Vanilla Wood
The primary (and currently only) palette. Warm off-whites, muted browns, and soft grays inspired by paper, wood, and natural light. Every color in the system is derived from this palette — backgrounds, text, accents, code blocks, and interactive elements.
It's called Vanilla Wood because it should feel like a notebook on a wooden desk. Calm, familiar, and easy on the eyes for long sessions.
Cross-module consistency
Switching from Gale to Cirrus to Mirage shouldn't feel like switching apps. The same type scale, spacing system, and color tokens are shared across all eight modules. Navigation patterns are consistent. The only things that change are the content and the module-specific controls.
Quiet surfaces
No gradients screaming for attention. No neon accents. No animated backgrounds competing with your content. Surfaces are flat, borders are subtle, and the hierarchy is established through spacing and typography rather than color contrast. The app should feel like a place to think, not a place to be marketed to.
Typography
System fonts on iOS (SF Pro) for UI elements, with careful weight and size choices to establish hierarchy without shouting. Code blocks use SF Mono. The type scale is tight — most of the app lives between 13pt and 17pt — because the content is the interface.