# Don’t stop at “it works.”

**Give your AI a sharper creative workflow: understand the brief, make work with intent, inspect the real result, and improve the biggest problem before calling it done.**

Human Taste Engine (HTE) is a **portable, AI-agnostic skill** for creative work. It guides an AI through understanding, research, creation, critique and verification—while your AI remains the reasoning and execution engine.

**[⬇ Download the portable skill (v1.0.2)](https://github.com/dollan9/human-taste-engine/releases/download/v1.0.2/human-taste-engine-skill-v1.0.2.zip)** · [See all releases](https://github.com/dollan9/human-taste-engine/releases/latest) · [Browse the skill](skills/human-taste-engine/)

> **A skill, not an app.** The download contains Markdown guidance for your AI. Human Taste Engine does not need its own program, runtime, server, API key or installed tools.

## How it works

Instead of treating the first output as finished, HTE guides the host AI through a focused loop:

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Understand the brief] --> B[Choose a fitting direction]
    B --> C[Make the work]
    C --> D[Inspect what can actually be checked]
    D --> E[Critique and improve the biggest issue]
    E --> F[Deliver with limits stated honestly]
```

The aim is more considered work with fewer avoidable correction rounds—not a forced visual style or a promise that every AI will follow every instruction.

## Try it in three steps

1. **Download** the [portable skill ZIP](https://github.com/dollan9/human-taste-engine/releases/download/v1.0.2/human-taste-engine-skill-v1.0.2.zip) and extract it.
2. **Give your AI the extracted `human-taste-engine/` folder.** Install it through the host’s skill support, or provide the folder to an AI that can read Markdown instructions. In the source repository, this same folder lives at `skills/human-taste-engine/`.
3. **Ask for the work you want.** For example:

   > Create a landing page for my independent clothing brand. It should feel confident and crafted, not like a generic luxury template. Use Human Taste Engine, make a fitting direction, and inspect what you can actually verify before you finish.

If the host has no skill installer, provide the folder and say:

> Read `SKILL.md` and follow it for this task. Open only the supporting guidance it routes to. Use capabilities you already have, and tell me what you could not verify.

## What changes in the workflow

| Without a deliberate review loop | With Human Taste Engine |
| --- | --- |
| Request → guess → generate → done | Understand → choose a direction → create → inspect → critique → refine |
| “Premium” becomes a stock visual preset | Style choices depend on the project, audience and references |
| A successful build stands in for quality | The AI checks the real output when its tools allow it—and labels unchecked judgments honestly |
| Every task gets the same amount of process | Small edits stay small; substantial creative work gets a bounded review loop |

HTE asks the host to separate what is **known**, **observed**, **inferred** and **unknown**; use research when fresh evidence matters; preserve the user’s intent; and fix the highest-impact supported issue first. Anti-patterns are prompts to investigate, not automatic bans.

## Where it helps

- Websites and interfaces
- Design direction, layout and typography
- Image and video work
- Presentations
- Marketing and product copy
- Creative reviews, comparisons and redesigns

For a typo or other mechanical edit, the skill keeps the process lightweight. For a major visual task, it routes the AI to only the relevant guidance and asks it to inspect available evidence before delivery.

## Works with your AI’s existing capabilities

The core skill uses tools the host already has—such as a browser, visual input, search, files or media tools. It does not provide those tools or install them. If the host cannot render a page, view an image, play a video or check a live fact, HTE asks it to say that the judgment remains unverified.

The skill is written in the open [Agent Skills format](https://agentskills.io/specification). Use it with an AI host that supports Agent Skills, or give the folder to a host that can read supplied Markdown files. **The exact installation method depends on the AI host.** An optional Claude Code marketplace adapter points to this same portable skill; it is not required.

## What’s in the repository

- [`skills/human-taste-engine/`](skills/human-taste-engine/) — the skill and its focused supporting guidance.
- [`examples/`](examples/examples.md) — examples of how the method can be applied.
- [`evaluations/`](evaluations/BEHAVIOR_CASES.md) — manual behavior cases, not executable tests or guarantees of host compliance.
- [`THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md`](THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md) — source and license notices.

## Limits

Human Taste Engine is guidance for an AI host. It cannot force a host to comply, add capabilities the host lacks or guarantee a particular creative result. It does not claim visual, motion, playback or interaction checks unless the host actually performed them.

**Ready to try it? [Download the skill ZIP](https://github.com/dollan9/human-taste-engine/releases/download/v1.0.2/human-taste-engine-skill-v1.0.2.zip), give the folder to a compatible AI, and ask it to use Human Taste Engine.**

Licensed under [MIT](LICENSE).