/gaia-create-ux

What it does

/gaia-create-ux creates UX design specifications from your PRD. It covers persona refinement, information architecture (sitemap and navigation), wireframes, interaction patterns, and accessibility standards. If a Figma MCP server is available, it can generate Figma frames or import existing designs.

When to use it

• Your PRD is complete and your product has a user interface.
• You want to define UX patterns and accessibility standards before architecture or implementation.

Prerequisites

• PRD must exist at .gaia/artifacts/planning-artifacts/prd.md.

Orchestration mode

When /gaia-create-ux starts in subagent mode (Mode A -- the default), the framework emits a one-shot warning to your conversation. The warning text:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
GAIA orchestration: running in subagent mode (Mode A)

The skill you're invoking belongs to a class (heavy-procedural or
conversational) whose output benefits from cross-step context. Mode A
dispatches each sub-agent in its own forked context, so context may
be lossy between steps — sub-agents return summaries, not full reasoning.

For the full-fidelity experience, enable Mode B (Agent Teams):
  1. Set CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 in your environment.
  2. Add orchestration.mode: team to .gaia/config/project-config.yaml.

Mode B uses persistent teammates that preserve in-conversation state
across dispatches.

This warning is shown once per session.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Why Mode B is better for this command

The /gaia-create-ux skill declares orchestration_class: heavy-procedural in its SKILL.md frontmatter. Heavy-procedural skills produce output that benefits from cross-step context -- under Mode A every sub-agent dispatch runs in its own forked context and can only return a summary back to the orchestrator, losing the full reasoning trace of every prior step. Mode B uses persistent teammates that retain in-conversation state across dispatches, so each agent's contribution can build on what was said before instead of receiving only a summary.

How to enable Mode B

Both steps are required. If either is missing, the framework falls back silently to Mode A and the warning fires again on the next session.

Step 1 -- set the environment variable:

export CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1

Add this to your shell rc file to persist across sessions, or set it in Claude Code's settings.json.

Step 2 -- add the YAML block to .gaia/config/project-config.yaml:

orchestration:
  mode: team

One-shot semantics

The warning is emitted once per Claude Code session. A marker file at _memory/checkpoints/orchestration-warning-shown.<session-id> suppresses the warning for the rest of the session. Starting a new session re-emits the warning once.

How to invoke

/gaia-create-ux

What it does step by step

1. Load PRD Reads the PRD and extracts user personas, user journeys, and functional requirements.
2. User personas Refines persona definitions from the PRD. Adds scenarios, goals, tech proficiency, and accessibility needs.
3. Information architecture Designs the sitemap and navigation structure. Maps each page to the FRs it serves.
4. Wireframes Creates text-based wireframe descriptions for key screens with layout, component placement, and interaction patterns.
5. Interaction patterns Defines common UI patterns, component library choices, form behaviors, validation, and error states.
6. Accessibility Defines WCAG compliance targets, keyboard navigation plan, screen reader support, and color contrast standards.
7. Figma integration (optional) If a Figma MCP server is detected, offers: Generate Figma frames, Import existing designs, or Skip (text-only).
8. Generate output Writes the UX design document.

Inputs

Outputs

Example session

> /gaia-create-ux

Loading PRD... 3 personas, 5 user journeys, 22 FRs.

Personas refined: added accessibility needs and tech proficiency.
Information architecture: 12-page sitemap, all FRs mapped.
Wireframes: 8 key screens described.
Interaction patterns: 6 patterns defined.
Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA target set.

No Figma MCP server detected. Generating markdown-only ux-design.md.

UX design written to: .gaia/artifacts/planning-artifacts/ux-design.md

What to run next

• /gaia-validate-design-a11y -- validate the design for accessibility.
• /gaia-create-arch -- design the system architecture.

Troubleshooting

"PRD not found"

Run /gaia-create-prd first.

I keep seeing the GAIA orchestration warning every time I start this command

The warning is shown once per session, so if it fires again that's a new session -- not a per-skill repeat. If you want to silence it entirely, enable Mode B (full-fidelity orchestration via Agent Teams). Both of these conditions must be true:

• echo $CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS returns 1 (not empty)
• .gaia/config/project-config.yaml contains:

  orchestration:
    mode: team

If either is missing the framework silently uses Mode A and re-emits the warning each session.

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