Theme Surface Map
Decide how page, card, popover, and dialog surfaces relate before each screen improvises.
What it adds
A defined relationship between every layered surface in the app — page, card, input, popover, dialog, elevated — in each theme.
What your agent is told to do
5
What your agent is told to do
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1
List every surface the app renders and place each at a defined level: the page background, cards and panels sitting on it, inputs sitting inside those, popovers and menus above them, and dialogs above everything.
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Give adjacent levels enough separation to be seen as separate without a border. Two surfaces one step apart on the ramp look identical on a poorly calibrated laptop screen, which is what most people are using.
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Verify the text and border tokens against every surface, not only against the page background. A muted text colour that reads comfortably on the page will often disappear on an elevated card in dark mode.
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Restrict translucent surfaces to cases where what sits behind them is known and controlled. A frosted popover over a photograph, a video, or a syntax-highlighted code block has no predictable contrast, so give those an opaque variant.
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In dark themes, express elevation primarily as a lighter surface rather than as a heavier shadow. A shadow on a near-black background is invisible, and the usual response — deepening it further — produces a dark halo instead of a sense of height.
Edge cases it handles
7
Edge cases it handles
7- Adjacent surface levels must remain distinguishable on uncalibrated displays and at low brightness, or the card boundary that carries the whole layout simply disappears.
- Text and border contrast has to hold on every layer, since a token verified only against the page background will fail on the elevated surfaces where it is used most.
- Translucent surfaces over unknown content must be avoided or given an opaque fallback, because contrast over an arbitrary photograph or video frame cannot be guaranteed by any token.
- Shadows and overlays need a coherent dark-mode treatment. Elevation in dark themes comes from surface lightness, not from a shadow nobody can see against a near-black page.
- Nesting depth must be bounded. A card inside a panel inside a dialog runs out of distinct surface steps, so define what happens at the fourth level rather than letting it degrade into flat sameness.
- The backdrop behind a dialog belongs to the surface map too — an opacity chosen for a light theme dims a dark theme into an unreadable grey.
- Surface roles are named through Semantic Color Tokens; this brief defines their relationship and ordering, not a second naming scheme.
Definition of done
9
Definition of done
9- Every surface in the app is assigned to a defined level in the map.
- Adjacent levels are visually distinguishable without relying on a border.
- Text and border tokens meet contrast requirements on every surface level, in every theme.
- Translucent surfaces are used only over controlled content, and an opaque variant exists.
- Dark themes convey elevation through surface lightness rather than shadow alone.
- Behaviour beyond the deepest defined nesting level is specified.
- Dialog backdrops are defined per theme rather than shared.
- The feature matches the existing design system.
- No existing functionality is broken.
Related features
Z-Index Registry
Z-Index Registry
Keep every stacking value in one file so nobody has to guess a bigger number.
What it does
A single source of named z-index tokens, with reserved ranges per layer and a check that blocks raw values.
How it works
- 1 Find every z-index in the codebase, including inline styles and values buried in third-party overrides, and list them with the component that owns each. The count is usually higher than anyone expects and several will be arbitrary large numbers.
- 2 Reserve a range for each layer rather than assigning single values, so a new dropdown can slot between existing ones without renumbering everything above it. Leave real gaps between ranges.
- 3 Name each token after the layer it belongs to and derive the ordering from Elevation Layer Map. That feature decides what covers what; this one holds the numbers and stops them being invented locally.
Copy the prompt
No account needed
Add this feature to my app:
https://addthisfeature.com/x/z-index-registry
Spacing Scale
Spacing Scale
Reduce the app's spacing to a small set of steps that repeat across every surface.
What it does
A named spacing scale covering gaps, padding, and section rhythm, with every existing value in the app mapped onto it.
How it works
- 1 Collect every spacing value currently in the codebase and count how often each appears. The result is usually a handful of genuine intentions surrounded by dozens of near-misses that were nudged once and never revisited.
- 2 Define a scale that is fine at the small end, where control padding lives, and coarse at the large end, where section separation lives. A linear scale gives too many indistinguishable large steps and too few small ones.
- 3 Separate the tokens used inside a component from the ones used between components and between page sections, and name them so the difference is obvious. The same number serving both purposes means a change to button padding also changes the gap between sections.
Copy the prompt
No account needed
Add this feature to my app:
https://addthisfeature.com/x/spacing-scale
Shadow Scale
Shadow Scale
Replace ad hoc shadows with a small set tied to what each surface actually is.
What it does
A fixed ladder of shadow tokens, each named for an elevation role rather than a blur radius.
How it works
- 1 Collect every shadow currently declared anywhere in the app and group them by what they sit on — a resting card, a hovered card, a dropdown, a dialog, a toast. Most apps have a dozen near-identical values that collapse into four or five roles.
- 2 Name each step for its role, not its appearance. A token called menu tells the next person which surfaces may use it; a token called shadow-md-2 does not.
- 3 Use a single light source for the whole scale, so offset, blur, and spread grow together as elevation rises. Two shadows lit from different directions on the same screen read as a rendering bug.
Copy the prompt
No account needed
Add this feature to my app:
https://addthisfeature.com/x/shadow-scale
How it works
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1
Copy the link
Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.
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2
Give it to your AI
Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.
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It inspects, then implements
Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.
Works with your stack
These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.
Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.