Anthropic Design Skills: Visual Creation with Claude Code

Official skills: anthropics/skills

Claude Code includes a collection of official skills designed specifically for visual creation and design work. These skills extend Claude's capabilities beyond text generation into algorithmic art, canvas-based design, brand identity systems, and theme generation.

This guide covers four design-focused skills from the official Anthropic skills repository, explaining what each does and how to use them effectively.

Algorithmic Art

Repository: anthropics/skills/algorithmic-art

The algorithmic-art skill enables Claude Code to generate procedural and generative artwork through code. This includes creating mathematical visualizations, particle systems, fractal patterns, and other forms of computational art.

What It Does

• Generates SVG-based generative art
• Creates mathematical and geometric patterns
• Produces procedural graphics using algorithms
• Supports various generative techniques including noise functions, L-systems, and recursive patterns

How to Use It

Invoke the skill by describing the type of generative art you want:

Copy/algorithmic-art Create a flowing particle system with organic movement

Copy/algorithmic-art Generate a fractal tree pattern with autumn colors

Copy/algorithmic-art Design a geometric pattern inspired by Islamic tessellations

The skill handles the mathematical foundations and outputs clean, scalable vector graphics suitable for web use or further refinement.

Canvas Design

Repository: anthropics/skills/canvas-design

The canvas-design skill focuses on creating visual designs using HTML Canvas or similar rendering contexts. It's suited for creating graphics that require pixel-level control or dynamic rendering.

What It Does

• Creates canvas-based illustrations and graphics
• Generates interactive visual elements
• Produces designs that can be animated or made responsive
• Outputs production-ready canvas code

How to Use It

Request canvas-based designs with specific requirements:

Copy/canvas-design Create an animated gradient background with smooth color transitions

Copy/canvas-design Design an interactive data visualization for monthly statistics

Copy/canvas-design Build a particle animation that responds to mouse movement

The skill produces JavaScript code that renders directly to canvas elements, making it ideal for web applications requiring dynamic graphics.

Brand Guidelines

Repository: anthropics/skills/brand-guidelines

The brand-guidelines skill assists in creating comprehensive brand identity systems. It generates structured documentation covering visual identity, typography, color systems, and usage rules.

What It Does

• Develops complete brand identity packages
• Creates color palette specifications with accessibility considerations
• Defines typography hierarchies and font pairings
• Establishes logo usage rules and spacing guidelines
• Produces style guides in various formats

How to Use It

Request brand development with context about the project:

Copy/brand-guidelines Create a brand identity for a sustainable technology startup

Copy/brand-guidelines Develop color and typography guidelines for a healthcare app

Copy/brand-guidelines Generate a complete style guide for a developer tools company

The skill outputs structured brand documentation that can serve as a foundation for design systems or be handed off to designers for refinement.

Theme Factory

Repository: anthropics/skills/theme-factory

The theme-factory skill specializes in generating theme configurations and styling systems. It creates consistent, token-based design systems that can be applied across applications.

What It Does

• Generates CSS custom property systems
• Creates theme configurations for popular frameworks (Tailwind, styled-components, etc.)
• Produces light/dark mode variations
• Outputs design tokens in various formats (CSS, JSON, JavaScript)

How to Use It

Request themes with your specific framework and requirements:

Copy/theme-factory Generate a Tailwind CSS theme with a warm, earthy color palette

Copy/theme-factory Create CSS custom properties for a dark-mode-first design system

Copy/theme-factory Build a complete theme configuration with semantic color tokens

The skill produces ready-to-use theme files that integrate directly into existing projects, maintaining consistency across components and pages.

Combining Skills

These design skills work well in combination. A typical workflow might involve:

1. Using brand-guidelines to establish the foundational identity
2. Applying theme-factory to convert those guidelines into usable code
3. Creating custom graphics with canvas-design or algorithmic-art that follow the established system

Each skill focuses on a specific aspect of visual creation while maintaining compatibility with the others, enabling comprehensive design workflows within Claude Code.

Installation

To use these skills, add them to your Claude Code configuration:

bashCopyclaude mcp add-skill anthropics/skills/algorithmic-art
claude mcp add-skill anthropics/skills/canvas-design
claude mcp add-skill anthropics/skills/brand-guidelines
claude mcp add-skill anthropics/skills/theme-factory

Once installed, the skills become available as slash commands in your Claude Code sessions.

Summary

Anthropic's design skills extend Claude Code into visual creation territory. Whether generating algorithmic artwork, building canvas-based graphics, establishing brand systems, or creating theme configurations, these skills provide structured approaches to common design tasks.

The skills handle the technical implementation details while allowing you to focus on creative direction and requirements. They're particularly useful for rapid prototyping, establishing design foundations, and generating production-ready visual assets.