A DESIGN.md file structured for Claude is not documentation. It is a machine-readable product story that gives the model enough context to make consistent design decisions without human intervention.
The core argument: most DESIGN.md files fail because they list rules instead of communicating intent. Claude does not need a style guide. It needs to understand who the product is for, what tradeoffs were already made, and why.
The full piece is worth reading for the structural template and the specific section ordering, which is the part most teams get wrong. If you are using Claude in any design or frontend workflow, this is the missing file in your repo.
[READ ORIGINAL →]