Appllama is the design library of top-grossing mobile apps — their real screens, flows, and UI patterns, with revenue and download context. These skills turn that library into an agent's working method: study every screen of the apps that already win, extract the category's design language, then build screens that hold up next to them.
The skills
Skill What it does
appllama-usage The research engine: how to use the Appllama MCP like a design director — the full tool map, and the playbooks for building an app from scratch, improving an existing screen, and flow & element research.
appllama-app-design-skill The build bar: native-feeling Expo / React Native screens — Apple HIG fidelity, semantic colors, native controls, anti-slop discipline, navigation that behaves, a strict motion bar, and a full-motion simulator loop (whole flows recorded and scrubbed frame by frame, not screenshots). The reference library below has the detail.
They are designed as a pair: usage decides what to study, design decides how to build, and both insist the loop only ends in a simulator with a screen you can't fault.
Inside the design skill
A short set of laws, and a reference library the agent loads only when the task calls for it:
Reference What it settles
navigation
push vs replace vs dismissTo · modal vs form sheet vs overlay · tabs and what covers the tab bar · deep links with a real stack underneath · the one-way doors (sign-in, onboarding done, purchase, finished session) · the back-stack audit
motion the decision sequence — should it animate at all → purpose → cheapest tool → properties → spring or curve → off the JS thread — with exact values, haptics, reduced motion, and the never-ship list
motion-recipes press feedback, drag-to-dismiss sheet, swipe-to-delete, collapsing header, list entrances, keyboard-synced UI, tab indicator, toast, threshold haptics — ready to build
fluid-interfaces the physics of feel: response, interruptibility, velocity hand-off, momentum projection, rubber-banding — plus materials and depth, multimodal feedback, typography, and the design principles behind all of it
motion-review reviewing a diff's motion, auditing a whole app into plans any agent can execute, and hunting for (and rejecting) places that could animate
motion-vocabulary the exact words for motion, so a brief that says "bouncy" becomes a spec that says what it means
variant-lab three genuinely different directions behind a dev-only switcher — for open briefs and hero screens where direction matters more than polish
native-controls the iOS + Android control map, menus, sheets, forms — and the library picks, so nothing solved gets hand-rolled
performance measure → fix → re-measure, the budgets, and the thread discipline behind 60 fps
image-assets one style system, generated at the highest quality, post-processed and verified in both themes
simulator-loop the verification checklist — layout, theming, motion, interaction, navigation and back stack, state — and the device matrix
Install
One command, from your project root — works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and 70+ other agents:
npx skills@latest add appllama/appllama-skills
Variations:
# install for specific agents, no prompts
npx skills@latest add appllama/appllama-skills -a claude-code -a cursor -y
# install user-wide instead of per-project
npx skills@latest add appllama/appllama-skills -g
Only want the app design skill?
appllama-app-design-skill stands on its own — the native-quality build
bar, anti-slop discipline, and the full-motion simulator loop work with or
without the Appllama MCP connected:
npx skills@latest add appllama/appllama-skills --skill appllama-app-design-skill
(The same --skill flag installs only appllama-usage if you want just the
research engine.)
Skills are plain directories — copy them into your agent's skills folder
(.claude/skills/ per project, ~/.claude/skills/ user-wide, or your
harness's equivalent):
git clone https://github.com/appllama/appllama-skills
cp -r appllama-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/
Connect the Appllama MCP
appllama-usage runs on the Appllama MCP; appllama-app-design-skill is
sharper with it connected. The endpoint:
https://mcp.appllama.io/mcp
Add it as a custom connector in Claude, Cursor, Codex, or any MCP client
and approve the connection with your Appllama account. MCP access is part
of Pro; credits reset in full on the 1st of
each month. Every call spends one credit — get_credits is always free.
Try it
With the MCP connected and the skills installed, ask your agent:
Build me a habit tracker. Study the top-grossing habit apps first and don't stop until every screen survives the simulator comparison.
Make this screen better. (paste a screenshot, code, or a "Copy Screen ID" ref from appllama.io)
How do the best fitness apps structure onboarding — how long, what does each step earn, and where does the paywall sit?
Wire up the checkout flow. Decide which screens push, which present as sheets, and make sure nobody can go back into the paywall after paying.
Review the animations in this app — what should be deleted, what's on the wrong thread, what's missing velocity — and give me the plan.
License
MIT. The Appllama name, llama, and logo are trademarks of Antmind Ventures Private Limited — the license does not grant rights to use them.