FAQ

Plan requirements, cast against paint, dependencies, updating, what genjutsu leaves in your repo, and what to check when the output feels generic.

Is it free?

Yes, and MIT licensed. The repository is public.

What do I need to run it?

Claude Code: nothing beyond Claude Code itself.

claude.ai: the code execution feature, which is on the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. Skills need it, so a Free plan cannot run this one.

cast or paint?

If a visual direction already exists and you want it improved, cast. If there is no direction, or the one there is what you want gone, paint.

Practically: “add a scroll animation to this section” and “make this dropdown feel snappy” are cast. “Redesign the landing page” and “build me a portfolio from scratch” are paint.

paint deliberately replaces the visual layer, so running it on a project whose look you like is the wrong tool.

Will it install packages in my project?

Not without asking. If your stack has no animation library, the native APIs are preferred first, and a dependency is proposed with a reason attached and then waited on.

And if you already chose GSAP or Framer Motion, that module loads and that choice is respected. It will not argue for a migration.

Does anything from genjutsu ship in my bundle?

No. genjutsu is instructions Claude reads, not code you depend on. The output is ordinary code in your project’s own idiom, with your project’s own dependencies. Uninstalling genjutsu does not touch anything it wrote.

What does it leave behind?

Whatever code it wrote, and if you ran paint, a MASTER.md design system at your project root plus the token files your stack expects (CSS custom properties, Theme.kt, Color+App.swift, or commonMain tokens for Compose Multiplatform). All plain files, all yours, all readable without genjutsu installed.

Why does it insist on a thesis before writing anything?

Because the cost is asymmetric. Rejecting one sentence costs a sentence. Discovering the direction was wrong after the implementation costs the implementation, and usually a second round of reconciling half of it.

The thesis is also the thing you can hold it to afterwards. “The thesis said no bounce” is a checkable objection.

Can I skip the brainstorm in paint?

Not silently. Push, and it will tell you what has been covered, what is still missing, and what that gap affects, then offer you the choice between one more question and proceeding on stated assumptions. If you take the second, the assumptions are named out loud so you can correct them rather than discovering them.

How do I update it?

Claude Code: through the plugin system, like any other plugin.

claude.ai: re-download genjutsu.zip and re-upload it. The link always serves the newest release, so there is no version to look up. The release shown in this site’s footer is a quick way to check whether you are behind.

The output feels generic. What now?

Three things to check, in order.

Did a thesis actually get stated and validated? If code arrived without one, the pipeline was short-circuited and the guardrails came off with it. Ask for the thesis explicitly.

On claude.ai, is the whole bundle uploaded? The single-file zip contains all fifteen modules. A partial upload resolves fewer of them, and the loader warns rather than failing, so you can end up running on foundations alone without noticing.

Was the request specific enough to have a direction? “Make it look better” contains no decisions. Naming the element, the feeling and one thing you do not want will change the output more than any setting could.

Can I use it alongside other design skills?

Yes. genjutsu’s subject is motion, interaction and cross-platform native implementation. Skills focused on static web polish overlap very little with that, and pairing them is reasonable.

Where do I report something?

GitHub issues. Include the surface (Claude Code or claude.ai), the stack, and the thesis it proposed, if it got that far. The thesis is usually the most diagnostic part.