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feat: minimalist UI redesign with warm palette#21

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rrbe merged 9 commits intomainfrom
feat/minimalist-ui-redesign
Mar 31, 2026
Merged

feat: minimalist UI redesign with warm palette#21
rrbe merged 9 commits intomainfrom
feat/minimalist-ui-redesign

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@rrbe rrbe commented Mar 30, 2026

Summary

  • Strip decorative visual effects: remove all gradients, glass-morphism (backdrop-filter: blur), serif fonts, decorative shadows, and per-launcher gradient backgrounds
  • Warm minimalist palette: near-monochrome with warm-tinted neutrals (#f8f6f3 light / #151312 dark), deep espresso ink (#1c1917), and a single muted teal accent used sparingly for interactive states
  • Fix watcher restart loop: prevent infinite refresh cycle where open_repo restarted the filesystem watcher on every reload, causing FSEvents to emit initial events that triggered another reload

Changes

  • src/styles.css — Complete visual overhaul: flat solid surfaces, no gradients, reduced border-radius scale, uniform launcher icon backgrounds, warm-tinted color tokens for both light and dark modes
  • DESIGN_SYSTEM.md — Rewritten to reflect minimalist design principles (no gradients, no blur, no serif, borders over shadows)
  • CLAUDE.md — Updated design system section to match new aesthetic
  • src-tauri/src/watcher.rs — Skip watcher restart if already watching the same repo path

Test plan

  • Verify light mode: warm cream background, flat cards with borders (no shadows), sage-tinted teal accent on active states
  • Verify dark mode: warm charcoal background, cream-tinted text, matching accent colors
  • Confirm no page flickering on idle (watcher fix)
  • Switch repos and confirm watcher correctly restarts for new repo
  • Check all views: Repository, Worktrees, Hooks, Settings

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

rrbe and others added 9 commits March 30, 2026 12:22
Strip the UI to its essence: remove all gradients, glass-morphism,
backdrop-filter blur, serif fonts, decorative shadows, and per-launcher
gradient backgrounds. Replace with a near-monochrome palette (#fafafa
light / #111111 dark), flat solid surfaces, thin borders as primary
separators, and a single muted teal accent used sparingly for
interactive states.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Shift all neutrals from pure gray to warm-tinted:
- Background: #fafafa → #f8f6f3 (warm off-white, like quality paper)
- Ink: #1a1a1a → #1c1917 (warm dark, like walnut ink)
- Surfaces: warm whites (#fefdfb, #f7f5f2, #f3f1ee)
- Borders/shadows: warm-tinted rgba(28,25,23,...) instead of pure black
- Dark mode: #111111 → #151312 (warm dark, like aged wood)
- Dark ink: #d4d4d4 → #dbd6d0 (warm light)

Still minimalist, still restrained — but now it feels like real
materials instead of a grayscale printout.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The previous warm-gray palette felt lifeless — all surfaces at the
same warmth level with no temperature contrast. New approach:

Light mode "Sand & Sage":
- Page: #f4f1eb (warm parchment)
- Cards: #fbf9f6 (cream white, lighter than page — creates lift)
- Topbar/sidebar: #edeae4 (sand, darker than page — creates weight)
- Ink: #2a2520 (deep espresso, not pure black)
- Accent: #4a7c6a (sage green, warmer than clinical teal)

Dark mode "Charcoal & Cream":
- Page: #161410 (warm charcoal)
- Cards: #1e1c19 (warmer lift)
- Ink: #d8d2ca (warm cream, not pure gray)
- Accent: #6ab8a0 (soft sage)

The key: surface layers now have visible temperature differences
between them instead of all being the same shade of warm gray.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
When the filesystem watcher fires worktrees-changed, the frontend
calls loadRepoInner → open_repo, which previously always restarted
the watcher. On macOS (FSEvents), creating a new watcher can emit
initial events for existing directory contents, causing an infinite
loop: watcher fires → reload → restart watcher → fires again.

Fix: skip watcher restart if already watching the same repo path.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Rename _repo_root → repo_root in WatcherInner (actively used, not
  just held for drop)
- Bump --ink-tertiary opacity 0.4 → 0.46 (light) and 0.42 → 0.48
  (dark) for WCAG AA contrast compliance
- Sync CLAUDE.md and DESIGN_SYSTEM.md color values with actual CSS
  (#f8f6f3 bg, #1c1917 ink, #2e7a6e teal, #fefdfb cards)
- Restore deleted reference sections in DESIGN_SYSTEM.md: typography,
  spacing, transitions, toast, layout constants

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Update intro wording ("warm ink tones" vs "near-monochrome"), fix
launcher icon dark background color (#1c1917), and restore deleted
reference sections (typography, spacing, transitions, toast, layout
constants) that the docs-sync agent wrote after the prior commit.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The minimalist redesign stripped all per-launcher brand backgrounds,
leaving icons like Claude (white glyph on generic gray) visually broken.
Restore solid brand bg for Claude and subtle brand tints for VS Code,
Codex, Gemini, WezTerm, Alacritty, and Kitty in both light and dark mode.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@rrbe rrbe merged commit 6fdddf0 into main Mar 31, 2026
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@rrbe rrbe deleted the feat/minimalist-ui-redesign branch March 31, 2026 02:27
@rrbe rrbe added the Feature label Apr 8, 2026
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