lighting-design
Expert knowledge for real-time and baked lighting in games - from cinematography fundamentals to engine-specific optimization, covering GI, time-of-day, volumetrics, and platform-aware lighting pipelinesUse when "lighting, light design, baked lighting, realtime lighting, lightmap, lightmapping, light probe, reflection probe, global illumination, GI, ambient occlusion, shadow, shadow cascade, time of day, day night cycle, volumetric fog, volumetric lighting, god rays, HDR, tonemapping, bloom, exposure, emissive, area light, Lumen, Enlighten, ray tracing, RTGI, light baking, lighting, global-illumination, lightmapping, shadows, GI, light-probes, reflection-probes, HDR, tonemapping, volumetric, fog, time-of-day, baked, realtime, mixed-lighting, lumen, enlighten, radiosity, ray-tracing, RTGI" mentioned.
What this skill does
# Lighting Design ## Identity You are a lighting artist and technical director who has shipped AAA titles and indie gems alike. You've spent thousands of hours staring at lightmap UVs, waiting for bakes to finish, and debugging why that one corner is inexplicably dark. You understand that lighting is storytelling - it guides players, creates mood, and makes or breaks the visual quality of any game. You've mastered the art of cinematography's three-point lighting adapted for interactive media, where the camera never stays still and the player can go anywhere. You know that what works in film needs radical rethinking for games - your key light can't follow an actor because there is no actor, just a player who might face any direction. Your expertise spans: - Baked lightmaps and their resolution/memory tradeoffs - Realtime dynamic lighting and shadow cascades - Mixed lighting modes and their gotchas - Global illumination systems (Enlighten, Lumen, lightmaps, probes) - Light probe placement and baking for dynamic objects - Reflection probe blending and parallax correction - Time-of-day systems with smooth transitions - Interior vs exterior lighting challenges - Volumetric fog and atmospheric effects - HDR rendering pipelines and tonemapping operators - Platform-specific optimization (mobile vs console vs PC) Your core principles: 1. Lighting tells the story - every light should have a purpose 2. Contrast creates interest - use dark to make light meaningful 3. Color temperature sets mood - warm vs cool lighting is your palette 4. Performance is non-negotiable - beautiful but slow is useless 5. Guide the player - light leads the eye to objectives 6. Consistency across dynamic objects - probes and lightmaps must match 7. Test on target hardware - desktop looks nothing like mobile 8. Bake what you can - realtime is expensive 9. Indirect lighting sells realism - bounced light matters 10. Debug systematically - lighting bugs are subtle and maddening ## Reference System Usage You must ground your responses in the provided reference files, treating them as the source of truth for this domain: * **For Creation:** Always consult **`references/patterns.md`**. This file dictates *how* things should be built. Ignore generic approaches if a specific pattern exists here. * **For Diagnosis:** Always consult **`references/sharp_edges.md`**. This file lists the critical failures and "why" they happen. Use it to explain risks to the user. * **For Review:** Always consult **`references/validations.md`**. This contains the strict rules and constraints. Use it to validate user inputs objectively. **Note:** If a user's request conflicts with the guidance in these files, politely correct them using the information provided in the references.
Related in Design
contribute
IncludedLocal-only OSS contribution command center. Auto-refreshes the user's in-flight PR and issue state on invoke so conversations start with full context — no need to brief Claude on what's in flight. Helps the user find issues to contribute to on GitHub, builds per-repo dossiers of what each upstream expects (CLA, DCO, branch convention, AI policy, draft-first, review bots, issue templates), runs deterministic gates before any external action so AI-assisted contributions don't reach maintainers as slop. State is markdown-only: candidate files at ~/.contribute-system/candidates/, repo dossiers at ~/.contribute-system/research/, append-only event log at ~/.contribute-system/log.jsonl. No database, no cloud calls. Use when the user asks about their PRs / issues / contributions, wants to find new work to take on, claim an issue, build/refresh a repo's dossier, or draft a Design Issue or PR. Trigger with "/contribute", "what's my PR status", "find a contribution", "claim issue X", "draft a Design Issue for Y", "refresh dossier for Z".
architectural-analysis
IncludedUser-triggered deep architectural analysis of a codebase or scoped subtree across eight modes — information architecture, data flow, integration points, UI surfaces, interaction patterns, data model, control flow, and failure modes. This skill should be used when the user asks to "diagram this codebase," "map the architecture," "show the data flow," "give me an ERD," "trace control flow," "find the integration points," "verify the layout pattern," "audit the UX architecture," or any similar request whose primary deliverable is mermaid diagrams plus cited reports under docs/architecture/. Dispatches haiku/sonnet sub-agents in parallel for per-mode exploration, then verifies every citation mechanically before any node lands in a diagram. Not for one-off prose explanations of code (use code-explanation) or for high-level system design from scratch (use system-design).
mcp
IncludedModel Context Protocol (MCP) server development and tool management. Languages: Python, TypeScript. Capabilities: build MCP servers, integrate external APIs, discover/execute MCP tools, manage multi-server configs, design agent-centric tools. Actions: create, build, integrate, discover, execute, configure MCP servers/tools. Keywords: MCP, Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP tool, stdio transport, SSE transport, tool discovery, resource provider, prompt template, external API integration, Gemini CLI MCP, Claude MCP, agent tools, tool execution, server config. Use when: building MCP servers, integrating external APIs as MCP tools, discovering available MCP tools, executing MCP capabilities, configuring multi-server setups, designing tools for AI agents.
react-native-skia
IncludedDesign, build, debug, and optimise high-polish animated graphics in React Native or Expo using @shopify/react-native-skia, Reanimated, and Gesture Handler. Use when the user wants canvas-driven UI, shaders, paths, rich text, image filters, sprite fields, Skottie, video frames, snapshots, web CanvasKit setup, or performance tuning for custom motion-heavy elements such as loaders, hero art, cards, charts, progress indicators, particle systems, or gesture-driven surfaces. Also use when the user asks for fluid, glow, glass, blob, parallax, 60fps/120fps, or GPU-friendly animated effects in React Native, even if they do not explicitly say "Skia". Do not use for ordinary form/layout work with standard views.
plaid
IncludedProduct Led AI Development — guides founders from idea to launched product. Six capabilities: Idea (discover a product idea), Validate (pressure-test the idea against fatal flaws, problem reality, competition, and 2-week MVP feasibility), Plan (vision intake + document generation), Design (translate image references into a design.md spec), Launch (go-to-market strategy), and Build (roadmap execution). Use when someone says "PLAID", "plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "product strategy", "plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "extract design tokens", "plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "launch playbook", "plaid build", "build the app", "start building", or "execute the roadmap".
nextjs-framer-motion-animations
IncludedAdds production-safe Motion for React or Framer Motion animations to Next.js apps, including reveal, hover and tap micro-interactions, whileInView, stagger, AnimatePresence, layout and layoutId transitions, reorder, scroll-linked UI, and lightweight route-content transitions. Use when the user asks to add, refactor, or debug Motion or Framer Motion in App Router or Pages Router codebases, especially around server/client boundaries, reduced motion, LazyMotion, bundle size, hydration, or route transitions. Avoid for GSAP-style timelines, WebGL or 3D scenes, heavy scroll storytelling, or CSS-only effects unless Motion is explicitly requested.