影 kaged v0.2
BRAND.GUIDE
影
kaged
shadow ops for your [stack]
your agents, [caged]
every project gets a [shadow]
the operator's [daemon]
unfucked [by design]
[LIVE] [CAGED] [BOUND] [PAUSED] [IDLE]
v0.2 / What Changed 000

Brand grew teeth

The coming-soon page broke v0.1 on purpose. Rather than pretend that didn't happen, v0.2 names which rules were broken and re-codes them as sanctioned — while protecting the surfaces (code, logs, terminal) where edge becomes friction.

// CHANGELOG
Magenta danger only personality + danger
Cyan rare informational live, telemetry, streaming
Surface taxonomy implicit five-tier system
Status badges ad-hoc 10 formal bracket-locks
Code surfaces implied clean explicitly sacred — tier 5
CRT mode — opt-in toggle, ambient layer
Section 01 / Surface Taxonomy 001

Five tiers of edge

Different surfaces tolerate different amounts of personality. Marketing can shout; code must whisper. Where any surface lands on the ladder is decided once, here, not improvised per-component.

TIER 01
Marketing
EDGE: FULL
Break the guide on purpose. Audience is opting in to be entertained for a few seconds.
  • coming-soon
  • landing pages
  • 404 / 500
  • manifesto
TIER 02
Boot & Empty
EDGE: MEDIUM
Personality moments live here. Boot sequences land brand. Empty states get to be funny.
  • boot sequence
  • empty states
  • splash / loading
  • achievement toasts
TIER 03
Chrome
EDGE: LIGHT
Brand-flavored frame around the work. Badges, hover glows, kanji at small sizes.
  • top bar
  • nav rail
  • breadcrumbs
  • status indicators
TIER 04
Workbench
EDGE: MINIMAL
Where operators actually work. Brand colors carry information; no decoration.
  • project views
  • agent lists
  • settings
  • forms
TIER 05
Code
EDGE: ZERO
Sacred. Syntax highlighting in brand palette is allowed; everything else is forbidden.
  • DSL editor
  • logs / output
  • terminal / PTY
  • JSON / YAML
Section 02 / Palette 002

Three accents, one boss

Amber leads (70%+ of accent budget). Magenta and cyan are sanctioned but never compete with amber for emphasis on the same screen.

// AMBER — primary · brand · active
amber#FFB000
amber.bright#FFCC33
amber.dim#806000
amber.faint#2A2010
// MAGENTA — secondary · personality + sandbox + danger
magenta#FF2E63
magenta.bright#FF6088
magenta.dim#802040
magenta.faint#2A0E18
// CYAN — tertiary · live · telemetry · streaming
cyan#00E0FF
cyan.bright#66F0FF
cyan.dim#007088
cyan.faint#001A20
// NEUTRALS — surfaces + text
bg.base#0A0A0B
bg.elevated#111114
bg.inset#08080A
text.primary#E8E6E1
Section 03 / Status Badges 003

The bracket-lock system

Every meaningful object state gets a formal badge. Don't invent new types — extend this list with intent, then use.

[LIVE]
Active, running, the happy path.
[CAGED]
Sandboxed subagent — scoped FS & net.
[BOUND]
Streaming data, real-time bound.
[PAUSED]
Debug checkpoint, awaiting operator.
[IDLE]
Defined but not running.
[QUEUED]
Scheduled, not yet started.
[BLOCKED]
Waiting on dependency or permission.
[CRASHED]
Errored, needs operator attention.
[DRAFT]
Saved but not committed.
[STALE]
Out of date with source.
Section 04 / Same Component, Two Tiers 004

v0.1 strict → v0.2 sanctioned edge

Same agent list. Left is the v0.1 reading: brand colors are constrained, statuses are text. Right is v0.2: bracket-locked badges, sanctioned magenta for caged, cyan for streaming, ambient pulse for live states.

v0.1 / STRICTtier 4 — pre-edge
primary.agent claude-sonnet-4.6
active 42ms
scraper bandcamp+soundcloud
sandboxed 128ms
deployer k3s+helm
streaming —
writer blog-posts
idle —
v0.2 / SANCTIONED EDGE[CURRENT]
primary.agent claude-sonnet-4.6
[LIVE] 42ms
scraper bandcamp+soundcloud
[CAGED] 128ms
deployer k3s+helm
[BOUND] —
writer blog-posts
[IDLE] —
Section 05 / Code Surfaces Are Sacred 005

Tier 5 — the workbench rule

Where operators read code, the brand becomes invisible. Syntax highlighting carries information; everything else (animation, texture, decoration) is forbidden. Remove the brand entirely and code surfaces should still be perfectly usable.

// project.kaged.yml [DRAFT]
L 1-24 · UTF-8 
# music site — release scraper + auto-deploy
project: music-site
primary:
  model: claude-sonnet-4.6
  system_prompt: ./prompts/primary.md

subagents:
  - name: scraper
    model: claude-haiku
    cage:
      fs: ro:/data
      net: ["*.bandcamp.com", "*.soundcloud.com"]
    timeout: 300
    retry: true

  - name: deployer
    model: claude-sonnet-4.6
    cage:
      fs: rw:/projects/music-site
      net: ["k3s.local:6443"]
    dry_run: false
    prev_run: null

interconnect:
  scraper -> deployer: on_event(found_release)
// DO

Brand-palette syntax highlighting. Amber for keywords, cyan for numbers, magenta for booleans, primary text for strings, dim for comments.

// DO

Use --bg-inset as the code background. Code feels punched into the surface, not raised.

// DON'T

Animate anything — not the gutter, not the line numbers, not "currently-running" line highlights. Static.

// DON'T

Apply scanlines, grids, noise, or any decorative texture to code surfaces. Even faint ones break monospace clarity.

Section 06 / Motion Ladder 006

Three rungs. Pick the lowest.

Hover the cards to see micro motion. Ambient runs always. Theatrical is reserved for tier 1-2 surfaces and respects prefers-reduced-motion.

RUNG 1
Micro
< 200ms · hover · focus
tiers 3 & 4 · default
RUNG 2
Ambient
2-3s loop · live signals
tiers 2-4 · one per pane
RUNG 3
Theatrical
GLITCH
brief bursts · personality
tiers 1-2 only · opt-out aware
Section 07 / Personality Moments 007

Sanctioned places to be loud

Specific surfaces where the brand has license to break the workbench rules. Enumerated so they don't sprawl.

// BOOT SEQUENCE
First-launch boot
≤1.5s, ASCII-styled, types in like a terminal. Lands the brand before showing the dashboard.
> 影kaged daemon · v0.3.1
> loading dsl runtime........... [OK]
> spawning primary agents....... [OK]
> sandboxes ready............... [OK]
> system nominal.
// ACHIEVEMENT TOAST
Milestone hit
Slide in from bottom-right. Magenta border, kanji prefix. Use for genuine milestones — first DSL deployed, first cage run, 100 sessions, etc.
影ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
first cage deployed · scraper:bandcamp
// EMPTY STATE
Zero-state copy
Funny, on-brand, never apologetic. The kanji takes a backseat (low opacity) to telegraph absence.
影
no agents running. the shadows rest.
// EASTER EGGS
Konami → CRT mode
Allowed but rare (2-3 max across the whole product). Konami code triggers full CRT scanlines + noise overlay. Logged in docs/easter-eggs.md.
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A
// FATAL PAGES
404 / 500
Full tier-1 treatment. Glitch, magenta, broken-terminal aesthetic. The page is broken — it should look broken.
404
// CRT TOGGLE
Settings → Appearance
Opt-in scanline + flicker overlay. Off by default. Try the toggle in this page's topbar — it's wired to the same behavior the product will ship.
CRT mode [OFF]
Section 08 / Mobile Surfaces 008

First-class on glass

Badges scale. Status colors read at a glance. Code in adjacent panes stays clean. The mobile chrome is tier 3; the code pane (right) is tier 5.

Mobile · Project view (tier 3)
9:415G • 87%
影 music-site [LIVE]
primary.agent
claude-sonnet-4.6
[LIVE]
scraper
bandcamp+soundcloud
[CAGED]
deployer
k3s+helm
[BOUND]
writer
blog-posts
[IDLE]
Mobile · DSL editor (tier 5)
9:415G • 87%
影 project.kaged.yml [DRAFT]
project: music-site
primary:
  model: claude-sonnet-4.6

subagents:
  - name: scraper
    timeout: 300
    retry: true