Implementing Ignite UI Blazor Views from Design Images

MANDATORY AGENT PROTOCOL

Before writing any implementation code, you must complete these steps in order:

1. Analyze the image and identify all visible regions and UI patterns.
2. Read references/component-mapping.md.
3. This skill is Blazor-only. Check NuGet package (IgniteUI.Blazor.Lite, IgniteUI.Blazor.GridLite for general purpose components and light-weight grid, or IgniteUI.Blazor / IgniteUI.Blazor.Trial for specialized feature-rich grids and charts) only when theming or component availability depends on it.
4. To apply a theme, use the theming workflow from this skill and the dedicated igniteui-blazor-theming skill; use the igniteui-theming MCP tools instead of styling from memory.
5. Call get_doc for every chosen component family before using it.
6. Read [references/gotchas.md](references/gotchas.md) now — after docs, before writing any code. Read the file in full. Some entries are component-specific; others apply broadly to any chart, any themed component, or any scoped CSS. Apply every entry that is relevant to what you are building. This is a blocking step: do not start implementation until you have read the whole file and checked it against your component list.
7. Only then start coding.

Workflow

1. Analyze the design image - Read the image, identify every UI section, component, layout structure.
2. Confirm NuGet package if needed - this skill is Blazor-only; use IgniteUI.Blazor.Lite, IgniteUI.Blazor.GridLite for general purpose components and the light-weight grid, and IgniteUI.Blazor (trial version available publicly as IgniteUI.Blazor.Trial) for specialized feature-rich grids and charts.
3. Discover components - Call list_components with targeted filters and framework: "blazor" to find matching components for each UI pattern.
4. Look up component docs - Call get_doc for every chosen component family before coding.
5. Generate theme - (a) Extract colors and call create_palette or create_custom_palette with platform: "blazor" and output: "css" — do not use create_theme for Blazor, it produces Sass requiring compilation. Optionally call create_elevations and create_typography for elevation and font overrides. (b) After a palette exists, prefer using design tokens or scoped semantic CSS variables over raw literals. (c) For every Ignite UI component, call get_component_design_tokens, map extracted image tokens to token roles, then call create_component_theme with the tokens differing from the global theme for the specific component.
6. Implement - Build the screenshot-first layout, data, and view components.
7. Refine - Use the set_size, set_spacing, set_roundness tools to refine the view's visual fidelity against the image, then iterate on implementation and theming until the view matches the design closely.
8. Validate - Build, test, run, compare against the image, and fix differences.

Step 1: Analyze the Design Image

Read the input image carefully. For each visual section, identify:

• Layout structure: grid rows/columns, sidebar, navbar, content area proportions, and estimated fixed widths or percentages for major regions.

Note: Do not guess the exact CSS properties at this stage; just identify the high-level structure and relative proportions. Do not try to fit the view into exact breakpoints or pixel values. Try to generate a flexible layout that preserves the observed proportions and can adapt to different screen sizes. You will refine the exact CSS rules in Step 8 after building a first version of the view.

• Component type: chart, list, card, map, gauge, table, form, etc.
• Color palette: primary, secondary, surface/background, accent, text colors
• Typography: font sizes, weights, letter-spacing patterns
• Surface styling: borders, border-radius, shadows, elevation, divider treatments
• Data patterns: what mock data is needed (time series, lists, KPIs, geographic)
• Spacing system: translate observed padding and gaps into a small reusable scale derived from the design

Before writing code, create a decomposition table with one row per visible region containing:

Start every region with the most appropriate Ignite UI Blazor component from references/component-mapping.md. Only fall back to plain semantic HTML when the component DOM structure is fundamentally incompatible with the design after CSS overrides are considered. Document the reason for any plain-HTML fallback in a code comment.

Before writing code, produce a compact implementation brief that captures:

• chosen components per region
• fallback HTML regions
• theme strategy
• package needs
• major assumptions

After the table, translate the image into CSS Grid rows and columns first. Preserve desktop proportions before adding responsive behavior, then define explicit breakpoint stacking rules for smaller screens.

Step 2-3: Use MCP Tools for Discovery

This skill is Blazor-only. Check NuGet package only when component availability or theming depends on it.

If you need to confirm the NuGet package:

• If the project uses IgniteUI.Blazor.Lite (open-source), premium components such as charts, maps, gauges, full grids, and Dock Manager are not available.
• If the project uses IgniteUI.Blazor.GridLite (open-source), use IgbGridLite only for lightweight Grid Lite scenarios.
• If the project uses licensed IgniteUI.Blazor, the full component suite is available.
• If the project uses trial IgniteUI.Blazor.Trial, the trial, publicly available on NuGet.org.

Then call list_components with framework: "blazor" and relevant filters to find components matching each UI pattern. Common filters:

• chart, sparkline - for data visualization
• list view, card, avatar, badge - for data display
• nav, navbar, drawer - for navigation
• progress, gauge - for metrics
• map - for geographic displays
• grid - for tabular data

Use narrow search terms to reduce noisy MCP results. Search for the specific UI pattern you need, such as list view instead of list.

For component-to-Ignite-UI mapping, see references/component-mapping.md.

Step 4: Look Up Component API

For every chosen component category, call get_doc with the doc name from list_components results (e.g., name: "card", framework: "blazor"). Use the doc name field from the MCP results, not the result title shown in the list. This is mandatory before coding and gives exact usage patterns, parameters, and Razor markup structure.

Call search_docs for feature-based questions (e.g., "how to configure [component] for [specific behavior or styling need]").

Step 5: Generate Theme with MCP

Use this skill for the image-to-view theming workflow only. The dedicated igniteui-blazor-theming skill remains the source of truth for palette-token behavior, global theme rules, and broader theming-system guidance.

5a - Existing app guard (always run first)

Before generating any theme code, inspect the project's host page (wwwroot/index.html, App.razor, or _Host.cshtml), global CSS files (wwwroot/css/app.css or wwwroot/css/site.css), and any existing theme source or compiled theme files (theme.scss, theme.css, package scripts, or build pipeline references). Look for an existing CSS theme <link>, compiled custom theme, or :root CSS custom property overrides that already define a palette.

• Existing theme found -> the global palette is already set. Do not call create_theme or create_palette unless the user explicitly wants a global theme change. Instead:

1. Inspect the existing theme definition and any exposed palette tokens or semantic CSS variables
2. Reuse the current design system, variant, and palette tokens wherever they already match the design image
3. Skip to 5c and apply only minimal scoped overrides for the new view's components

• No theme found / default palette -> proceed with 5b to generate a fresh global theme.

5b - Global theme generation (new projects only)

Follow this order - MCP guidance first, image extraction second:

1. Read MCP guidance first - call theming://guidance/colors/rules (or get_theming_guidance) before looking at the image. This tells you the available theme inputs and any luminance or variant constraints.
2. Resolve the design system - infer it from the existing workspace, explicit user request, or the closest visual match in the design. Do not assume one if a stronger signal exists.
3. Extract from the image - now that you know the available slots, extract values only for the inputs you actually need.
4. Call `create_palette` with the extracted seed values (for Blazor, use create_palette with output: "css" - NOT create_theme, which always outputs Sass requiring compilation):

create_palette({
  primary: "<color extracted from image for primary slot>",
  secondary: "<color extracted from image for secondary slot>",
  surface: "<color extracted from image for surface/background slot>",
  variant: "<resolved theme variant>",
  platform: "blazor",
  output: "css"
})

Read and act on any luminance warnings returned. If the design needs multiple surface depths that a single generated surface color does not cover, use create_custom_palette or define semantic CSS variables for the additional depths in the global CSS file.

Use create_palette for straightforward designs with a small, coherent color system. Use create_custom_palette when the design has multiple distinct surface depths, several accent families, or when the generated palette cannot reliably match the screenshot.

The create_palette(output: "css") output for Blazor produces CSS custom property overrides. Apply them in your global CSS file (e.g., wwwroot/css/app.css) or as a :root block.

5c - Per-component token discovery and mapping (always run)

Scope: this step applies only to core Ignite UI Blazor components (grid, list, navbar, drawer, card, inputs, chips, etc.). DV components - charts, maps, gauges, and sparklines - have no CSS design tokens. Skip this step for them and set their visual properties exclusively via component parameters as described in references/gotchas.md and in Step 7.

For every core Ignite UI component chosen in Steps 3-4, follow this MCP-first loop - query MCP before touching the image:

1. Discover (MCP first) - call get_component_design_tokens(component) before looking at the image for that component. Read the full token list with names, types, and descriptions. Identify which tokens correspond to visible surfaces, text, borders, icons, and interaction states.
2. Extract (image second) - now that you know the exact token names, go to the image region for that component and read the exact token value for each relevant token slot. Do not guess; zoom into the component region.
3. Generate - call create_component_theme(component, platform: "blazor", output: "css", tokens) passing only the tokens whose resolved value differs from the global theme. This produces a CSS block with igc-<tag> { --ig-<component>-<token>: ...; } selectors.

Where to place the generated CSS:

• Global CSS file (wwwroot/css/app.css or equivalent) - use the generated code as-is. No modification needed.
• `.razor.css` isolation file - prefix every igc-<tag> selector with ::deep so Blazor's CSS scoping does not block it:

/* MCP output (goes in global app.css as-is) */
igc-chip {
  --ig-chip-background: var(--ig-primary-500);
  --ig-chip-text-color: var(--ig-primary-500-contrast);
}

/* Same override in a .razor.css isolation file - add ::deep */
::deep igc-chip {
  --ig-chip-background: var(--ig-primary-500);
  --ig-chip-text-color: var(--ig-primary-500-contrast);
}

Use ::part() (e.g., igc-chip::part(base)) only when a style cannot be achieved through design tokens - verify via get_component_design_tokens first. In isolation files, combine: ::deep igc-chip::part(base) { ... }. Do not use ::part() as the default styling approach for tokens.

Do not run create_component_theme for regions built with custom HTML/CSS only.

5d - Theming sequence summary

Apply in this exact order:

1. Inspect host page and global CSS -> existing theme or blank?
2. Create or update a palette: create_palette with platform: "blazor" and output: "css" (Step 5b)
3. For each Ignite UI component: get_component_design_tokens -> map image design tokens -> resolve values to design tokens or semantic CSS variables -> create_component_theme with platform: "blazor" (Step 5c)
4. Use get_color after palette generation whenever a palette token can represent the final color intent

Step 6: Confirm Package Coverage

Use IgniteUI.Blazor.Lite and IgniteUI.Blazor.GridLite for general purpose components and the light-weight grid. For specialized feature-rich grids, charts, maps, gauges, sparklines, and Dock Manager, use IgniteUI.Blazor (licensed) or IgniteUI.Blazor.Trial (trial version available publicly on NuGet.org). There are no separate DV-specific packages to install.

However, each DV component requires module registration in Program.cs:

builder.Services.AddIgniteUIBlazor(
    typeof(IgbCategoryChartModule),
    typeof(IgbFinancialChartModule),
    typeof(IgbDataChartModule),
    typeof(IgbPieChartModule),
    typeof(IgbSparklineModule),
    typeof(IgbGeographicMapModule),
    typeof(IgbLinearGaugeModule),
    typeof(IgbRadialGaugeModule),
    typeof(IgbBulletGraphModule)
    // Register only the modules you actually use
);

If the required NuGet package is not referenced in the project, identify the correct package and version first, then ask for approval before modifying the .csproj.

Note: IgniteUI.Blazor.Lite (open-source) does not include charts, maps, gauges, full grids, or Dock Manager. If those are needed, the project requires IgniteUI.Blazor (licensed) or IgniteUI.Blazor.Trial (evaluation with trial watermark). For a lightweight open-source grid, use IgniteUI.Blazor.GridLite with IgbGridLite.

Step 7: Implement

Structure

• Layout: use Ignite UI Blazor layout and data-display components as the starting point for standard regions, then apply CSS Grid/Flexbox and component overrides to match the screenshot. Only substitute plain semantic HTML when an Ignite UI component remains structurally incompatible after a genuine attempt.
• Data: use typed C# mock data (records or classes) that matches the design's density and domain; add models/services only when they help the implementation.
• View: create a .razor file with Razor markup and a matching .razor.css file for CSS isolation. Keep layout, spacing, typography, and surface styling in the CSS isolation file rather than inline attributes.
• Code: use an @code { } block at the end of the .razor file for small components. For complex components, use a code-behind .razor.cs file.
• Theming: apply the resolved design system and theme variant from Step 5, and keep color usage aligned with CSS custom property palette tokens or local semantic CSS variables.

Blazor Conventions

• Register every Igb* component's module in Program.cs: builder.Services.AddIgniteUIBlazor(typeof(IgbXxxModule), ...);
• Add @using IgniteUI.Blazor.Controls in _Imports.razor
• Use [Parameter] for public component parameters
• Use EventCallback<T> for event handlers
• Use @ref="myRef" with a matching field for programmatic access
• Use @bind-Value, @bind-Checked, and other documented bindable parameters for two-way binding
• Use <Template> child elements with context parameter for templating (not <ng-template>)
• Use @inject for dependency injection

Implementation Checks

• Use references/component-mapping.md for component-choice and semantic-fallback rules
• When unsure about an API parameter, CSS scoping rule, or component choice, re-check references/gotchas.md — do not guess or re-encode its rules inline
• Favor Ignite UI components over custom HTML when both approaches can reach similar visual fidelity
• Preserve spacing, hierarchy, and data density before adding extra interactivity
• Avoid generic placeholders when the image shows domain-specific content
• Document brief assumptions when the image is ambiguous instead of silently guessing

Step 8: Refine

After the first implementation pass, use the set_size, set_spacing, and set_roundness tools to adjust the view's visual properties and close the gap with the image. Focus on the most visually distinctive elements first (e.g., panel proportions, chart shape, button prominence) before tuning smaller details (e.g., row heights, spacing between regions).

Step 9: Validate

Use this validation loop explicitly:

1. Build (dotnet build)
2. Test
3. Run the app (dotnet run or dotnet watch)
4. Visually compare against the image
5. Adjust and repeat

In terminal-only environments, the user performs the visual comparison and provides feedback on any mismatches. Only perform the visual check directly when the environment has browser and screenshot capabilities available to the agent.

Use this checklist during the first visual comparison:

• panel proportions
• control density
• chart shape
• legend placement
• button prominence
• row heights
• spacing between regions

Fix C# compilation or Razor template errors immediately during the build step. Use the build output, component docs, references/gotchas.md, and the user's visual feedback to close the remaining gaps. Typical adjustments include:

• revisiting chart data density, smoothing, or marker visibility
• adjusting layout ratios, region spacing, or row heights
• correcting navigation mode, panel chrome, or component choice
• tuning map/filter treatment and dark-surface hierarchy
• re-examining the original design for overlooked sections or missing module registrations

After the build succeeds with zero errors, refine layout proportions, color values, missing sections, and typography until the view matches closely.