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steamdeck-ui-design

Design
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Project-specific Steam Deck Game Mode UI rules for decky-music. Use when designing, implementing, or reviewing the `/music` Decky route, provider pages, QAM entry points, gamepad focus behavior, Footer Legend text, or UI mockups.

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I want to install this Agent Skill for this project in Codex.

Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/jinzhongjia/decky-music/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/steamdeck-ui-design/SKILL.md

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First, summarize what it does, its dependencies, license status if identifiable, and any risks. Show the exact files you propose to add under .agents/skills/steamdeck-ui-design/. Do not write files or run scripts until I approve.

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Copying this prompt does not install or run the skill. Review third-party files before use. Codex skill guide

Steam Deck UI Design for decky-music

Use this skill for decky-music UI work. It is adapted from steamdeck-ui-design-skill.zip and intentionally narrowed to this project.

Project source of truth

Read these before changing UI behavior:

  • docs/DESIGN.md §6: architecture-level UI constraints.
  • docs/ui-design/specs/steam-deck-ui-rules.md: shared visual, focus, button, Footer Legend, and host-safety contract.
  • docs/ui-design/specs/qq-ui.md: QQ provider page rules.
  • docs/ui-design/specs/ncm-ui.md: NCM provider page rules.
  • docs/ROADMAP.md: current P3+ implementation order.

Adjustments from the upstream skill

The upstream archive contained broad 10-foot UI guidance. For this repo, apply these corrections:

  1. No sidebars means no persistent sidebars inside /music content. QAM itself is a SteamOS side panel and remains valid for provider selection, login, settings, and project links.
  2. Footer Legend is system-rendered. Do not draw a custom footer bar. Use Focusable action-description props; Steam renders icon style, layout, and the left STEAM item.
  3. No bottom fixed MiniPlayer in the target P3 UI. Soft keyboard resize pushes fixed bottom bars upward. Use the Tab status badge, Start blind play/pause, Y queue overlay, and Now Playing / radio pages for full controls.
  4. View is reserved. Do not bind View to multi-select or playback controls unless a real project need is validated. It is not part of the P3 required path.
  5. Cross-domain examples are out of scope. Video, reading, file-manager, and store patterns are not part of this project skill; use only the music-plugin rules below.

Core layout contract

  • /music uses top horizontal provider Tabs and full-width content.
  • QQ pages: 推荐 / 搜索 / 我的音乐 / 智能电台 / 正在播放.
  • NCM pages: 发现 / 私人 FM / 搜索 / 我的 / 正在播放.
  • SteamOS global chrome is system-owned: search, notifications, Wi-Fi, battery, time, avatar. Do not draw or focus it.
  • Put provider logo, top Tabs, L1/R1 hints, and the current-track status badge in the content header row.
  • Personal asset pages use the Steam library pattern: second-level Tabs with counts plus full-width list/grid content.
  • Search pages must survive soft-keyboard resize without overlapping or fixed-bottom controls.

Focus and gamepad contract

Every interactive element must be reachable by gamepad focus.

Buttondecky-music meaning
AConfirm, play, enter detail, submit search, refresh QR.
BBack, close overlay, cancel manual lyric/comment browsing.
XContext menu; NCM lyrics/comment toggle; radio page may override for trash/next.
YQueue overlay on normal pages; radio pages may override for like/favorite.
StartGlobal play/pause blind operation. Hide the hint when queue is empty or backend is unavailable.
ViewReserved; do not use for required flows.
L1/R1Top-level provider page switching.
L2/R2Secondary Tabs or long-list paging.
D-Pad / left stickFocus roaming; lyrics manual scroll; slider micro-adjustment.
Steam / QAMSystem reserved, never bind.

Hard rules:

  • Wrap all clickable rows, cards, buttons, and sliders in Focusable or a Decky component that participates in the focus tree.
  • Use MAINTAIN_X for grids and multi-column layouts.
  • No hover-only, touch-only, hidden click zones, or pointer-only affordances.
  • Overlays have their own focus tree and restore the previous focus on close.
  • Footer Legend text must match the current focus and mode in the same state update.

Visual contract

  • Use near-black SteamOS-style backgrounds.
  • Use Steam blue #1a9fff as the main interaction color.
  • Use QQ green / NCM red only for brand accents and like-state highlights.
  • Cover art is the card; avoid phone-app rounded containers.
  • Focus state: thin white outline close to the element, subtle glow/scale.
  • List focus: horizontal grey gradient with optional Steam-blue left rail.
  • Cover images load from CDN thumbnails with an onError placeholder; never send image bytes through bridge RPC.

Host-safety contract

Steam UI and plugin UI share one Chromium context. A plugin bug must not freeze Steam.

  • Catch all async handlers, timers, RPC calls, and event callbacks.
  • Treat malformed backend events as data to ignore, not as render-time assumptions.
  • Limit list rendering with pagination or virtualization.
  • Clean timers, event listeners, routes, and overlays on unmount.
  • Do not monkey-patch Steam globals or write project globals.
  • Do not expose URL, cookie, credential, or raw provider secrets to UI logs.

Verification checklist

Before considering UI work done:

  • Pure gamepad flow works: enter /music, switch Tabs, search/open content, play, pause/resume, open/close queue, open/close context menu.
  • Soft keyboard does not push a fixed player bar over content.
  • Footer Legend shows only currently executable actions.
  • Backend down, malformed data, empty lists, and network errors render recoverable states.
  • Steam UI remains responsive; worst case only decky-music shows an error boundary.