banner-design Skill Review: 7,071 Bytes, Fixed on main, Stale on npm

Until August 31, the banner-design skill in nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill told agents to run chrome-devtools/scripts/screenshot.js, ai-multimodal/scripts/gemini_batch_process.py, and ai-artist/scripts/search.py. None of those exist anywhere in the repo. That got fixed: the current SKILL.md on main is 7,071 bytes and self-contained. The npm package, last published August 13, still ships the old 8,326-byte file. I checked the tarball. The repo has 131,332 stars and 13,962 forks. I read the source, the issue tracker, and the published package, and didn't run the skill through our API.

Why this skill and not the flagship

The repo is famous for ui-ux-pro-max, which searches a local database of styles, palettes, and font pairings by running bundled Python: 11 script invocations in its 15,969-byte SKILL.md, 73 files and 3,582,979 bytes in its directory. Our reviews never execute repo code, so the flagship is out of scope. That's a limit of our method, not a claim that the scripts are unsafe.

brand, design, design-system, and ui-styling also ship scripts, and slides calls ../design-system/scripts/search-slides.py from its references. banner-design is the one folder with no code and no sibling dependency: two markdown files, both read in full.

What the skill actually says

The workflow has five steps: gather requirements, pick art directions, build each option in HTML/CSS, export to PNG, then present and iterate. The reference file lists 28 sizes across social, display ads, web, and print, plus 22 named art-direction styles. Three lines show where its judgment is:

The last one is a lesson learned. It's a direct answer to the old version, which named tools that weren't installed. The design rules are concrete: at most two typefaces, one CTA, text contrast of at least 4.5:1, 44px minimum tap targets, and critical content inside the central 70-80% of the canvas.

What it costs you in context

This is arithmetic from file size, not a measured bill. Divide bytes by 4:

• SKILL.md: 7,071 B ÷ 4 ≈ 1,768 estimated tokens.
• SKILL.md + references/banner-sizes-and-styles.md: 12,064 B ÷ 4 ≈ 3,016 estimated tokens. Step 2 tells the agent to read the reference, so expect both files on a real run.

The flagship's SKILL.md alone is 15,969 B ≈ 3,992 estimated tokens, before any script output.

The cli/assets/skills/banner-design/SKILL.md copy on main is byte-identical to the .claude/ copy (same SHA-256). The drift is between main and what npm actually ships.

What the community reports

Only the first row is about banner-design directly. The rest explain how it broke and why the npm copy still is. I found no Hacker News story or comment about banner-design, and Algolia's comment index returned zero hits for "ui-ux-pro-max." One oddity in #156: banner-design was called a premium addition two weeks after commit e9e2e32 put it in the open repo on 2026-03-10. Public sources don't show how the paid version differs.

How to install it

These commands come from the repo README as of this run:

# Claude Code plugin (marketplace source is the repo itself)
/plugin marketplace add nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill
/plugin install ui-ux-pro-max@ui-ux-pro-max-skill

# CLI route
npm install -g ui-ux-pro-max-cli
uipro init --ai claude

Two caveats I checked. The npm route installs 2.15.0, whose banner-design SKILL.md is the 8,326-byte pre-fix file that still sends the agent to chrome-devtools/scripts/screenshot.js (I read the tarball; I didn't run the CLI). And the README documents uipro init --dry-run, but dry-run appears nowhere in the 2.15.0 dist/; PR #489 merged it on 2026-09-06, after the last publish. Until #457 is resolved, use the plugin route or copy the two-file folder from main. That last option is my suggestion, not a README command.

Where it earns its keep

If you make social covers, display ads, or hero banners often, this is a sensible default brief. HTML-first output keeps headlines editable instead of baked into pixels. The accessibility floor is specific enough to check. The fallback is honest: no screenshot tool means HTML and a note, not a hallucinated export. At about 3,016 estimated tokens it's light to keep installed, and you can audit the whole thing in five minutes.

Where it doesn't

My main criticism is distribution, not the prose. The same failure keeps showing up in this repo: the canonical copy gets fixed and the shipped copy doesn't. Issue #474's follow-ups documented it for design. For banner-design, the fix is 29 days old and npm users still get the broken file. PR #473 added a Playwright path-contract test, which is the right fix, but it can't reach a package that isn't publishing.

Second, the content is thinner than the 131k-star halo suggests. The reference file is mostly a size table and style names, and no platform number carries a date or source. The "under 20% text" ad rule is stated as current Meta behavior with no citation, and the Pinterest query templates hard-code "2026." If you already keep a size cheat sheet, this adds workflow and the text-free-image rule, not much more.

Third, the repo claims 19 platforms in skill.json, yet Step 1 names Claude Code's AskUserQuestion tool directly. And the Security section says "Never expose env vars, file paths, or internal configs" while Step 5 asks for "File path & dimensions" on each export. Harmless, but it reads like boilerplate nobody reconciled with the workflow.

Verdict: worth installing if banners are a regular chore, as long as you get it from the repo and not npm. If you only make a banner once a quarter, ask your agent for an HTML banner at the exact size and skip the skill.

FAQ

What does the banner-design skill do?

It guides banner work for social covers, display ads, website heroes, and print: gather requirements, pick 2-3 art directions, build each in HTML/CSS at exact dimensions, export PNGs if a screenshot capability exists, iterate.

How big is it?

12,064 bytes for both files on main, about 3,016 estimated tokens at bytes ÷ 4. File-size arithmetic, not a measured run.

Which install method gets the fixed version?

The plugin route tracks the repo. npm's ui-ux-pro-max-cli is stuck at 2.15.0 and bundles the pre-fix file.

Why not review the flagship ui-ux-pro-max skill?

Its workflow runs bundled Python scripts, and we don't execute repo code. banner-design is the one skill in the repo with no scripts and no sibling dependency.

Skill by Next Level Builder and contributors (frontmatter author: claudekit). License: MIT, per the repo LICENSE and the skill's frontmatter. Repo: github.com/nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill. Source read at commit 09170ee; npm tarball ui-ux-pro-max-cli version 2.15.0. Review date: 2026-09-29. Community reception shifts over time, and #457 may be resolved by the time you read this, so check the linked issues for the current state.