The Holy Trinity of Agentic UI: rams.ai, ui-skills, and Vercel Web Interface Guidelines

Research Date: 2026-01-20 Source URL: https://x.com/colderoshay/status/2012202861883441597

Reference URLs

• rams.ai - Design engineer for coding agents
• ui-skills.com - Opinionated UI constraints for agents
• Vercel Web Interface Guidelines - Comprehensive interface best practices
• ui-skills GitHub Repository
• Vercel Guidelines GitHub Repository

Summary

A tweet by Cole (@colderoshay) on January 17, 2026, identified three complementary tools as “the holy trinity of agentic UI”—resources designed to help AI coding agents build higher-quality user interfaces. The tweet achieved significant engagement (4,489 likes, 11,218 bookmarks, 643,174 views), indicating strong interest in the developer community for agent-assisted UI development tooling.

The three tools serve distinct but complementary purposes: rams.ai performs automated code review for accessibility and visual issues, ui-skills provides opinionated constraints during generation, and Vercel’s Web Interface Guidelines offers a comprehensive reference checklist. All three integrate with major AI coding agents including Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, Codex, and Antigravity.

Tool Overview

Installation and Usage

rams.ai

Purpose: Automated design review that identifies accessibility issues, visual inconsistencies, and UI polish problems, then offers to fix them.

Installation:

curl -fsSL https://rams.ai/install | bash

The installer auto-detects the coding agent in use.

Usage:

Example Output:

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
RAMS DESIGN REVIEW: app/page.tsx
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

CRITICAL (2 issues)
───────────────────
[A11Y] Line 24: Button missing accessible name
       <button><CloseIcon /></button>
       Fix: Add aria-label="Close"
       WCAG: 4.1.2

SERIOUS (1 issue)
─────────────────
[A11Y] Line 48: Focus outline removed
       className="outline-none"
       Fix: Add focus-visible:ring-2
       WCAG: 2.4.7

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
SUMMARY: 2 critical, 1 serious, 0 moderate
Score: 68/100
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

Review Categories:

ui-skills

Purpose: Provides opinionated constraints that agents follow during UI code generation.

Installation:

npx ui-skills init

Usage:

Core Constraints:

Stack Requirements

Component Requirements

Animation Constraints

Design Constraints

Vercel Web Interface Guidelines

Purpose: Comprehensive reference checklist of interface best practices covering interactions, animations, layout, content, forms, performance, and design.

Installation:

curl -fsSL https://vercel.com/design/guidelines/install | bash

Supports Antigravity, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, and Windsurf.

Alternative: Add AGENTS.md to project root:

• Download from: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vercel-labs/web-interface-guidelines/main/AGENTS.md

Usage:

Guideline Categories:

Interactions (26 guidelines)

Key rules include:

• Keyboard works everywhere (WAI-ARIA patterns)
• Clear focus rings using :focus-visible
• Hit targets minimum 24px (44px on mobile)
• URL as state for share/refresh/navigation
• Optimistic updates with rollback on failure
• Confirm destructive actions or provide Undo

Animations (10 guidelines)

Key rules include:

• Honor prefers-reduced-motion
• Prefer CSS over JS-driven animations
• Compositor-friendly properties only (transform, opacity)
• Never use transition: all
• Animations must be interruptible

Layout (6 guidelines)

Key rules include:

• Optical alignment (adjust ±1px when perception beats geometry)
• Respect safe areas with env() variables
• Prefer flex/grid over JS-based sizing

Forms (20 guidelines)

Key rules include:

• Enter submits when single input focused
• Labels on every control
• Show errors next to fields, focus first error on submit
• Set autocomplete and meaningful name values
• Never block paste in inputs

Performance (14 guidelines)

Key rules include:

• POST/PATCH/DELETE complete in less than 500ms
• Virtualize large lists
• Preload only above-the-fold images
• Set explicit image dimensions to prevent CLS
• Move expensive work to Web Workers

Design (12 guidelines)

Key rules include:

• Layered shadows (ambient + direct light)
• Nested radii (child ≤ parent, concentric)
• Prefer APCA over WCAG 2 for contrast
• Set theme-color meta tag
• Set color-scheme: dark for dark themes

Comparison Matrix

Recommended Workflow

1. Before generation: Activate ui-skills constraints with /ui-skills
2. After generation: Run rams review with /rams <file>
3. For edge cases: Consult Vercel Guidelines for specific patterns
4. Final pass: Manual review against comprehensive checklist

Key Findings

• All three tools target the same AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode) but serve complementary purposes
• rams.ai provides automated review with specific line numbers and WCAG references
• ui-skills enforces opinionated constraints during generation, preventing common mistakes before they occur
• Vercel Guidelines offers the most comprehensive coverage (80+ individual guidelines) but requires manual application
• The combination addresses the full UI development lifecycle: constraints during generation, automated review after, and comprehensive reference throughout

References

1. Cole (@colderoshay) Tweet - January 17, 2026
2. rams.ai - Design Engineer for Coding Agents
3. ui-skills.com - Opinionated UI Constraints
4. Vercel Web Interface Guidelines - Comprehensive Best Practices
5. ui-skills GitHub - Source Repository
6. Vercel Guidelines GitHub - Source Repository
7. WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices - Referenced accessibility patterns