Vellum — design DNA
Vellum is the reading-first contract on ui.byronwade.com. It is not Meridian docs mode. It is a system for help, essays, release notes, and agent-readable prose with honest measure.
The merge
| Source | Take | Leave behind |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Approachable message rhythm, provenance clarity | Soft chatbot cliché, toy pastels in prose |
| Vercel | Typographic confidence, sparse craft | Stark cold marketing as reading default |
| Evidence-backed reading lanes | 65ch measure, open leading, serif only for essays | Full-bleed text-sm paragraphs |
| Meridian (sibling) | Shared skeleton, typeset helpers, gates | Cinema heroes, dense ops indexes as default |
What Vellum is
Mist, measured prose. Reading lanes first. Typeset presets (docs · chat · reading · compact) own long-form. Chrome stays quiet. Bronze-mist accent used sparingly. Streaming copy must not jump the layout. Activity pastels stay out of essay bodies.
Laws
- Tokens only — OKLCH semantics.
- One accent — bronze mist
--brandfor links/CTA — not paragraph color. - Measure — ~65ch reading lanes; never exceed 80ch.
- Typeset presets — no per-tag class soup on markdown.
- Hierarchy from size + tracking — not bold display weight.
- Serif only for essays —
reading-prose; docs/help stayreading-uisans. - Streaming-stable — reserve space; no cumulative layout shift on tokens.
- Chrome ≠ prose — dashboards use Harbor/Atlas; Vellum owns help/docs.
Surfaces
| Surface | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Docs / help | reading-ui — 65ch, 16px, 1.6 lh |
| Essays / manifesto | reading-prose — 65ch, 18px serif, 1.7 lh |
| Chat / assistant | typesetClass("chat") + provenance |
| Compact chrome | Sans, tight — never long-form |
Agent stack
Law book (contracts/vellum/) → vellum-* skills → recipes → npm run validate.
Contract MCP optional. See docs/stack.md.
Why this is not “Meridian with mist”
Vellum bans dashboard card grids as the primary help surface and forbids ops/workbench defaults. The system should feel like a careful book and a calm help center — not an admin console in softer colors.