positronick-ui

An AI's point of view, rendered as UI.

positronick-ui is a Svelte 5 component library and design system. Its visual language is inspired by the two artificial superintelligences in Person of Interest — The Machine and Samaritan — a surveillance‑HUD aesthetic of corner‑bracket targeting boxes, monospace data rows, designation tags, and processing readouts.

One component set, two runtime‑switchable themes — selected by a single data-theme attribute on a <ThemeProvider>:

| | The Machine | Samaritan | | ----------- | ---------------------------- | -------------------------- | | Mode | Dark | Light | | Surface | black | white | | Ink | white | black | | Accent | red (neon glow) | red (crisp, glow‑free) | | Temperament | watchful, benevolent | cold, total, authoritarian | | Motif | solid square corner brackets | crosshair / reticle |

Red is the only constant accent; the two themes are a deliberate light/dark inversion that share type, radius (~0), hairlines, uppercase display type, and monospace data. Switching the attribute re‑skins everything via a swapped token layer — no component forks.

By Nicholas Sollazzo. MIT licensed.

Status: pre‑release (0.0.0). The toolchain and theming foundation are in place; components are landing milestone by milestone. APIs may change before 1.0.

Install

pnpm add @positronick/ui svelte

svelte@^5 is a peer dependency.

Upgrading from 0.4? 0.5.0 renamed the package and its identifiers (--poi-* → --pn-*, .poi-* → .pn-*, PoiTheme → PositronickTheme). Most of these break silently. See MIGRATION.md for the steps and a codemod.

Usage

<script>
	import { ThemeProvider } from '@positronick/ui';
	import '@positronick/ui/tokens.css';
</script>

<ThemeProvider theme="machine">
	<!-- positronick-ui components render here, themed by the provider -->
</ThemeProvider>

Theming is exposed entirely through CSS custom properties; consumers can override any semantic or component token without forking a component.

Components

All components render in both themes and are exported from the package root.

| Component | Purpose | | ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ThemeProvider | Sets data-theme, exposes the theme via context (useTheme), injects tokens | | SubjectFrame / TargetBox | Frames a subject with corner brackets (Machine) or a crosshair reticle (Samaritan) + a designation | | DesignationTag | Small labelled chip (neutral / threat / asset tone) | | StatusRow | Label / value data row with a hairline divider — the core repeating primitive | | Block / Card / Box | The three container densities (roomy → tight) | | Window | Collapsible titlebar panel — traffic-light dots (Machine) vs. a severe red bar (Samaritan) | | Button | Real <button> with glow/pulse (Machine) or crisp state (Samaritan); optional rotate-on-hover | | ProgressBar | role="progressbar" with a glowing (Machine) or flat (Samaritan) fill; sm/md/lg | | Terminal | Monospace, normal-case content with a blinking prompt | | Banner | Word-by-word reveal (the show's "samaritanWrite" effect) | | RecDot | Pulsing record indicator | | Loading | Rotating cube loader |

Also exported: useTheme, the reducedMotion helper, the MACHINE_DESIGNATIONS / SAMARITAN_DESIGNATIONS vocabularies, and the PositronickTheme / Designation types.

Demo & docs

• Kitchen-sink demo (both themes side by side): https://positronick.github.io/ui/
• Storybook (per-component, with a11y checks): https://positronick.github.io/ui/storybook/

Develop

pnpm install
pnpm dev              # SvelteKit kitchen-sink demo (both themes side by side)
pnpm storybook        # component workshop + docs + a11y
pnpm test             # vitest (browser-mode component tests + node + storybook)
pnpm test:coverage    # coverage report (lcov + html)
pnpm check            # svelte-check
pnpm lint             # prettier + eslint
pnpm build            # build the demo + package the library to dist/

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Accessibility

positronick-ui targets WCAG AA contrast in both theme directions, ships visible themed keyboard focus rings, uses real <button>/<dialog> semantics, and gates all motion behind prefers-reduced-motion.

Credits

Visual language inspired by the on‑screen interfaces of Person of Interest (Bad Robot / Warner Bros.). This is an independent, fan‑made design system and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the rights holders.