agentation-self-driving
benjitaylor/agentation
Autonomously critique web pages by adding design annotations via the Agentation toolbar in a visible browser.
What is agentation-self-driving?
Self-driving design review mode that uses the Agentation annotation toolbar to autonomously scan and annotate a web page with design feedback. Use when a user asks to critique a page, add design annotations, review UI, or enable auto-annotate mode. Requires the Agentation toolbar installed on the target page and the agent-browser skill available.
- Launches a headed (visible) browser to watch the agent work in real time
- Autonomously scans page elements top-to-bottom and adds design critique annotations
- Uses coordinate-based mouse events to trigger annotation dialogs on the Agentation toolbar
- Generates 5-8 specific, actionable design critiques per page with concrete alternatives
- Verifies annotations are added by checking annotation marker count
- Provides design feedback on hierarchy, spacing, CTAs, navigation, and visual emphasis
How to install agentation-self-driving
npx skills add https://github.com/benjitaylor/agentation --skill agentation-self-driving- agent-browser skill must be installed and available
- Agentation toolbar must be installed on the target web page
- Browser must be visible (headed mode required)
How to use agentation-self-driving
- 1.Verify agent-browser is available by running: command -v agent-browser
- 2.Launch the headed browser with: agent-browser --headed open <url>
- 3.Check that the Agentation toolbar is present on the page
- 4.Expand the toolbar if collapsed by clicking the toggle
- 5.Ensure 'Block page interactions' checkbox is checked
- 6.For each annotation: scroll element into view, get its bounding box, move cursor to center, click to open dialog, type critique, and submit
- 7.Verify each annotation was added by checking the annotation marker count increases
- 8.Repeat for 5-8 annotations working top-to-bottom through the page
Use cases
- Critique a landing page design and add feedback annotations without manual clicking
- Auto-annotate a product UI with design system recommendations and layout improvements
- Review a website's visual hierarchy and add suggestions for better information architecture
- Generate design feedback on hero sections, navigation, content spacing, and call-to-action placement
- Batch-review multiple pages with autonomous annotation for design team feedback
- Design teams reviewing web pages for feedback
- Product managers gathering design critique on landing pages or prototypes
- Developers wanting AI-assisted design review and annotation
- Design systems teams evaluating UI consistency across pages
agentation-self-driving FAQ
The user watches the agent scan, hover, click, and annotate in real time, like watching a self-driving car navigate. This provides transparency and allows monitoring of the annotation process.
The Agentation overlay intercepts pointer events at the coordinate level, not element-level clicks. You must use coordinate-based mouse events (mouse move, mouse down, mouse up) to trigger annotation dialogs.
The toolbar may have collapsed. Re-expand it by checking if it has the 'expanded' class, and if not, click the toggle button. Then retry the click sequence.
Map snapshot element descriptions to CSS selectors: 'heading "text"' → h1, 'button "label"' → button, 'link "text"' → a[href]. Use eval with querySelector to verify selectors work correctly.
After submitting, run: agent-browser eval "document.querySelectorAll('[data-annotation-marker]').length" — the count should increase by 1 for each successful annotation.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from benjitaylor/agentation.
name: agentation-self-driving description: Autonomous design critique mode using the Agentation annotation toolbar. Use when the user asks to "critique this page," "add design annotations," "review the UI," "self-driving mode," "auto-annotate," or wants an AI agent to autonomously add design feedback annotations to a web page via the browser. Requires the Agentation toolbar to be installed on the target page and agent-browser skill to be available. allowed-tools: Bash(agent-browser:*)
Agentation Self-Driving Mode
Autonomously critique a web page by adding design annotations via the Agentation toolbar — in a visible headed browser so the user can watch the agent work in real time, like watching a self-driving car navigate.
Launch — Always Headed
The browser MUST be visible. Never run headless. The user watches you scan, hover, click, and annotate.
Preflight: Verify agent-browser is available before anything else:
command -v agent-browser >/dev/null || { echo "ERROR: agent-browser not found. Install the agent-browser skill first."; exit 1; }
Launch: Try opening directly first. Only close an existing session if the open command fails with a stale session error — this avoids killing a browser someone else is using:
# Try to open. If it fails (stale session), close first then retry.
agent-browser --headed open <url> 2>&1 || { agent-browser close 2>/dev/null; agent-browser --headed open <url>; }
Then verify the Agentation toolbar is present and expand it:
# 1. Check toolbar exists on the page (data-feedback-toolbar is the root marker)
agent-browser eval "document.querySelector('[data-feedback-toolbar]') ? 'toolbar found' : 'NOT FOUND'"
# If "NOT FOUND": Agentation is not installed on this page — stop and tell the user
# 2. Expand ONLY if collapsed (clicking when already expanded collapses it)
agent-browser eval "document.querySelector('[data-feedback-toolbar][class*=expanded]') ? 'already expanded' : (document.querySelector('[class*=toggleContent]')?.click(), 'expanding')"
# 3. Verify: take a snapshot and look for toolbar controls
agent-browser snapshot -i
# If expanded: you'll see "Block page interactions" checkbox, color buttons (Purple, Blue, etc.)
# If collapsed: you'll only see the small toggle button — retry step 2
"Block page interactions" must be checked (default: on).
eval quoting rule: Always use
[class*=toggleContent](no quotes around the attribute value) in eval strings. Do not use double-bang in eval because bash treats it as history expansion. Do not use backslash-escaped inner quotes either, as they break unpredictably across shells.
Critical: How to Create Annotations
Standard element clicks (click @ref) do NOT trigger annotation dialogs. The Agentation overlay intercepts pointer events at the coordinate level. Use coordinate-based mouse events — this also makes the interaction visible in the browser as the cursor moves across the page.
@refcompatibility: Onlyclick,fill,type,hover,focus,check,select,dragsupport@refsyntax. The commandsscrollintoview,get box, andevaldo NOT — they expect CSS selectors. UseevalwithquerySelectorfor scrolling and position lookup.
# 1. Take interactive snapshot — identify target element and build a CSS selector
agent-browser snapshot -i
# Example: snapshot shows heading "Point at bugs." [ref=e10]
# Derive a CSS selector: 'h1', or more specific: 'h1:first-of-type'
# 2. Scroll the element into view via eval (NOT scrollintoview @ref — that breaks)
agent-browser eval "document.querySelector('h1').scrollIntoView({block:'center'})"
# 3. Get its bounding box via eval (NOT get box @ref — that also breaks)
agent-browser eval "((r) => r.x+','+r.y+','+r.width+','+r.height)(document.querySelector('h1').getBoundingClientRect())"
# Returns: "383,245,200,40" (parse these as x,y,width,height)
# 4. Move cursor to element center, then click
# centerX = x + width/2, centerY = y + height/2
agent-browser mouse move <centerX> <centerY>
agent-browser mouse down left
agent-browser mouse up left
# 5. Get the annotation dialog refs — read the FULL snapshot output
# Dialog refs appear at the BOTTOM of the list, don't truncate with head/tail
agent-browser snapshot -i
# Look for: textbox "What should change?" and "Cancel" / "Add" buttons
# 6. Type critique — fill and click DO support @ref
agent-browser fill @<textboxRef> "Your critique here"
# 7. Submit (Add button enables after text is filled)
agent-browser click @<addRef>
If no dialog appears after clicking, the toolbar may have collapsed. Re-expand (only if collapsed) and retry:
agent-browser eval "document.querySelector('[data-feedback-toolbar][class*=expanded]') ? 'ok' : (document.querySelector('[class*=toggleContent]')?.click(), 'expanded')"
Building CSS selectors from snapshots
The snapshot shows element roles, names, and refs. Map them to CSS selectors:
| Snapshot line | CSS selector |
|---|---|
heading "Point at bugs." [ref=e10] | h1 or h1:first-of-type |
button "npm install agentation Copy" [ref=e15] | button:has(code) or by text content via eval |
link "Star on GitHub" [ref=e28] | a[href*=github] |
paragraph (long text...) [ref=e20] | Target by section: section:nth-of-type(2) p |
When in doubt, use a broader selector and verify with eval:
agent-browser eval "document.querySelector('h2').textContent"
The Loop
Work top-to-bottom through the page. For each annotation:
- Scroll to the target area via eval (
scrollIntoView) - Pick a specific element — heading, paragraph, button, section container
- Get its bounding box via eval (
getBoundingClientRect) - Execute the coordinate-click sequence (
mouse move→mouse down→mouse up) - Read the full snapshot output to find dialog refs at the bottom
- Write the critique (
fill @ref) and submit (click @ref) - Verify the annotation was added (see below)
- Move to the next area
Verifying annotations
After submitting each annotation, confirm the count increased:
agent-browser eval "document.querySelectorAll('[data-annotation-marker]').length"
# Should return the expected count (1 after first, 2 after second, etc.)
If the count didn't increase, the submission failed silently — re-snapshot and check if the dialog is still open.
Aim for 5-8 annotations per page unless told otherwise.
What to Critique
| Area | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Hero / above the fold | Headline hierarchy, CTA placement, visual grouping |
| Navigation | Label styling, category grouping, visual weight |
| Demo / illustrations | Clarity, depth, animation readability |
| Content sections | Spacing rhythm, callout treatments, typography hierarchy |
| Key taglines | Whether resonant lines get enough visual emphasis |
| CTAs and footer | Conversion weight, visual separation, final actions |
Critique Style
2-3 sentences max per annotation:
- Specific and actionable: "Stack the install command below the subheading at 16px" not "fix the layout"
- 1-2 concrete alternatives: Reference CSS values, layout patterns, or design systems
- Name the principle: Visual hierarchy, Gestalt grouping, whitespace, emphasis, conversion design
- Reference comparable products: "Like how Stripe/Linear/Vercel handles this"
Bad: "This section needs work" Good: "This bullet list reads like docs, not a showcase. Use a 3-column card grid with icons — similar to Stripe's guidelines pattern. Creates visual rhythm and scannability."
Install
The skill must be symlinked into ~/.claude/skills/ for Claude Code to discover it:
ln -s "$(pwd)/skills/agentation-self-driving" ~/.claude/skills/agentation-self-driving
Restart Claude Code after installing. Verify with /agentation-self-driving — if it loads the skill instructions, the symlink is working.
Troubleshooting
- "Browser not launched. Call launch first.": Stale session from a previous run — run
agent-browser close 2>/dev/nullthen retry the--headed opencommand - Toolbar not found on page: Agentation isn't installed — run
/agentationto set it up first - No dialog after clicking: Toolbar collapsed — re-expand with the state-aware eval (check
[class*=expanded]first), retry - Wrong element targeted: Click Cancel, scroll to intended element, retry with correct coordinates
- Add button stays disabled: Text wasn't filled — re-snapshot and fill the textbox
- Page navigated: "Block page interactions" is off — enable via toolbar settings
- Annotation count didn't increase: Submission failed — dialog may still be open, re-snapshot and check
- Interrupted mid-run (Ctrl+C): The browser stays open with whatever state it was in. Run
agent-browser closeto clean up before starting a new session
agent-browser Pitfalls
These will silently break the workflow if you're not aware of them:
| Pitfall | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
scrollintoview @ref | Crashes: "Unsupported token @ref while parsing css selector" | Use eval "document.querySelector('sel').scrollIntoView({block:'center'})" |
get box @ref | Same crash — get box parses refs as CSS selectors | Use eval "((r)=>r.x+','+r.y+','+r.width+','+r.height)(document.querySelector('sel').getBoundingClientRect())" |
eval with double-bang | Bash expands double-bang as history substitution before the command runs | Use expr !== null or expr ? true : false instead |
eval with backslash-escaped quotes | Escaped inner quotes break across shells | Drop the quotes: [class*=toggleContent] works for simple values without spaces |
snapshot -i | head -50 | Annotation dialog refs (textbox "What should change?", Add, Cancel) appear at the BOTTOM of the snapshot | Always read the full snapshot output — never truncate |
click @ref on overlay elements | The click goes through to the real DOM, bypassing the Agentation overlay | Use mouse move → mouse down left → mouse up left for coordinate-based clicks that the overlay intercepts |
--headed open fails with "Browser not launched" | Stale sessions from previous runs block new launches | Run agent-browser close 2>/dev/null then retry the open command |
Rule of thumb: @ref works for interaction commands (click, fill, type, hover). For everything else (eval, get, scrollintoview), use CSS selectors via querySelector in an eval.
Two-Session Workflow (Full Self-Driving)
With MCP connected (toolbar shows "MCP Connected"), annotations auto-send to any listening agent. This enables:
- Session 1 (this skill): Watches the page, adds critique annotations in the visible browser
- Session 2: Runs
agentation_watch_annotationsin a loop, receives annotations, edits code to address each one
The user watches Session 1 drive through the page in the browser while Session 2 fixes issues in the codebase — fully autonomous design review and implementation.
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