Skip to content
Skillpedia
Interfaces (UI/UX)101k · #513

wireframe-greybox

Generates blueprint-style wireframes, focusing on structure and layout. It's useful for planning the visual architecture before applying design.

What it does

Creates a simple visual sketch of a web page or app. It uses grey blocks and lines to show where elements like text and images will go, without using real colors or designs.

When to use it

  • ✓When you want to plan a website's structure before worrying about its look.
  • ✓To show how information is organized on a page.
  • ✓When asking for a 'blueprint' or 'map' of a design.

Example of what to ask your AI

“Create a greybox wireframe for a music app's homepage.”

Want more? Open the sections below.

How to use

The easiest way: copy the message below and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any AI. It reads the skill and follows the instructions.

Skill link

https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design/blob/main/design-templates/wireframe-greybox/SKILL.md

Ready-to-paste message

Use this skill to help me: https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design/blob/main/design-templates/wireframe-greybox/SKILL.md Read the SKILL.md file at that link and follow its instructions for my task.
How it works

The AI draws the page using only basic grey shapes and lines. Text is represented by grey bars, and images by boxes with an 'X'. A thin red line might be used for annotations.

Installation

Easiest way: copy the skill link and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor asking it to follow the instructions.

In the terminal (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor), in your project folder:

npx skills add nexu-io/open-design --skill wireframe-greybox

Or download just the file:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nexu-io/open-design/main/design-templates/wireframe-greybox/SKILL.md -o SKILL.md
Technical content (original SKILL.md)

Original text by the author, straight from GitHub.

Wireframe Greybox Skill

Produce a single crisp greybox wireframe page. The whole point is structure, not skin — communicate hierarchy and layout with neutral grey blocks, never with real color, copy, or imagery. Everything is a placeholder: text is grey "lorem bars", images are rectangles with a diagonal cross, numbers are big solid blocks. The only color on the page is the single redline accent reserved for monospace annotations.

Workflow

  1. Stay structural. Ignore any DESIGN.md that pushes finished UI — this is deliberately low fidelity. Use a clean system sans (Inter / system-ui) for shape and a mono (IBM Plex Mono / JetBrains Mono) for the redline annotations only. No hand-drawn fonts, no brand color.
  2. Set the greybox palette. Page is a pale neutral (#f7f7f8), blocks are medium grey (#e3e3e6), borders are crisp and defined (#c9c9cf for soft edges, #1c1b1a for emphasis), and exactly one accent (a blue or coral redline) carries every monospace annotation. Keep contrast high enough to read as a small thumbnail — never near-white-on-white.
  3. Lay out the dashboard, in order, each on its own data-od-id:
    • App bar — a logo greybox, a row of nav lorem-bars, and an avatar circle on the right.
    • Sidebar nav — icon squares + lorem-bar labels; mark one item active with a filled/inverted block.
    • KPI row — four greyboxes, each a small label bar above a big solid "number" bar.
    • Chart panel — an inline SVG greybox: axes plus a few hatched/grey bars or a schematic line. No real data.
    • List / table panel — a header row plus ~5 rows of lorem bars, with one column of image-placeholders drawn as a box with a diagonal X.
    • Annotations — one or two small monospace redlines pinned to the canvas (e.g. 01 · 12-col grid, max-width 1280).
  4. Write one self-contained HTML document — <!doctype html> through </html>, CSS inline, no external JS or images. SVG and CSS draw every placeholder. A max-width container plus a media query collapses columns under ~1000px.
  5. Self-check. It should read as a blueprint at thumbnail size: grey blocks, X-crossed image boxes, lorem bars, and exactly one accent color on the monospace redlines. If any greybox is missing, the page looks colored, or it disappears as a blank thumbnail, fix it.

Output contract

Emit between <artifact> tags:

<artifact identifier="wireframe-slug" type="text/html" title="Wireframe — Title">
<!doctype html>
<html>...</html>
</artifact>

One sentence before the artifact, nothing after.

FAQ

Why use grey blocks instead of colors?

The focus is on structure and layout, not the final appearance. This helps define the arrangement before spending time on visual design.

What are 'lorem bars'?

These are grey bars of varying widths that simulate text paragraphs, indicating where text will appear and its approximate length.

What is the 'redline accent'?

It's a thin, contrasting colored line (usually red) used to add small annotations or explanations about the layout, written in a monospace font.

Details

Original description by the author

A crisp greybox / blueprint lo-fi wireframe — neutral grey blocks on a pale page, image placeholders drawn as a rectangle with a diagonal X, text shown as solid "lorem bars" of varying widths, sharp 1.5–2px borders, and a single monospace redline accent for annotations. Reads like a structural blueprint before any visual design is applied. Use when the brief asks for "greybox", "blueprint wirefram

repo: nexu-io/open-design

Popularity

GitHub stars
101k
Ranking position
#513
License
Apache-2.0
Updated
10/16/2026

Is this skill useful?

0

Sign in to vote.

Comments

  • …

More skills from this repository

Similar skills