Design: Icarus

Icarus is a tactical workbench: dark, dense, map-first. The canvas and the tactical objects on it stay visually dominant; everything else is hardware around the bench. Polish comes from order, not ornament.

The palette, theme, and sizing constants live in lib/const/settings.dart, with Settings.tacticalVioletTheme as the ShadColorScheme. That file is the only source of truth for values. This file holds the rules for using them.

Building UI

• shadcn_ui is the component library. Reach for Shad* widgets first (ShadDialog, ShadButton, ShadIconButton, ShadInput, ShadSelect, ShadTooltip, ShadContextMenu*, ShadPopover) before Material equivalents or custom widgets. Read theme values through ShadTheme.of(context).
• ShadDialog does not provide a Material ancestor. Material-dependent children (TextField, InkWell, LinearProgressIndicator, Slider) throw "No Material widget found" inside one. Wrap the dialog's child in Material(color: Colors.transparent, child: ...); see lib/widgets/dialogs/export_video_dialog.dart for the idiom.
• Never hardcode a hex that already has a name in lib/const/settings.dart. If a color is new, name it there first.
• Spacing steps are 8/10/12/16/24px. Radii: 8px controls, 12px panels, 16px cards, 22px dialogs.
• Type roles, all in the system sans stack: headline 20px/500, title 16px/600, body 14px/400, label 12px/600, micro 10px/600. Hierarchy comes from these five roles, not from display fonts or hero-scale type.
• Transitions run 150-250ms and must communicate a state change (hover, selection, reveal, loading). No motion for its own sake.

Named rules

The One Command Color Rule. Violet marks current action, selection, focus, and primary commands, and nothing else. If violet appears somewhere that isn't actionable or active, it's wrong.

The Tactical Semantics Rule. Ally green, enemy red, defender blue, favorite amber, and the map ember hues carry game meaning. Never reuse them for unrelated UI emphasis.

The Tonal First Rule. Depth comes from surface steps (background, panel, raised) and 1px zinc borders. A shadow is only allowed where it explains stacking: drag previews, floating menus, card foreground details (0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.54) / 0 8px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.28)).

Every control earns its position. If you can't say why a control sits where it sits, it isn't done. Never fill spare space with a feature.

Don't

• No gradients, glow, glassmorphism, or decorative effects on chrome. The anti-reference is the generic gamer overlay. Gradients and blur that do a job on the canvas are fine and intentional: the map vignette, the loading skeleton shimmer, the color picker, the view cone falloff, and the media carousel backdrop.
• No marketing-page composition inside the product: no hero typography, no decorative dashboards.
• No colored side-stripe borders, gradient text, or nested cards.
• No custom affordance where a standard Shad or desktop pattern already communicates the action.