CLI reference

designmd.me CLI

Generate DESIGN.md files from the terminal. Drop them next to your code, reference them in AI context, and ship UI that actually matches the design.

Step 1

Install

Requires Node.js 18 or later.

bash

npm install -g @crowdlinker/designmdme

Step 2

Log in

No password or API key needed. Running designmdme login will open a link in your browser — authorize it and you're done.

bash

designmdme login

Step 3

Generate

Point it at any public website. The CLI captures a screenshot, extracts design tokens, and writes a DESIGN-<domain>.md file in your current directory. Use --output to write to a specific path instead.

bash

designmdme --website stripe.com
# → writes DESIGN-stripe-com.md

designmdme --website stripe.com --output ./docs/stripe.md
# → writes to a custom path

HTTP and HTTPS are normalised automatically. If the file already exists you'll be prompted to replace it or save a dated copy.

Runs in the background

Generation is a durable server-side job — the CLI shows live status (Queued → Generating) and waits for the result. If you exit or lose connection the job keeps running; check on it later with designmdme list.

New

Single vs multi-page

By default the spec is built from the landing page. Add --multi-page to crawl and merge the site's key pages (pricing, product, features…) into a richer, more complete design system — or --single-page to force the cheaper landing-page-only run. With no flag, your saved account preference is used and the resolved mode + cost are printed before generating.

bash

designmdme stripe.com --single-page   # 4 credits
designmdme stripe.com --multi-page    # 8 credits

Credits

Single-page costs 4 credits, multi-page 8 credits. You're only charged on success, and re-generating a cached site is free. If a site turns out to be a single page, it's billed as single-page even with --multi-page.

New

HTML Preview

Add --html to generate an interactive HTML design system page alongside your DESIGN.md. The HTML file renders your brand's colors, typography, and components as live visual specimens — useful for sharing with designers or dropping into a project wiki.

bash

designmdme --website stripe.com --html
# → writes DESIGN-stripe-com.md
# → writes DESIGN-stripe-com.html

Credits

HTML generation costs 8 credits in addition to the standard generation cost. If your balance is too low the HTML step is skipped — your DESIGN.md is always saved first.

Commands

Command reference

bash

# Login (opens a browser link to authorize)
designmdme login

# Generate a design spec (URL as positional or flag)
designmdme stripe.com

designmdme --website stripe.com

# Choose the extraction mode
designmdme stripe.com --single-page   # landing page only (4 credits)
designmdme stripe.com --multi-page    # crawl key pages (8 credits)

# Generate DESIGN.md + HTML preview together
designmdme --website stripe.com --html

# Generate to a custom output path
designmdme stripe.com --output ./docs/stripe.md

# Check who you're logged in as
designmdme whoami

# Show usage stats and weekly quota
designmdme usage

# See generation history (with mode + status)
designmdme list

# Log out
designmdme logout

Agent Skill

Use with AI agents

The designmdme CLI ships as an Agent Skill. Install it into Claude Code, Cursor, or any skills-compatible agent and your assistant learns to extract a real design system before writing UI code — covering auth, generating a DESIGN.md from any URL, the --html preview, and exact credit costs.

bash

# Install the designmdme Agent Skill (Claude Code)
npx skills add crowdlinker/skills --skill designmdme-cli --agent claude-code -g -y

Swap --agent claude-code for your tool (e.g. cursor). Source on GitHub.

AI tools

Use with AI coding tools

Drop the generated file into your project and include it in your AI assistant's context so it has exact colors, typography, and spacing — no guessing.

Claude CodeCLAUDE.md

markdown

# Design context

Run this before working on UI:
```bash
designmdme --website $TARGET_DOMAIN
```

This generates DESIGN-<domain>.md with the full design spec.
Include the output file in your context: @DESIGN-<domain>.md

Cursor.cursor/rules

markdown

# .cursor/rules

When building UI for this project, first run:
  designmdme --website <domain>

Then reference the generated DESIGN-<domain>.md file
for colors, typography, spacing, and component patterns.

Works with any tool that reads files from your project — Copilot, Windsurf, Aider, or plain ChatGPT. Just reference @DESIGN-<domain>.md in your prompt.

Manage CLI tokens

View active sessions, revoke tokens, and see generation history in your profile.