Turn a Claude Design handoff bundle into scaffolded React components, with provenance and dedup against the existing codebase.
design-import https://claude.ai/design/abc123 # From handoff URL
design-import /tmp/handoff-bundle.json # From local file
When to use
After exporting a handoff bundle from claude.ai/design. This skill is the entry point — it does NOT open a PR, run tests, or deploy. For the end-to-end flow (import → tests → PR), use design-ship instead.
Pipeline
Handoff bundle (URL or file)
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. PARSE + VALIDATE │ via claude-design-orchestrator agent
│ - Fetch bundle │ Schema validation
│ - Compute bundle_id (sha) │ Surface deviations
└──────────┬───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 2. RECONCILE TOKENS │ Diff bundle tokens vs project tokens
│ - Read project tokens │ Conflicts → AskUserQuestion
│ - Apply additions │ Additions → write to design-tokens.json
└──────────┬───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 3. DEDUP COMPONENTS │ For each proposed component:
│ Storybook MCP first │ • exact match → reuse (skip)
│ 21st.dev next │ • similar match → adapt
│ Filesystem grep last │ • no match → scaffold
└──────────┬───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 4. SCAFFOLD │ Delegate to design-to-code per component
│ (skipped components │ Use bundle's tsx_scaffold as seed
│ logged but not touched) │ Apply project tokens
└──────────┬───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 5. WRITE PROVENANCE │ .claude/design-handoffs/<bundle_id>.json
│ Bundle → files → (PR) │ PR field empty until design-ship
└──────────┬───────────────────┘
│
▼
Import manifest (stdout)
Argument resolution
ARG = "$1" # First positional argument
if ARG.startswith("http://") or ARG.startswith("https://"):
bundle_source = "url"
bundle_input = ARG
elif Path(ARG).exists():
bundle_source = "file"
bundle_input = ARG
else:
AskUserQuestion(questions=[{
"question": "I couldn't resolve that as a URL or file. What is it?",
"header": "Bundle source",
"options": [
{"label": "Paste handoff URL", "description": "claude.ai/design URL"},
{"label": "Paste file path", "description": "Local handoff JSON"},
{"label": "Cancel", "description": "Abort import"}
],
"multiSelect": False
}])
Phase 1 — Parse + validate
Delegate to the orchestrator agent. The agent fetches, extracts the tarball, reads the README + chats, parses the HTML prototypes, and produces a normalized payload. Do NOT reimplement parsing here — the agent owns the (real, tarball-based) schema.
Agent(
subagent_type="ork:claude-design-orchestrator",
description="Parse and normalize handoff bundle",
prompt=f"""Parse the Claude Design handoff bundle at {bundle_input}.
This is a gzipped tarball (NOT a JSON manifest). Layout:
<project>/README.md ← read first
<project>/chats/*.md ← read all (load-bearing)
<project>/project/*.html ← prototypes (may be absent if incomplete)
Tasks:
1. Fetch the bundle (WebFetch if URL → saved .bin path; Read if local file)
2. Extract: `tar -xzf <bin> -C /tmp/<scratch>/`
3. Read README.md, then every chats/*.md (intent + clarifications live here)
4. Compute bundle_id = sha256(canonical bundle URL or absolute path)
5. If project/ is MISSING → return status="incomplete" with the assistant's
last unanswered question; do NOT crash. Surface "what user should do".
6. If project/ exists → pick primary HTML:
- Prefer the file matching the URL's ?open_file= query param
- Else first alphabetical
7. From the primary HTML, extract:
- Inline `:root { --... }` CSS custom properties as design tokens
- Component sections (named via class/id/data-screen-label)
- Asset references (<link>, <img>) — keep as URLs, do not download
- EDITMODE JSON block (design-time state — capture as ANNOTATION only)
8. Produce normalized output payload (see agent spec)
9. Write provenance to .claude/design-handoffs/<bundle_id>.json:
- bundle_url, bundle_id, fetched_at, status, components: [], pr: null
10. Return the normalized payload as JSON
Surface any deviations from the expected tarball layout explicitly.
Never expect a JSON `components[]` field — that was the old (wrong) shape.
"""
)
Phase 2 — Reconcile tokens
Read the normalized token_diff from the agent's payload.
| Diff field | Action |
|---|---|
added |
Append to project's design-tokens.json (or Tailwind config). No prompt — additions are safe. |
modified |
Show diff. AskUserQuestion: keep project value, accept bundle value, or open editor. |
conflicts |
Block scaffolding. AskUserQuestion to resolve before continuing. |
if token_diff["conflicts"]:
AskUserQuestion(questions=[{
"question": f"Token conflict on {conflict.path}. Project says {conflict.project}, bundle says {conflict.bundle}. Resolve?",
"header": "Token conflict",
"options": [
{"label": "Keep project value", "description": "Bundle adapts to project"},
{"label": "Accept bundle value", "description": "Project adapts to bundle (writes new token)"},
{"label": "Both — namespace bundle's", "description": f"Add as {conflict.path}.imported"}
],
"multiSelect": False
}])
Phase 3 — Dedup components
The agent already ran component-search per component. Read decisions from the normalized payload:
decision |
Behavior |
|---|---|
reuse |
Log "skipped (existing: )" — do nothing on disk |
adapt |
Pipe through ork:design-to-code with --adapt-from <existing-path> context |
scaffold |
Pipe through ork:design-to-code with the bundle's tsx_scaffold as seed |
Phase 4 — Scaffold
For each component with decision scaffold or adapt, invoke design-to-code.
The spawns run in the background at the same time, so each one gets its own
worktree (isolation="worktree", #4557): ork agents carry no frontmatter
isolation, and without it every component writes into your tree at once.
for component in payload["components"]:
if component["decision"] in ("scaffold", "adapt"):
# Compose, don't reimplement — design-to-code owns the EXTRACT/MATCH/ADAPT/RENDER pipeline
Agent(
subagent_type="ork:frontend-ui-developer",
name=f"scaffold-{component['name']}",
description=f"Scaffold {component['name']} from bundle",
prompt=f"""Use the design-to-code skill to scaffold this component.
Source: handoff bundle {payload['bundle_id']}
Component: {component['name']}
Target path: {component['target_path']}
Bundle scaffold seed:
```tsx
{component['tsx_scaffold']}
```
Resolved tokens: {component['tokens_resolved']}
Decision: {component['decision']}
{f"Adapt from: {component['existing_match']}" if component['decision'] == 'adapt' else ''}
Write the component, mirror existing project file structure, use project tokens.
Commit it in your worktree before you return, and end your reply with
your branch name and commit sha. Uncommitted files are not merged.
""",
run_in_background=True,
isolation="worktree",
max_turns=25,
)
Collect and merge the component worktrees
Wait for every scaffold agent to return before Phase 5. For each one:
- Check its worktree is clean:
git -C <worktree> status --porcelainprints nothing. If it prints files, commit them there and note it in the report. - Merge its branch into the current branch. A conflict means two components wrote the same file: stop and report both paths.
- Confirm
component['target_path']exists after the merge. A component whose agent failed or wrote elsewhere goes intofailed_components: it is reported, not recorded as written.
Phase 5 — Provenance
Update the provenance file with the actual file paths written:
provenance = Read(payload["provenance_path"])
provenance["components"] = [
{"name": c["name"], "decision": c["decision"], "path": c["target_path"]}
for c in payload["components"]
if c["name"] not in failed_components # from "Collect and merge" step 3
]
provenance["imported_at"] = now()
Write(payload["provenance_path"], provenance)
Output — import manifest
Print a concise summary (not a wall of JSON):
Imported bundle <bundle_id>
Source: <bundle_url>
Provenance: .claude/design-handoffs/<bundle_id>.json
Components:
✓ PricingCard scaffold src/components/pricing/PricingCard.tsx
↻ Button reuse existing: src/components/ui/Button.tsx
⤳ Hero adapt adapted from: src/components/Hero.tsx
Tokens:
+ 3 new (added to design-tokens.json)
~ 1 modified (user accepted bundle value)
✗ 0 conflicts unresolved
Next: design-ship <bundle_id> # to open PR
expect # to verify
Hooks
- After completion, the
post-design-importhook recommendsexpect(non-blocking, see hook for details).
Composition
| Skill | Role |
|---|---|
design-to-code |
Owns the actual scaffold pipeline (EXTRACT/MATCH/ADAPT/RENDER). This skill delegates to it per component. |
component-search |
Used by the orchestrator agent for dedup |
design-context-extract |
Used if bundle is missing design_tokens block |
design-system-tokens |
Token reconciliation reference |
remember / memory |
Provenance + prior-import detection |
NOT this skill's job
| Concern | Owned by |
|---|---|
| Open PR | design-ship |
| Run tests | post-design-import hook → expect |
| Generate Storybook stories | cover (called by design-ship) |
| Re-prompt Claude Design | Not yet — no public API |
Limitations
- No public Claude Design API yet: bundles are one-shot exports. To iterate, re-export from claude.ai/design and re-import. The reverse-path (drift detection + refinement prompt) is tracked in M124 — Claude Design Drift Sync (Bet B): #1391, #1393, #1394, #1395, #1397.
- Schema is provisional: Claude Design has not published a stable bundle schema. The orchestrator agent adapts to deviations but may need updates as the format stabilizes.
- Asset URLs are referenced, not downloaded: bundle
asset_urlsare kept as-is. If you need them in-repo, run a separate sync step.