Adaptive Composition
An agent skill for designing, implementing, and reviewing interfaces that preserve meaning, identity, and the ability to complete a task when the conditions change.
Composition over shrinking: use a new arrangement when scaling would lose a useful relationship; keep scaling when it still serves the work.
Same Work, Different Conditions
A short window, enlarged text, a narrow terminal, or a translated interface changes the available space, not automatically the user's intent. Adaptive Composition uses lessons from publication design, identity systems, wayfinding, cartography, instrument controls, graphical interfaces, and terminal interaction to decide what should stay together, remain visible, or move into a deliberate sequence.
Constrained interfaces
Rework layouts that fit technically but lose hierarchy, character, comparison, or a usable path through the work.
Cross-format systems
Carry an interface across width, height, text size, language, and input constraints without treating a narrow view as a lesser task.
Evidence-backed reviews
Turn a design review into concrete arrangements, observed failure conditions, and checks tied to the person using the interface.
PRESERVE WHAT MATTERS • CHANGE WHAT CAN CHANGE
Three Invariants Guide Every Transition
The arrangement can change. The task, the recognizable character of the interface, and the person's place in their work should not disappear with it.
Meaning and task
Keep content relationships, required actions, comparison criteria, units, warnings, and truthful state intact.
Recognition
Preserve names, distinctive imagery, typographic roles, tone, and approved identity cues as layouts change.
Continuity
Retain selection, drafts, focus, navigation history, scroll context, and ongoing work through a transition.
A Working Method, Not a House Style
Start with the actual task
Identify real content, visual language, environments, and constraints. Choose a precedent for the problem it solves, not its period look.
Verify the transition
Test constrained, intermediate, and spacious conditions with real and non-ideal content. Check reading order, operation, continuity, and recovery separately.
Install with the skills CLI
View on skills.sh ↗npx skills add zaguanlabs/adaptive-composition --skill adaptive-compositionAsk for the Interface Work You Need
$adaptive-composition Review this interface at constrained, intermediate, and spacious sizes, including a short window.$adaptive-composition Adapt this dashboard for smaller windows while preserving comparison, selection, filters, and drafts.$adaptive-composition Design this terminal interface for narrow and wide terminals, including resize recovery and keyboard flow.Explore the Research
The skill routes agents to focused references for historical precedents, composition, web and GUI work, terminal interaction, examples, evaluation, and source checking. Historical examples are used as hypotheses for the present task, then verified against the interface people actually use.