Shine 3.0 — executable proof

Shine V3: visual proof was not usability proof

Shine got better at detecting visual defects and still let a bad operational surface through. The failure was simple: contrast, accessibility, component structure, and a reference screenshot can prove that a page is coherent. They cannot prove that someone can capture work, understand priority, make a decision, and see the result.

V3 keeps the visual bar and adds an executable usability bar. Every surface now declares the user-facing objects it implements, binds those objects to its selected reference pattern, and exercises the primary job in a real browser. A decorative control, a static dashboard, or a flow with no observable result fails.

The reference corpus remains the source of taste: Shadcn and Untitled UI establish proven structures and interaction vocabulary. Shine now treats them as more than a screenshot target. The selected pattern must be present as working objects in the product, and the product must prove its own job end to end.

The active integration path is deliberately narrower: Shadcn/TanStack for component applications and native, Untitled-shaped contracts where a framework is not present. MUI, Carbon, and Ant are no longer active routing choices.

What shipped

• Real, readable template source, tokens, provenance, and screenshots replace generated DNA stubs.
• shadcn-weekly-board is a complete authored blueprint with working owner/outcome interactions and its own visual proof.
• measure.mjs, usability contracts, and compare.mjs prove composition, workflow, and template-relative pixels at the artifact boundary.
• Cursor and Codex share one immutable release, with fail-closed edit and stop hooks that the doctor exercises rather than merely finding on disk.
• The supported integration surface is intentionally narrow: shadcn/TanStack for component apps and native, Untitled-shaped contracts without a framework.
• The root install and immutable release audit with zero known npm vulnerabilities.

Run the proof between measurement and visual comparison:

node verify/usability.mjs <url-or-page> --contract shine-usability.json --cite <selected-template>

This is not a claim that an automated browser test can replace human judgment. It makes the minimum judgment falsifiable: if the primary workflow is vague, decorative, or broken, Shine cannot call the screen done.

Credit

Shine's shadcn catalog and registry work stands on shadcn/ui, created by shadcn. Thank you for the extraordinary design and engineering work, and for sharing it as an accessible, open-code component system. Shine is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by shadcn/ui.