Mies spent a career taking things out. Ornament first, then walls, until a building was barely more than structure, glass, and light. This skill points that instinct at screens. It asks one question of every element: why is this here? Whatever can't answer is removed.

What survives gets made exact: proportion, spacing, alignment, type, color, state, motion, the words. Tuned until nothing on the screen looks like an accident.

Less is not cold. The warmth lives in the small decisions, sensible defaults, copy written for an actual person, screens that hold together when the data turns ugly. That's the part most reduction forgets.

Concepts

Frame

Decide what you're building and why, and reject the obvious version of it, before any code.

Set

Lay the foundation once: type, color, spacing, the tokens and states everything else inherits.

Compose

Build the screen, or rebuild it, to match how it's actually used.

Inspect

Critique what already exists. Worst problems first, no padding.

Refine

Cut, tune, then prove it: polish what's left and make sure it survives real data, edge cases, and a screen reader.

Move

Motion and feel, but only when they make the state clearer. Otherwise it holds still.

Method

Under the modes runs one loop: notice, frame, try a few directions, choose a structure, build, tune it in the real interface, critique, cut, prove. What the product already does comes first, then the platform's conventions, then the foundation underneath. A new idea has to earn its place.

Usage

Install it once with npx skills add deeflect/miesCopied, or read the source on GitHub ↗.

Then type /miesCopied in Claude Code whenever you're making, redesigning, critiquing, or cutting back a screen people actually use. New work runs the Frame → Set → Compose route. For a small fix, it tells you what it sees and gets on with it.

Inspirations

The work this skill's taste comes from.