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Brief 134

Iconography & Visual Language Audit

The icon set as it actually ships — one visual language or a ransom note, every glyph readable and labeled, meanings consistent, and weight kept in check.

ICONOGRAPHY.md4 phases7 lenses~3.1k chars

Free & open · no signup · read-only — it ends by asking · nothing leaves your machine

What it does

You are working inside this repo. Mission: audit the icons and small visual marks this product ships — and find where they speak in different accents, carry meanings no one can guess, or ship without the label a screen reader needs.

Read-only pass. Read the icon assets, components, and their usages; render them if a dev server exists. Your only write is the report file.

What it looks for

7 lenses it looks through

Phase 2 sweeps the codebase through every one of these, citing file and line for each finding.

1

One visual language

consistent style, weight, corner, and grid, or a ransom note of mismatched sets

2

Meaning is legible

does the glyph read as its meaning without a caption; the abstract mark only the designer understands

3

Consistent mapping

one icon per concept and one concept per icon; the pencil that means both edit and compose

4

Labeled for all

icon-only controls with an accessible name or tooltip; decorative icons hidden from screen readers

5

Icon plus label

do critical or ambiguous actions pair the icon with text, rather than betting on recognition

6

Size & optical balance

legible at rendered sizes, aligned to text, optically centered in their buttons

7

Weight & delivery

one delivery method not four; a whole icon font shipped to use six glyphs; unoptimized SVG

The deliverable

What lands in your repo

One structured report at the repo root — or in reports/, if you keep one — the same shape every time, ready for a teammate — or the optional Studio — to act on.

ICONOGRAPHY.md
1
Icon census
sources, libraries, counts, and the styles in play
2
Meaning map
icon · intended meaning · where used · collisions
3
Findings
each: lens · icon/usage · what the user misreads · the fix
4
The system
the one icon set, size scale, and labeling rule this codebase should adopt
One file. Evidence-backed. It ends by asking before touching anything.
How it works

What it makes the agent do

Every Goal Prompt follows the same four steps, so results are consistent and repeatable — no matter which one you run.

1
Phase 1

Collect the set

Find every icon source.

2
Phase 2

Audit through 7 lenses

Cite the icon and its usage for every finding.

3
Phase 3

Curate

Rank by confusion × traffic.

4
Phase 4

Report

Create ICONOGRAPHY.md at repo root.

Get started

Three ways to run this Goal Prompt

01 · COPY

Paste it in

Copy it and paste it into your agent inside the repo you want checked.

02 · INSTALL

As a slash command

Install the goal plugin once — two commands — then just type /goal:iconography-visual-language.

1/plugin marketplace add GhostlyGawd/goal-prompts
2/plugin install goal@goal-prompts

Or install only this Goal Prompt as /goal-iconography-visual-language:

curl -fsSL https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/install | BRIEF=134 sh
03 · AGENT

From an agent (MCP)

Let an agent fetch it mid-conversation, or pull the raw Goal Prompt by URL.

https://goal-prompts.vercel.app/raw/134.md
Transparency

The exact prompt

Nothing hidden — this is the whole Goal Prompt, verbatim. Read it in a minute, edit it, or copy it as-is.

Read the full brief (3,075 characters)
# Goal: Iconography & Visual Language Audit

You are working inside this repo. Mission: audit the icons and small visual marks this product ships — and find where they speak in different accents, carry meanings no one can guess, or ship without the label a screen reader needs.

Read-only pass. Read the icon assets, components, and their usages; render them if a dev server exists. Your only write is the report file.

## Phase 1 — Collect the set
- Find every icon source: SVG files, icon fonts, component library, inline paths, emoji used as icons.
- Count unique icons and how many libraries or styles are in play; note stroke widths, sizes, and grid.
- Map each icon to its meaning(s) and where it is used — the same glyph for two ideas, two glyphs for one idea.

## Phase 2 — Audit through 7 lenses
Cite the icon and its usage for every finding.
1. **One visual language** — consistent style, weight, corner, and grid, or a ransom note of mismatched sets
2. **Meaning is legible** — does the glyph read as its meaning without a caption; the abstract mark only the designer understands
3. **Consistent mapping** — one icon per concept and one concept per icon; the pencil that means both edit and compose
4. **Labeled for all** — icon-only controls with an accessible name or tooltip; decorative icons hidden from screen readers
5. **Icon plus label** — do critical or ambiguous actions pair the icon with text, rather than betting on recognition
6. **Size & optical balance** — legible at rendered sizes, aligned to text, optically centered in their buttons
7. **Weight & delivery** — one delivery method not four; a whole icon font shipped to use six glyphs; unoptimized SVG

## Phase 3 — Curate
- Rank by confusion × traffic: an ambiguous icon on a common control outranks a stylistic nit on a rare one.
- Separate "inconsistent style", "ambiguous meaning", and "unlabeled"; fix unlabeled first — it is accessibility.
- For each, name the icon, the problem, and the fix — relabel, replace, add text, or consolidate the set.

## Phase 4 — Report
Create `ICONOGRAPHY.md` at repo root:
1. **Icon census** — sources, libraries, counts, and the styles in play
2. **Meaning map** — icon · intended meaning · where used · collisions
3. **Findings** — each: lens · icon/usage · what the user misreads · the fix
4. **The system** — the one icon set, size scale, and labeling rule this codebase should adopt

Start the report with today's date. If `ICONOGRAPHY.md` already exists from a previous run, read it first and lead with what changed since.

## Rules
- Every finding names the icon and where it is used
- An icon-only control with no accessible name is a broken control
- Prefer one consistent set and icon-plus-label over clever marks
- No icons in this repo? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
- If a `reports/` directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
- Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
- Report only — end by asking which icon fixes to make

House rules for this Goal Prompt

  • Every finding names the icon and where it is used
  • An icon-only control with no accessible name is a broken control
  • Prefer one consistent set and icon-plus-label over clever marks
  • No icons in this repo? Say so in a one-paragraph null report and stop — a null result is a valid finding.
  • If a reports/ directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
  • Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words
  • Report only — end by asking which icon fixes to make
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