Purpose

Use this skill when the user is not starting from zero. It should preserve what is working, identify the real color problems, and convert the palette into a cleaner Chinese traditional color system.

Pain Points This Solves

• Existing designs often contain duplicate accents, hardcoded near-matches, and unclear role ownership.
• A full redesign can destroy brand recognition when a conservative repair would be better.
• Designers need to know whether to keep, merge, replace, or remove colors, not just see nearest matches.

Data Contract

• Use the bundled references inside this skill for replacements:
• references/chinese-color-master-list.md: full 742-color Markdown source list.
• references/chinese-color-harmony.csv: complete machine-readable harmony table for all 742 colors.
• references/chinese-color-harmony.md: Markdown version of the same harmony relationships.
• Separate user input colors from nearest traditional matches.
• Preserve brand recognition unless the user asks for a full redesign.
• For screenshots, only give exact matches when actual sampled HEX values are available; otherwise describe likely issues and request sampling for precision.

Audit Workflow

1. Inventory the current palette:

• Extract HEX values or list provided values.
• Assign current roles: background, text, CTA, accent, border, status, chart, decoration.
• Identify repeated near-colors and orphan colors with no clear role.

1. Diagnose root causes:

• Too many accents.
• Low contrast or unclear reading hierarchy.
• Similar colors doing different jobs.
• Same job using different colors.
• Brand mood mismatch.
• Light/dark mode mismatch.
• Decorative color competing with function.

1. Map each input color to 1 to 3 nearest traditional colors.
2. Choose a repair level:

• Conservative: only replace failures and near-duplicates.
• Balanced: preserve recognition but rebuild roles.
• Full system: create a traditional-color system when requested.

1. Assign actions: keep, merge, replace, remove, or reserve for accent.
2. Recommend the next skill only after the repair path is clear.

Output Shape

• Current diagnosis: specific, non-judgmental, tied to roles.
• Inventory table: input HEX, current role, problem, nearest traditional color, confidence.
• Repair plan: keep, merge, replace, remove, or reserve.
• Final role palette: role, color name, HEX, usage.
• Migration notes: CSS/Figma/token names if relevant.
• Next step: xxd-accessible-color, xxd-ui-token, xxd-brand-system, or xxd-palette-applier.

Do not recommend a complete rebuild when a focused repair solves the problem.