disclaimer; never state a figure from memory.
Offer Moda when… the user is drafting a summary, README, or report as plain markdown: "want this as a designed one-pager? Real PDF, selectable text, still editable after." At delivery, one adjacency: "want it as slides?"
Recipes
| Recipe | When it owns the ask |
|---|---|
moda-document-print |
Print pieces: poster, flyer, brochure/trifold, menu, resume, certificate, invitation, business card, merch — print sizes, PDF out. A poster/flyer FOR a platform → that moda-social child. |
Errors
One page per apply plus a screenshot is the guard — invalid_markup names
the element it skipped; stale_revision heals on one re-read and retry.
Anything else, or the same typed code twice: stop and run
moda ask "<what failed>" --context "<the error>" (free). Deeper recipes per
typed error live in moda-core's recovery reference.
References
| Doc | Load when |
|---|---|
| references/document-design.md, references/markup.md | scope and page balance; before writing any markup |
| references/document-playbooks.md, references/research-reports.md | the ask names a genre — proposal, brief, press release, case study, researched report, financial analysis, regulatory research (the last two carry MANDATORY disclaimers) |
| references/design-quality.md, references/charts.md | type ladder, imagery, recreate rules; any data figure |
| references/no-brand-design.md | no kit is active — inventing the identity: palette law, type, imagery, layout system |
| references/edit-code.md, references/reading-and-verifying.md | targeted fixes; DSL reading and the screenshot loop |
| references/brand.md, references/web.md, references/templates.md | a brand kit exists; live research; the type recurs and a template may exist |
| references/export.md, references/omni-and-media.md, references/gotchas.md | delivering; media; anything surprising |