# design-lounge-mcp [Health: Active]

**Category:** 📐 Architecture & Design  
**Repository:** https://github.com/SusanAcharya/Design-Lounge  
**GitHub Stars:** 0  
**npm Downloads (last month):** 2114  
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**Installs:** 0  
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**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/design-lounge-mcp

## Description
Design Lounge as an MCP server: the library, direction picking, and a review that catches AI giveaways and SEO, AEO and GEO gaps.

## Tools
Capabilities this server exposes over MCP:

- **start_design** — Call first for any new website, app, screen, or UI. Reads their request the way the method does (flow, mode, named style, calm words), ranks the recipes, reads the project folder and the recent picks, and returns the brief to fill and the steps, each naming the tool to use.
- **get_recipe** — A recipe (start) with its directions: each a complete look (theme, pairing, family, hero, effect, work, footer). Each direction says whether the recent history blocks it.
- **pick_direction** — Apply rules 3 to 5 of Pick a direction and the Recent picks check: calm words narrow to quiet, editorial, or sharp families; the history blocks recent directions, heroes, and effects; the group check blocks two-of-three matches; the name number breaks the tie. You judge which directions fit the subject (rules 1, 2, 4) and pass them as `fitting`.
- **check_pick** — The uniqueness check from Recent picks: direction, hero, and effect against this recipe; two of hero, work, footer against the related group; hero shape against the last two; frame against the last three. Returns problems and the Unlike line for the sheet.
- **record_pick** — Append a line to /home/user/.design-lounge/history.jsonl: "claimed" right after you lock, "finished" after the check passes. A claimed line is read back: if another product claimed the same recipe and direction in the last hour, yours loses and the result says so.
- **search_pieces** — Search 600+ piece briefs by words (job, component, style, tag) and filters. Returns ids, summaries, and demo links. Then get_piece for the brief.
- **get_piece** — The spec for one piece, with a picture of its demo: structure, counts, sizes, motion timing, states, hit targets, acceptance checklist. By default stops at "Optional below this line"; full=true adds the demo's exact paint and motion notes. demo=true adds the demo's HTML source, the acceptance file. Its colours and fonts are the demo's: translate them onto the locked kit.
- **browse_library** — List themes, pairings, families, recipes, piece categories, collections, or kinds. Themes and pairings can be ranked by a mood ("warm craft", "editorial serif", "dark technical").
- **get_theme** — A theme's full CSS (primary, secondary, tertiary, feedback, surfaces, link) and its pair for the other mode. Colour only: fonts come from the pairing, radius and shadow from the family.
- **get_pairing** — A pairing's CSS (Google Fonts import, --font-display, --font-text, mono if any), its numbers face, and any caution to say before you write.
- **get_family** — A family's rules: radius, button style, density, shadow, and the sentences that lock them. The family wins over a brief for radius, shadow, button, and density.
- **get_icons** — SVG for Lounge Icons by name (24px, stroke 1.75). With no names, lists them by group. Missing names come back as missing: then follow Icon and nav in components.md, never an emoji.
- **search_wada** — Sanzo Wada's 348 combinations, by colour or material word (russet, slate, "dark warm") or nearest to a hex. Only for Free colour, a brand board no theme fits, or colours they asked for. Take one line whole; the header says how to map it to roles.
- **read_guide** — Read a method file or one section of it. Files: SKILL.md, app.md, brief.md, components.md, examples.md, flows.md, locale.md, native.md, practice.md, reference.md, search.md, show.md, styles.md, taste.md, website.md. Give a heading ("Look", "Write the idea", "Recent picks") to get only that section; outline=true lists the headings.
- **name_number** — The tie-break from rule 5 of Pick a direction: the sum of each letter's place in the alphabet, mod the number of fitting directions.
- **review_page** — The all-in-one check for a built page: AI giveaways and kit drift (the Look fails), SEO, AEO, GEO, and, when Chromium is available, a rendered pass at 1280×800 and 390×844 with axe accessibility, measured labels, faces, primaries, tap targets, and saved screenshots. Returns scores, fails first, each with its evidence and fix.
- **audit_slop** — Design only: the tells of a generated page (stock copy, em dashes, buzzwords, icon-card trios, gradients, the indigo palette, emoji icons, numbered eyebrows, placeholder copy, made-up numbers) and drift from the locked kit (faces, colours, radius, shadow). Static by default; render=true adds the measured checks.
- **audit_search** — Whether search engines can index the page and show it well (SEO), answer engines can lift a direct answer (AEO), and AI engines can reach it, read it without JavaScript, and name the entity (GEO): title, description, headings, alt, share card and its 1200×630 image, canonical, robots.txt for search and AI crawlers, sitemap, JSON-LD, question headings with short answers, server-rendered text.
- **suggest_schema** — JSON-LD for the page built only from facts on it: the entity (Organization, LocalBusiness subtypes, Person, Product, SoftwareApplication) with name, url, description, image, phone, email, address, sameAs; and FAQPage from its own questions. Lists the fields it could not find. Never invents ratings, reviews, or prices.
- **match_reference** — They showed a site or a screenshot and want that feel. Measures its design language (colour roles, type, corners, shadows, density, hero shape, sections, motion) and returns the closest Lounge theme, pairing, family, and pieces per section, with what does not match. Matches the feel only: never copy the reference's logo, name, words, or photos. For a screenshot, also describe the type you see (`type`) and anything else you can tell (corners, shadows, sections).
- **install_skill** — The server installs the skill for this user when it starts. Use this to put it in a project as well (.claude/skills, .cursor/skills, .agents/skills), for clients that only read project skills, or with replace: true to swap a copy installed another way for this server's.
- **install_browser** — Download the headless Chromium that review_page uses to look at the page: screenshots, axe, measured labels and buttons, and theme boards and type specimens. About 100 MB, once. Ask the person first.

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "design-lounge-mcp": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","design-lounge-mcp@latest"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation

## What design-lounge-mcp does

design-lounge-mcp gives an AI agent access to the Design Lounge catalogue, a design library containing interface pieces, palettes, type pairings, icons, motion recipes, and starter recipes for common product types. The server also installs the Design Lounge skill, which guides an agent toward a consistent visual system rather than inventing unrelated colours, fonts, or component styles across screens.

Its MCP-specific capabilities extend beyond the static skill files. Agents can search the library with visual references for pieces, themes, and pairings; select a design direction deterministically so repeated runs stay consistent; and review a page produced by the agent. Reviews examine AI-generated design signals, divergence from the selected kit, accessibility, and search or answer visibility across SEO, AEO, and GEO. The review can include laptop- and phone-sized screenshots.

## How it works

The local package runs as a command-line MCP server through `npx`. A compatible client starts it with the `design-lounge-mcp@latest` package, and the server reads the bundled Design Lounge skill and library. After the first start, the client should be reloaded so it detects the installed skill.

For screenshot-based reviews, the agent should run `install_browser` once. The local server can work with project files and can retain the context needed by the local workflow. The project also exposes a hosted MCP endpoint at `https://www.designlounge.live/api/mcp` for clients that cannot run a local process. That endpoint provides the library and can review public URLs.

## Setup and configuration

In Claude Code, add the server with:

```bash
claude mcp add design-lounge --scope user -- npx -y design-lounge-mcp@latest
```

Other MCP clients can use an equivalent stdio configuration:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "design-lounge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "design-lounge-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}
```

The README names Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and Codex as clients that can use this configuration. Claude.ai, ChatGPT, and other clients that cannot launch local programs can connect to the hosted URL as a custom connector.

The separate skill installer requires Node.js 22.20 or newer:

```bash
npx skills add SusanAcharya/Design-Lounge
```

Installing the skill alone provides the catalogue and design guidance but not the MCP server’s search, direction, or review tools.

## Tools and capabilities

- Search pieces, themes, and pairings with an image for each result.
- Choose repeatable design directions that help keep separate sites distinct.
- Apply a palette, type pairing, component family, and compatible pieces as a shared kit.
- Review completed pages for AI giveaways, kit drift, accessibility, SEO, AEO, and GEO issues.
- Produce laptop- and phone-sized screenshots during local reviews.
- Browse catalogue material covering heroes, footers, landing pages, portfolios, dashboards, phone screens, and motion.

## Limitations and notes

The hosted endpoint cannot read local files, preserve project history, install the skill, or take screenshots. It can review public URLs instead. The skill by itself is not a human design review; the MCP server’s review provides the additional automated checks.

Design Lounge is free to use in products with credit retained. The catalogue must not be republished as a catalogue. When the library lacks a suitable piece, the intended workflow is to report that gap rather than invent a replacement from the library.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/design-lounge-mcp/readme_