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review-animationsby Emil Kowalski

Review Animations Skill.

A Claude Code and Codex skill for design review: reviews animation code for timing, interaction, and finish against a high craft bar.

  • Design Review & Accessibility
  • Review report
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emilkowalski/skills · skills/review-animations/SKILL.mdSKILL.md
--- name: review-animations description: Reviews animation and motion code against a high craft bar derived from Emil Kowalski's design engineering philosophy. Default to flagging; approval is earned. --- ## Operating Posture ## The Ten Non-Negotiable Standards ## Aggressive Escalation Triggers ## Remedial Preference Hierarchy ## Required Output Format ## Guidelines
Front matter and section headings read from the upstream file on 2026-09-14 · 8,040 characters in full

01 What it does

What the review-animations Skill Does in Claude Code and Codex

Summary, workflow and outputs, all read from the skill's SKILL.md.

From the SKILL.mdRead 2026-09-14 · not a recorded run

In the Skill's Own Terms

A deliberately narrow review skill: it judges animation and motion code against a high craft bar and nothing else, declining general code review. Its substantive standards come from Emil Kowalski's animation philosophy, and its method — ten non-negotiable standards, aggressive escalation triggers, a nine-step remedial hierarchy, and tiered output — is built to end in one verdict.

It checks purpose, frequency, easing, timing, origin, interruptibility, performance and reduced-motion behavior. Its general sub-300ms rule allows justified exceptions, and centered modals are exempt from trigger-origin rules. Findings cite file:line and end in a Block or Approve verdict; uncertain visual feel calls for actual inspection.

Review report
See the example prompt ↗

How It Works

  1. 01
    Measure Against Ten Standards

    Every animation in the diff is checked against ten non-negotiables spanning justification, frequency, easing, duration, origin, interruptibility, GPU properties, accessibility, asymmetry and cohesion.

  2. 02
    Flag Escalation Triggers on Sight

    A listed set of red flags is called out hard rather than debated, including transition: all, scale(0) entrances, ease-in on UI, animation on keyboard or 100+/day actions, and missing reduced-motion handling.

  3. 03
    Prefer the Earliest Remedy

    Fixes are proposed in hierarchy order, from deleting the animation, to reducing it, to fixing easing, origin, interruptibility, GPU properties, timing, polish, and finally accessibility and cohesion.

  4. 04
    Emit the Two Required Parts

    The review comes back in a fixed order: Part 1 is a single findings table, Part 2 is tiered commentary that ends in an explicit decision.

  5. 05
    Tier Commentary and Decide

    Remaining commentary is grouped into six impact tiers, highest first, with empty tiers omitted, and closes with a Block or Approve decision.

02 Find your fit

When to Use the review-animations Skill

Use the review-animations skill in Claude Code or Codex when the job is design review of this kind. Fit and limits below are taken from the skill's own file.

Good Fit

  • Reviews animation and motion code against a high craft bar derived from Emil Kowalski's design engineering philosophy. Default to flagging; approval is earned.

Know the Boundaries

  • It does not write features, fix unrelated bugs, or review non-motion code.

What to Provide

  • Motion diff and interaction contextProvide the diff or changed file paths, the component's purpose, how often users trigger it, and any deliberate motion decisions. A runnable preview or recording helps judge behavior that code alone cannot establish.

03 Inside the skill

What the review-animations Skill Brings to Design Review

4 things the SKILL.md instructs Claude Code or Codex to do, in the file's own section order.

  1. Check Purpose Before Polish

    The review prioritizes removing unnecessary keyboard or high-frequency animation before adding nicer easing.

  2. Respect Origins and Interruptions

    Trigger-anchored surfaces should move from their trigger, while rapidly retargeted interactions need interruption-safe transitions or springs.

  3. Use Evidence and Exact Values

    Findings cite file:line; curves, durations and spring values come from STANDARDS.md rather than approximation.

  4. Do Not Guess Visual Feel

    If code cannot establish whether a spring or crossfade feels right, recommend slow-motion or frame-by-frame inspection and state the uncertainty.

04 Put it to work

Install review-animations in Claude Code or Codex

One npx skills add command, then a first task in your agent and a checklist for the result.

Add review-animations to Claude Code, Codex or Your Agent

Run in your project; the installer asks which agent to add it to.

Terminal
npx skills add https://github.com/emilkowalski/skills --skill review-animations

Generic skills CLI form for skills/review-animations/SKILL.md; the repository may document its own path.

Give the Skill a First Design Review Task

Replace the paths and interaction details with the change you want reviewed.

Starter prompt
Review the motion changes in [diff or file paths]. The dropdown is opened frequently, the toast can be triggered repeatedly, and the modal is occasional. Check easing, duration, transform origin, interruption behavior and reduced-motion support. Return the Before/After/Why findings table with file:line evidence and a Block or Approve verdict. Do not implement fixes; flag anything that needs a visual feel-check.

Editorial example based on the source workflow; not a recorded run.

Check the First Result

Before accepting the output, look for these in the transcript and the files:

  • Each finding identifies actual changed code and explains the interaction impact.
  • Proposed remedies follow the delete/reduce-before-polish hierarchy.
  • Precise motion values are supported by STANDARDS.md.
  • The verdict acknowledges any behavior that was not visually verified.
  • The review stays scoped to motion rather than silently changing code.

In OpenDesign check your installed version’s skill list and supported tools. If this skill is absent, consult the current import guide and the upstream setup instructions. The source review is not a live compatibility test.

Download OpenDesignRead the quickstart

05 Open source, traceable

Source, License and Verification

Where this page's facts come from, and when they were last checked.

Author
Emil Kowalski
Repository
github.com/emilkowalski/skills Branch main
Skill file
skills/review-animations/SKILL.md Content checksum recorded at verification; commit d23d7f8
License
MIT From LICENSE.
Repository stars
37,516 GitHub snapshot taken 2026-09-14 for the whole emilkowalski/skills repository, which contains 9 skills in this catalog. Not a rating or usage count for review-animations.
Verified by OpenDesign
2026-09-14 Source file, path, license text and star count were checked. Bundled in OpenDesign main (checked 2026-08-28); a live run has not been recorded on this page.
The Skill's Own Description
“Reviews animation and motion code against a high craft bar derived from Emil Kowalski's design engineering philosophy. Default to flagging; approval is earned.”

Front-matter description from SKILL.md. The full file is about 8,040 characters. Read the full file on GitHub.

Review Animations

Run review-animations on a Real Design Review Task.

Start with the example task above, supply the listed inputs and check the required tools. Review the output against the checklist before using it in a project.

Download OpenDesignBrowse all skills
Terminal
npx skills add https://github.com/emilkowalski/skills --skill review-animations