The AntJanus Dispatch Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026
The AntJanus Dispatch Section E · Patterns
Section E · Pattern Library

UI Patterns

A UI pattern library built for coding agents. 40 patterns, each shipping a copy-paste prompt that rebuilds it inside your own codebase — plus a live preview and the source behind it.

A blueprint drawing of interface parts: dialled gauges, dimensioned panels, and a grid of repeated tiles
Interface patterns lifted out of projects Antonin actually shipped.

Every pattern, three ways

Preview

The pattern running live in an isolated frame, in whichever theme you are reading in.

Source

Its markup, styles and behaviour, plus a single runnable file carrying its own palette.

Prompt

A written spec that rebuilds the pattern from scratch — including why each decision is the way it is. Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, or any coding agent.

The prompts are the point. Each one is written to survive being handed to an agent with no other context: it names the surfaces the pattern belongs on, spells out the constraint that makes it work, and calls out the failure it exists to prevent. Nothing here is a dependency you install.

The listings, by category

Pattern counts by category
CategoryListedNew/Upd.Latest
Data display112
Layout94
Interaction116
Forms62
Color33
All4017

Zero dependencies. Every pattern renders in both editions.

Pattern Classifieds

Search the 40 listings by name, tag, or what you are building

40 patterns
  1. Data display

    Windowed schedule grid

    Rows of resources against a fixed time window, where each block is sized by its overlap with the window rather than by its own duration.

    Added

    • schedule
    • timeline
    • grid
    • flexbox
    • time
  2. Data display

    Benchmark progress bar

    Places a raw figure on a scale of external benchmarks instead of printing it plain.

    Added

    • progress
    • benchmarks
    • css-only
    • data-viz
    • empty-state
  3. Data display

    Cross-highlight matrix

    A two-axis lookup table with both headers sticky, hover lighting the full row and column at once, and a durable click-to-pin selection for touch.

    Added

    • table
    • matrix
    • sticky
    • accessibility
    • hover
  4. Data display

    Left-truncating paths

    Shortens a long path by dropping whole segments from the left, because the tail is what tells two paths apart.

    Added

    • truncation
    • paths
    • text-overflow
    • breadcrumbs
    • file-systems
  5. Updated
    Data display

    Shape-mark sequence

    A sequence compressed into a row of small marks whose shape carries the state.

    Added

    • stepper
    • sparkline
    • series
    • truncation
    • css-only
    • no-assets
  6. Data display

    Linked month bars

    A month-by-month volume timeline built from plain divs where every aggregate row links to the filtered view that produced it.

    Added

    • timeline
    • drill-down
    • css-only
    • data-viz
    • no-assets
  7. Data display

    Glass vial meter

    A vertical potion-vial meter whose liquid fills a wide bulb first and then rises into a narrow neck — all CSS, no images.

    Added

    • meter
    • skeuomorphic
    • css-only
    • reduced-motion
    • no-assets
  8. Data display

    Partitioned stage bar

    Progress for work with several possible endings, drawn as a census rather than a fraction.

    Added

    • progress
    • stacked-bar
    • batch
    • legend
    • status
    • aria-label
  9. Data display

    Term-by-term derivation

    A computed figure shown with the audit trail behind it — the number is the product and the derivation is the receipt.

    Added

    • explainability
    • calculator
    • disclosure
    • formula
    • tabular-nums
    • details
  10. Updated
    Data display

    Plan preview tree

    A dry run shown as a before-and-after tree with counts now, after, and the difference.

    Added

    • dry-run
    • diff
    • tree
    • preview
    • bulk-operation
    • confirmation
  11. Data display

    Uniform slot shell

    One card shell many independent sources render through, where the shell does the capping.

    Added

    • dashboard
    • widgets
    • cards
    • empty-state
    • error-state
    • grid
  12. Updated
    Layout

    Object-shaped cards

    Where a record stands for a physical thing, the card is drawn as that thing — nine variations in pure gradients.

    Added

    • cards
    • css-only
    • gradients
    • variations
    • no-assets
    • skeuomorphic
  13. Layout

    Adaptive tile mosaic

    A container with no artwork draws one from up to four member tiles, grid tracks following tile count.

    Added

    • css-grid
    • css-only
    • no-assets
    • cards
    • layout
  14. Updated
    Layout

    Ground-scrimmed artwork

    Text printed over unreviewed artwork, scrimmed to an alpha that can be written down rather than guessed.

    Added

    • layout
    • css-only
    • gradients
    • contrast
    • no-assets
    • hero
    • cards
  15. Updated
    Layout

    Hairline stat strip

    Stat tiles joined by hairlines that are grid gap, not borders.

    Added

    • stats
    • css-grid
    • css-only
    • hairline
    • no-assets
  16. Layout

    Annotated transcript

    Conversation bubbles with a speaker-colored spine and a fixed metadata gutter.

    Added

    • conversation
    • gutter
    • status-roles
    • contrast
    • css-only
  17. Layout

    Cork notice board

    Pinned paper notes on a cork board where every texture is layered CSS gradients.

    Added

    • skeuomorphic
    • gradients
    • no-assets
    • cards
    • css-only
  18. Updated
    Layout

    Hotspot marker layer

    Markers at percentage coordinates over a fixed-aspect picture, turning into a list when too narrow.

    Added

    • hotspots
    • pointer-events
    • aspect-ratio
    • container-query
    • overlay
    • responsive
  19. Layout

    Line-art empty states

    Inline drawings for empty surfaces stroked in the inherited text colour.

    Added

    • empty-state
    • svg
    • currentcolor
    • illustration
    • aria-hidden
    • no-assets
  20. Layout

    Column-flow wall

    Cards flowing down columns instead of across rows, with the reading-order cost stated plainly.

    Added

    • masonry
    • columns
    • break-inside
    • reading-order
    • cards
    • responsive
  21. Interaction

    Scroll edge shadows

    An inset shadow shown only on the edge that has more content behind it.

    Added

    • scrolling
    • affordance
    • lists
    • overflow
    • progressive-disclosure
  22. Interaction

    Frozen-batch deck

    A one-card-at-a-time review queue whose batch is snapshotted at mount.

    Added

    • queue
    • review-flow
    • animation
    • keyboard
    • reduced-motion
  23. Updated
    Interaction

    Controls beside the anchor

    Per-card controls over a fully-linked card without nesting interactive elements in the anchor.

    Added

    • cards
    • accessibility
    • keyboard
    • focus-within
    • grid
  24. Updated
    Interaction

    Pluggable canvas visualizer

    One canvas, a registry of draw modes, each mode owning its entire frame.

    Added

    • canvas
    • visualization
    • registry
    • animation
    • reduced-motion
  25. Updated
    Interaction

    Roving-grid board

    A dense grid of state cells that is one tab stop with arrow-key navigation.

    Added

    • keyboard
    • roving-tabindex
    • accessibility
    • states
    • dense-data
  26. Interaction

    Section rail

    Sticky vertical rail on wide screens, wrapping tab row on narrow ones, from the same markup.

    Added

    • navigation
    • toc
    • responsive
    • aria-current
    • intersection-observer
    • container-queries
    • sticky
  27. Interaction

    Ledge-press buttons

    Buttons on a solid ledge shadow that travel down onto it when pressed.

    Added

    • buttons
    • skeuomorphic
    • press
    • tokens
    • css-only
  28. Updated
    Interaction

    Guarded control

    A blocked control stays focusable, carries the reason as text, and refuses in its handler.

    Added

    • aria-disabled
    • disabled
    • preconditions
    • keyboard
    • aria-describedby
    • forms
  29. Updated
    Interaction

    Polled job card

    One card for every state a background job passes through.

    Added

    • progress
    • polling
    • background-job
    • indeterminate
    • aria-busy
    • reduced-motion
  30. Interaction

    Entry-transform motion

    FLIP-style motion between two rendered states when the old DOM is already gone.

    Added

    • animation
    • transitions
    • reflow
    • reduced-motion
    • navigation
    • layout-effect
  31. Updated
    Interaction

    Slot-first picker

    Assignment that starts at the destination slot, then narrows the catalogue.

    Added

    • assignment
    • picker
    • aria-pressed
    • filtering
    • forms
    • data-driven
  32. Forms

    Undo toast

    A destructive action with no confirm dialog, held behind a toast and committed when it expires.

    Added

    • undo
    • toast
    • destructive
    • aria-live
    • reduced-motion
  33. New
    Forms

    Blast-radius confirm

    A confirm dialog that names everything a delete cascades and blocks dismissal while it runs.

    Added

    • confirm-dialog
    • destructive
    • cascade
    • dialog-element
    • forms
  34. Updated
    Forms

    Batch action bar

    A bar that exists only while something is selected, states the count in words, caps at five actions.

    Added

    • selection
    • bulk-actions
    • toolbar
    • checkbox
    • indeterminate
    • bulk-edit
    • mixed-values
  35. Forms

    Filtered to zero

    The three empty states a list actually has, written as three different screens.

    Added

    • empty-state
    • filter
    • search
    • zero-results
    • aria-live
    • copywriting
  36. Forms

    Parsed query chips

    A search box that echoes back how it read the text as removable chips.

    Added

    • search
    • query-syntax
    • chips
    • facets
    • parsing
    • aria-live
  37. Forms

    Compound-value picker

    One grouped select whose value carries both the kind and the id.

    Added

    • select
    • optgroup
    • polymorphic
    • forms
    • dependent-fields
    • keyboard
  38. Updated
    Color

    Ground-referenced color

    Colors solved against the page's own ground token so they invert correctly between themes.

    Added

    • color
    • contrast
    • color-mix
    • accessibility
    • wcag
    • theming
    • year-map
  39. Updated
    Color

    Single-property color variants

    One custom property carries the hue; border, fill, spine and dot derive from it.

    Added

    • color
    • color-mix
    • custom-properties
    • theming
    • data-attributes
    • badges
  40. Updated
    Color

    Controls on an unknown fill

    Opaque controls, a gradient-darkened fill, and a two-tone focus ring on a surface whose colour arrives from outside.

    Added

    • contrast
    • brand-color
    • focus-ring
    • opacity
    • wcag
    • theming