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This document reviews the design system implementations across all MetaCogna Suite applications, analyzing consistency, alignment with Paper UI principles, and areas for improvement.

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Executive Summary

Review Date: 2024
Applications Reviewed: 3 frontend applications
  • MetaCogna RAG
  • MetaCogna.ai Landing
  • Parti Architecture
Overall Assessment: Good foundation with Paper UI principles, but significant inconsistencies in implementation across applications.

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Application Overview

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MetaCogna RAG

  • Location: metacogna-rag/components/PaperComponents.tsx
  • Components: Basic set (Card, Button, Input, Badge, MarkdownText)
  • Implementation Style: Simple, functional
  • Framework: React + Tailwind CSS

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MetaCogna.ai Landing

  • Location: metacogna.ai-landing/components/PaperComponents.tsx
  • Components: Extended set (Card, Button, Input, TextArea, Select, Badge, Modal)
  • Implementation Style: More polished, includes Framer Motion animations
  • Framework: React + Tailwind CSS + Framer Motion

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Parti Architecture

  • Location: parti-architecture/PaperComponents.tsx
  • Components: Most extensive set (30+ components including specialized components)
  • Implementation Style: Comprehensive, production-ready
  • Framework: React + Tailwind CSS + Framer Motion

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Component Implementation Analysis

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PaperCard

MetaCogna RAG

Simple implementation with basic functionality. No animations or dark mode support.

MetaCogna.ai Landing

Enhanced with Framer Motion. Includes animations and better TypeScript support.

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MetaCogna RAG

Simple implementation following Paper UI principles: 
<div className={`bg-paper border-2 border-ink shadow-hard rounded-sm p-0 relative flex flex-col ${className}`}>
  {title && (
    <div className="border-b-2 border-ink px-6 py-4 flex justify-between items-center bg-surface">
      <h3 className="font-serif font-bold text-lg tracking-tight text-ink">
        {title}
      </h3>
    </div>
  )}
  <div className="p-6 flex-1">{children}</div>
</div>
Assessment:
  • ✅ Follows Paper UI principles (hard shadows, borders)
  • ✅ Proper typography (serif for titles)
  • ✅ Clean structure
  • ❌ No animation support
  • ❌ Limited customization options

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MetaCogna.ai Landing

Enhanced with Framer Motion: 
<motion.div 
  className={`bg-paper border-2 border-ink shadow-hard flex flex-col ${className}`}
  initial={{ opacity: 0, y: 20 }}
  animate={{ opacity: 1, y: 0 }}
  transition={{ duration: 0.4, ease: "easeOut" }}
>
  {/* ... */}
</motion.div>
Assessment:
  • ✅ Follows Paper UI principles
  • ✅ Includes smooth animations
  • ✅ More flexible (noPadding prop)
  • ✅ Better TypeScript types (extends HTMLMotionProps)
  • ✅ Header action support

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Parti Architecture

Most comprehensive implementation with active states and click handlers. Assessment:
  • ✅ Most feature-complete
  • ✅ Active state support
  • ✅ Click handler support
  • ✅ Action slot
  • ⚠️ More complex, may be over-engineered for simple use cases
Recommend standardizing on MetaCogna.ai Landing approach as the baseline - good balance of features and simplicity.

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Design Token Consistency

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Color System

All applications reference Paper UI colors but implementation varies: MetaCogna RAG:
  • Uses Tailwind classes: bg-paper, bg-ink, border-ink, shadow-hard
  • References: bg-accent, text-warning, bg-surface
  • Issue: These need to be defined in Tailwind config
MetaCogna.ai Landing:
  • Uses same Tailwind classes
  • Better dark mode support with dark: variants
  • Issue: May not have complete Tailwind config documented
Parti Architecture:
  • Most comprehensive implementation
  • Likely has full Tailwind config
  • Issue: Need to verify config exists

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Typography

All applications use:
  • Serif font (Playfair Display) for headings/titles ✅
  • Sans-serif (Inter) for body text ✅
  • Monospace (JetBrains Mono) for technical content ✅
Inconsistencies:
  • Input font: RAG uses mono (correct), Landing uses sans (incorrect)
  • Badge font size: RAG uses 10px (too small), Landing uses 12px (better)

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Recommendations

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High Priority

  1. Standardize Core Components
    • Create baseline implementation for Card, Button, Input, Badge
    • Use MetaCogna.ai Landing as reference (good balance)
    • Fix inconsistencies (input font, badge size, button active state)
  2. Tailwind Configuration
    • Document required Tailwind config for Paper UI colors
    • Ensure all apps have consistent config
    • Define custom utilities: shadow-hard, bg-paper, bg-ink, etc.
  3. Dark Mode Standardization
    • Implement consistent dark mode across all apps
    • Use MetaCogna.ai Landing approach as baseline
    • Document dark mode color mappings

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Medium Priority

  1. Component Library
    • Consider shared component package
    • Extract core components to shared location
    • Keep app-specific components in app codebases
  2. Documentation
    • Create component API documentation
    • Document usage patterns
    • Provide examples for each component
The foundation is solid, but standardization will improve maintainability and user experience consistency across the MetaCogna Suite.