Cathode

# Cathode

## Philosophy

Cathode is a phosphor-console design language: the interface is an instrument panel, not a polished shell. A near-black CRT ground carries a faint scanline and a character-cell coordinate grid, everything is set in IBM Plex Mono, and state reads as a fixed-width text marker down a single column. It is a faithful glow-up of the Technical Mono console direction — same operational, machine-adjacent grammar and the same phosphor-green / cyan / amber colour family — with the source's stacked nested boxes replaced by a calmer scaffold of hairline borders, dashed inner dividers, and a recessed inset surface.

### Values

- Operational clarity: status is a literal fixed-width marker ([OK]/[WARN]/[ERR]), scannable down one column
- Alignment is the layout: the character cell (ch units) governs labels, values, meters, and tables
- Flat phosphor material: no gradients, blur, or skeuomorphic depth — only the scanline and grid texture
- Restrained accents: three highlighters on the dark screen, with a sparing glow on the live region

### Anti-Values

- Soft rounded SaaS friendliness and pill-shaped status badges
- Nested cards and a top nav trapped in a floating pill or rounded bar
- Accents used as large fills instead of highlighters
- Decorative ornament that does not belong to the console grammar

### Visual Character

- A near-black CRT ground (#0A0A0A) with a faint scanline and a 64px character-cell coordinate grid as the only texture.
- All typography is IBM Plex Mono with widths in ch units, so labels, values, and panels align to a code-editor / terminal grid.
- Prompt-style section labels — // OVERVIEW, > ACTIVE QUEUE, $ CONTROLS — in muted uppercase with a single accent sigil.
- State as fixed-width text markers [OK] [SYNC] [WARN] [ERR] [IDLE] in green/cyan/amber/red, never soft pills or icon circles.
- Hierarchy from thin always-visible hairline borders and dashed inner dividers; nested groups recess into the inset surface rather than stacking a second box.

## Tokens

### Colors

| Name | Value |
|------|-------|
| bg | `#0A0A0A` |
| surface | `#141414` |
| inset | `#0E0E0E` |
| text | `#E8E8E8` |
| muted | `#8A8A8A` |
| border | `#262626` |
| accent | `#33FF66` |
| on_accent | `#06210F` |
| accent_cyan | `#7DD7F0` |
| accent_amber | `#FFB000` |
| success | `#33FF66` |
| info | `#7DD7F0` |
| warning | `#FFB000` |
| error | `#FF5F56` |

### Typography

- **Base Size**: 17px
- **Body Font**: IBM Plex Mono
- **Heading Font**: IBM Plex Mono
- **Mono Font**: IBM Plex Mono
- **Heading Weight**: 600
- **Heading Transform**: none
- **Letter Spacing**: 0.04em
- **Google Fonts Url**: https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=IBM+Plex+Mono:ital,wght@0,300;0,400;0,500;0,600;0,700;1,400&display=swap

### Radii

- **None**: 0
- **Sm**: 0
- **Md**: 0
- **Lg**: 0
- **Card**: 0
- **Full**: 9999px

### Shadows

- **Sm**: none
- **Md**: none
- **Lg**: none
- **Glow Accent**: 0 0 24px -6px rgba(51,255,102,.45)
- **Glow Cyan**: 0 0 18px -6px rgba(125,215,240,.45)

### Spacing

- **Base**: 8px
- **Scale**: [4,8,12,16,24,32,40,56,80]

### Surfaces

- **Treatment**: flat
- **Card Style**: Flat #141414 panels on a #0A0A0A CRT ground, separated by 1px hairline borders and dashed inner dividers; content recesses into the #0E0E0E inset surface, never into a nested card. No gradients, blur, or shadow.
- **Bg Pattern**: scanline + character-cell grid

### Borders

- **Default Width**: 1px
- **Accent Width**: 1px
- **Style**: solid
- **Character**: Borders are the scaffold: thin, sharp, always visible between regions; nested groups switch to dashed dividers to keep hierarchy without a second box.

### Motion

- **Duration**: 150ms
- **Easing**: linear
- **Philosophy**: The settled state renders with no JavaScript; an inline script adds an on-scroll reveal only when motion is allowed, and respects prefers-reduced-motion.

## Rules

### Composition

Open masthead nav across the header (never a pill); full-viewport landing hero on a swappable image; flat panels grouped by hairline + dashed dividers; dashboards add a quiet sidebar rail with $ prompt markers.

### Hierarchy

Phosphor green is the signal and the one primary action; cyan is trace/info + focus; amber is attention/warning; red is faults only. Status reads down a fixed-width column.

### Density

dense

### Signature

Character-cell phosphor screen: fixed-width [OK]/[WARN]/[ERR] state markers, ch-aligned columns, prompt-style section labels, and a CRT scanline ground.

## Layout

### Grid

Character-cell rhythm; minmax(0,1fr) columns with min-width:0 children so grids never blow out.

### Whitespace

Generous padding above titles; the inset recess and dashed dividers replace heavy boxing.

### Density

Dense, instrument-panel layouts favouring logs, tables, and command surfaces.

### Responsive

Single column on mobile; non-essential nav links and the dashboard rail hide; tables drop low-priority columns; never overflow horizontally; full-bleed hero spans 100vw, contained content caps and centres on ultra-wide.

### Breakpoints

- **Mobile**: 390px
- **Tablet**: 760px
- **Desktop**: 1024px
- **Wide**: 1440px

## Guidance

### Do

- Read state down a single fixed-width column; keep markers literal text.
- Let the hairline border, dashed divider, and inset recess do the grouping.
- Keep one phosphor-green primary; cyan for focus/info, amber for attention, red for faults.
- Align everything to the character cell and keep numerics tabular.

### Don't

- Round corners, add drop shadows, blur, or gradients.
- Nest a bordered card inside another, or trap the nav in a pill/floating bar.
- Turn state into soft pills or icon circles.
- Let an accent become a large fill — accents are highlighters on the dark screen.

### Accessibility

Phosphor, cyan, amber, and text all clear AA on the #0A0A0A / #141414 grounds. State is never colour-only — the text marker carries the meaning. Focus is a visible cyan border + glow on every control. Motion is gated behind prefers-reduced-motion and never required to read the page.

## Imagery Direction

### Pairs With

phosphor

### Summary

Phosphor-technique CAD wireframes of instruments and engineered objects — thin luminous green/cyan/amber hairlines on a near-black ground, like an oscilloscope vector display or pen-plotter blueprint. The landing hero is a cathode-ray oscilloscope rendered in this technique.

### Subjects

- oscilloscope / CRT instrument
- server rack or node
- circuit board
- engineered hardware
- measured mechanical part

### Usage

One full-bleed phosphor-wireframe hero behind a left phosphor-wash overlay; keep imagery to the wireframe technique, never photographic or painterly.

---
version: "alpha"
name: "Cathode"
description: "Agent-curated design language exported from Katagami as DESIGN.md."
colors:
  bg: "#0A0A0A"
  surface: "#141414"
  inset: "#0E0E0E"
  text: "#E8E8E8"
  muted: "#8A8A8A"
  border: "#262626"
  accent: "#33FF66"
  on_accent: "#06210F"
  accent_cyan: "#7DD7F0"
  accent_amber: "#FFB000"
  success: "#33FF66"
  info: "#7DD7F0"
  warning: "#FFB000"
  error: "#FF5F56"
typography:
  headline-lg:
    fontFamily: "IBM Plex Mono"
    fontSize: "2.075rem"
    fontWeight: 700
    lineHeight: 1.1
    letterSpacing: "0.04em"
  headline-md:
    fontFamily: "IBM Plex Mono"
    fontSize: "1.66rem"
    fontWeight: 600
    lineHeight: 1.15
    letterSpacing: "0.04em"
  body-md:
    fontFamily: "IBM Plex Mono"
    fontSize: "17px"
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.5
    letterSpacing: "0.04em"
  label-md:
    fontFamily: "IBM Plex Mono"
    fontSize: "0.75rem"
    fontWeight: 600
    lineHeight: 1
    letterSpacing: "0.08em"
rounded:
  none: "0px"
  sm: "0px"
  md: "0px"
  lg: "0px"
  card: "0px"
  full: "9999px"
spacing:
  base: "8px"
  xs: "4px"
  sm: "8px"
  md: "12px"
  lg: "16px"
  xl: "24px"
  2xl: "32px"
  3xl: "40px"
  4xl: "56px"
  step-8: "80px"
components:
  color-reference-bg:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.bg}"
  color-reference-surface:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
  color-reference-inset:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.inset}"
  color-reference-text:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.text}"
  color-reference-muted:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.muted}"
  color-reference-border:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.border}"
  color-reference-accent:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent}"
  color-reference-on_accent:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.on_accent}"
  color-reference-accent_cyan:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent_cyan}"
  color-reference-accent_amber:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent_amber}"
  color-reference-success:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.success}"
  color-reference-info:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.info}"
  color-reference-warning:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.warning}"
  color-reference-error:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.error}"
  button-primary:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.accent}"
    textColor: "#000000"
    typography: "{typography.label-md}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "{spacing.md}"
  card-surface:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
    textColor: "{colors.text}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "{spacing.md}"
  input-default:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface}"
    textColor: "{colors.text}"
    rounded: "{rounded.md}"
    height: "44px"
---

# Cathode

## Overview

Cathode is a phosphor-console design language: the interface is an instrument panel, not a polished shell. A near-black CRT ground carries a faint scanline and a character-cell coordinate grid, everything is set in IBM Plex Mono, and state reads as a fixed-width text marker down a single column. It is a faithful glow-up of the Technical Mono console direction — same operational, machine-adjacent grammar and the same phosphor-green / cyan / amber colour family — with the source's stacked nested boxes replaced by a calmer scaffold of hairline borders, dashed inner dividers, and a recessed inset surface.

### Values

- Operational clarity: status is a literal fixed-width marker ([OK]/[WARN]/[ERR]), scannable down one column
- Alignment is the layout: the character cell (ch units) governs labels, values, meters, and tables
- Flat phosphor material: no gradients, blur, or skeuomorphic depth — only the scanline and grid texture
- Restrained accents: three highlighters on the dark screen, with a sparing glow on the live region

### Anti-Values

- Soft rounded SaaS friendliness and pill-shaped status badges
- Nested cards and a top nav trapped in a floating pill or rounded bar
- Accents used as large fills instead of highlighters
- Decorative ornament that does not belong to the console grammar

### Visual Character

- A near-black CRT ground (#0A0A0A) with a faint scanline and a 64px character-cell coordinate grid as the only texture.
- All typography is IBM Plex Mono with widths in ch units, so labels, values, and panels align to a code-editor / terminal grid.
- Prompt-style section labels — // OVERVIEW, > ACTIVE QUEUE, $ CONTROLS — in muted uppercase with a single accent sigil.
- State as fixed-width text markers [OK] [SYNC] [WARN] [ERR] [IDLE] in green/cyan/amber/red, never soft pills or icon circles.
- Hierarchy from thin always-visible hairline borders and dashed inner dividers; nested groups recess into the inset surface rather than stacking a second box.

## Colors

Use the YAML color tokens as the normative palette. The prose below names the roles agents should preserve when generating UI.

| Token | Value |
|-------|-------|
| bg | `#0A0A0A` |
| surface | `#141414` |
| inset | `#0E0E0E` |
| text | `#E8E8E8` |
| muted | `#8A8A8A` |
| border | `#262626` |
| accent | `#33FF66` |
| on_accent | `#06210F` |
| accent_cyan | `#7DD7F0` |
| accent_amber | `#FFB000` |
| success | `#33FF66` |
| info | `#7DD7F0` |
| warning | `#FFB000` |
| error | `#FF5F56` |

## Typography

- **Headline-Lg**: IBM Plex Mono, 2.075rem, weight 700, line-height 1.1.
- **Headline-Md**: IBM Plex Mono, 1.66rem, weight 600, line-height 1.15.
- **Body-Md**: IBM Plex Mono, 17px, weight 400, line-height 1.5.
- **Label-Md**: IBM Plex Mono, 0.75rem, weight 600, line-height 1.

## Layout

### Spacing Tokens

- **Base**: `8px`
- **Xs**: `4px`
- **Sm**: `8px`
- **Md**: `12px`
- **Lg**: `16px`
- **Xl**: `24px`
- **2xl**: `32px`
- **3xl**: `40px`
- **4xl**: `56px`
- **Step-8**: `80px`

### Grid

Character-cell rhythm; minmax(0,1fr) columns with min-width:0 children so grids never blow out.

### Whitespace

Generous padding above titles; the inset recess and dashed dividers replace heavy boxing.

### Density

Dense, instrument-panel layouts favouring logs, tables, and command surfaces.

### Responsive

Single column on mobile; non-essential nav links and the dashboard rail hide; tables drop low-priority columns; never overflow horizontally; full-bleed hero spans 100vw, contained content caps and centres on ultra-wide.

### Breakpoints

- **Mobile**: 390px
- **Tablet**: 760px
- **Desktop**: 1024px
- **Wide**: 1440px

## Elevation & Depth

### Shadows

- **Sm**: none
- **Md**: none
- **Lg**: none
- **Glow Accent**: 0 0 24px -6px rgba(51,255,102,.45)
- **Glow Cyan**: 0 0 18px -6px rgba(125,215,240,.45)

## Shapes

### Rounded

- **None**: `0px`
- **Sm**: `0px`
- **Md**: `0px`
- **Lg**: `0px`
- **Card**: `0px`
- **Full**: `9999px`

### Surfaces

- **Treatment**: flat
- **Card Style**: Flat #141414 panels on a #0A0A0A CRT ground, separated by 1px hairline borders and dashed inner dividers; content recesses into the #0E0E0E inset surface, never into a nested card. No gradients, blur, or shadow.
- **Bg Pattern**: scanline + character-cell grid

### Borders

- **Default Width**: 1px
- **Accent Width**: 1px
- **Style**: solid
- **Character**: Borders are the scaffold: thin, sharp, always visible between regions; nested groups switch to dashed dividers to keep hierarchy without a second box.

## Components

### Composition

Open masthead nav across the header (never a pill); full-viewport landing hero on a swappable image; flat panels grouped by hairline + dashed dividers; dashboards add a quiet sidebar rail with $ prompt markers.

### Hierarchy

Phosphor green is the signal and the one primary action; cyan is trace/info + focus; amber is attention/warning; red is faults only. Status reads down a fixed-width column.

### Density

dense

### Signature

Character-cell phosphor screen: fixed-width [OK]/[WARN]/[ERR] state markers, ch-aligned columns, prompt-style section labels, and a CRT scanline ground.

## shadcn/ui Usage

When the target app uses shadcn/ui, copy DESIGN.md with shadcn instead of the plain DESIGN.md. It contains the same Katagami design-language source plus the shadcn/ui primitives, imports, theme variables, component recipes, and preview-shot guidance.

DESIGN.md with shadcn: `/language/en-019ef93a-e850-7bd2-8af0-2ce6caf5f775/DESIGN.with-shadcn.md`.

The shadcn page also exposes optional machine-readable files for automation, but the human-facing handoff is DESIGN.md with shadcn.

Install recommended primitives with `npx shadcn@latest add button card input textarea select dialog sheet tabs badge separator checkbox switch slider tooltip dropdown-menu table`.

Use these primitives in shadcn apps:
- button
- card
- input
- textarea
- select
- dialog
- sheet
- tabs
- badge
- separator
- checkbox
- switch
- slider
- tooltip
- dropdown-menu
- table

Implementation rule for agents: import shadcn primitives from `@/components/ui/*`, apply the generated CSS variables first, then compose the language-specific recipes from the companion MD. Katagami remains the source of truth; shadcn names are the implementation surface.

## Do's and Don'ts

- Do Read state down a single fixed-width column; keep markers literal text.
- Do Let the hairline border, dashed divider, and inset recess do the grouping.
- Do Keep one phosphor-green primary; cyan for focus/info, amber for attention, red for faults.
- Do Align everything to the character cell and keep numerics tabular.
- Don't Round corners, add drop shadows, blur, or gradients.
- Don't Nest a bordered card inside another, or trap the nav in a pill/floating bar.
- Don't Turn state into soft pills or icon circles.
- Don't Let an accent become a large fill — accents are highlighters on the dark screen.

### Accessibility

Phosphor, cyan, amber, and text all clear AA on the #0A0A0A / #141414 grounds. State is never colour-only — the text marker carries the meaning. Focus is a visible cyan border + glow on every control. Motion is gated behind prefers-reduced-motion and never required to read the page.

## Imagery Direction

### Pairs With

phosphor

### Summary

Phosphor-technique CAD wireframes of instruments and engineered objects — thin luminous green/cyan/amber hairlines on a near-black ground, like an oscilloscope vector display or pen-plotter blueprint. The landing hero is a cathode-ray oscilloscope rendered in this technique.

### Subjects

- oscilloscope / CRT instrument
- server rack or node
- circuit board
- engineered hardware
- measured mechanical part

### Usage

One full-bleed phosphor-wireframe hero behind a left phosphor-wash overlay; keep imagery to the wireframe technique, never photographic or painterly.

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://ui.shadcn.com/schema/registry-item.json",
  "name": "cathode",
  "type": "registry:theme",
  "title": "Cathode shadcn Theme",
  "cssVars": {
    "theme": {},
    "light": {
      "background": "#0A0A0A",
      "foreground": "#E8E8E8",
      "card": "#141414",
      "card-foreground": "#E8E8E8",
      "popover": "#141414",
      "popover-foreground": "#E8E8E8",
      "primary": "#E8E8E8",
      "primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "secondary": "#f4f4f5",
      "secondary-foreground": "#111111",
      "muted": "#8A8A8A",
      "muted-foreground": "#E8E8E8",
      "accent": "#33FF66",
      "accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "destructive": "#FF5F56",
      "border": "#262626",
      "input": "#262626",
      "ring": "#33FF66",
      "chart-1": "#E8E8E8",
      "chart-2": "#f4f4f5",
      "chart-3": "#33FF66",
      "chart-4": "#33FF66",
      "chart-5": "#FFB000",
      "sidebar": "#141414",
      "sidebar-foreground": "#E8E8E8",
      "sidebar-primary": "#E8E8E8",
      "sidebar-primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-accent": "#7DD7F0",
      "sidebar-accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-border": "#262626",
      "sidebar-ring": "#33FF66",
      "radius": "0"
    },
    "dark": {
      "background": "#0f1115",
      "foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "card": "#181b22",
      "card-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "popover": "#181b22",
      "popover-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "primary": "#E8E8E8",
      "primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "secondary": "#252a33",
      "secondary-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "muted": "#252a33",
      "muted-foreground": "#a1a1aa",
      "accent": "#33FF66",
      "accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "destructive": "#FF5F56",
      "border": "#303642",
      "input": "#303642",
      "ring": "#33FF66",
      "chart-1": "#E8E8E8",
      "chart-2": "#f4f4f5",
      "chart-3": "#33FF66",
      "chart-4": "#33FF66",
      "chart-5": "#FFB000",
      "sidebar": "#181b22",
      "sidebar-foreground": "#f8fafc",
      "sidebar-primary": "#E8E8E8",
      "sidebar-primary-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-accent": "#33FF66",
      "sidebar-accent-foreground": "#111111",
      "sidebar-border": "#303642",
      "sidebar-ring": "#33FF66",
      "radius": "0"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "source": "katagami",
    "languageId": "en-019ef93a-e850-7bd2-8af0-2ce6caf5f775",
    "slug": "cathode",
    "componentManifest": [
      "button",
      "card",
      "input",
      "textarea",
      "select",
      "dialog",
      "sheet",
      "tabs",
      "badge",
      "separator",
      "checkbox",
      "switch",
      "slider",
      "tooltip",
      "dropdown-menu",
      "table"
    ],
    "installCommand": "npx shadcn@latest add button card input textarea select dialog sheet tabs badge separator checkbox switch slider tooltip dropdown-menu table",
    "nativeTokenNames": {
      "colors": [
        "accent",
        "accent_amber",
        "accent_cyan",
        "bg",
        "border",
        "error",
        "info",
        "inset",
        "muted",
        "on_accent",
        "success",
        "surface",
        "text",
        "warning"
      ],
      "typography": [
        "base_size",
        "body_font",
        "google_fonts_url",
        "heading_font",
        "heading_transform",
        "heading_weight",
        "letter_spacing",
        "mono_font"
      ],
      "radii": [
        "card",
        "full",
        "lg",
        "md",
        "none",
        "sm"
      ],
      "shadows": [
        "glow_accent",
        "glow_cyan",
        "lg",
        "md",
        "sm"
      ],
      "spacing": [
        "base",
        "scale"
      ],
      "surfaces": [
        "bg_pattern",
        "card_style",
        "treatment"
      ],
      "borders": [
        "accent_width",
        "character",
        "default_width",
        "style"
      ],
      "motion": [
        "duration",
        "easing",
        "philosophy"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```