Appllama Skills: Agent Instructions for Native-Quality Expo Screens
A builder, not just a researcher. Agent skills that turn top-grossing app patterns into native-quality mobile screens.
At a glance
- What is it?
- Two Claude Code style skills that pair a paid MCP research layer with a build bar for Expo and React Native screens. The design half works without the MCP; the research half does not.
- Who is it for?
- Adopt appllama-app-design-skill if your agent already writes Expo or React Native code and you want a written build bar covering Apple HIG fidelity, semantic colors, native controls, navigation semantics and motion. Skip the pair entirely if your stack is Flutter, SwiftUI or Kotlin, since the build bar is written for Expo and React Native.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 10 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- GitHub does not report a main language for this repository.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 15, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
DEEP OPEN-SOURCE ANALYSIS
The gap Appllama Skills Tries to Close
Ask a coding agent to build a habit tracker and you get something that compiles. Ask it to build one that looks like it belongs beside the top-grossing habit apps and the usual failure is not syntax, it is judgement: which screens push and which present as sheets, where the paywall sits, whether a transition should exist at all. The README frames this directly, calling the project a builder, not just a researcher, and describing the skills as turning a library of top-grossing app screens into an agent's working method.
The intended user is someone shipping Expo or React Native who wants the agent to reason about a design language rather than emit a generic card list. The README's own example prompts are telling: study the top-grossing habit apps before building, decide which screens push and which present as sheets, review which animations should be deleted. Those are product decisions, not styling decisions, and the skills are aimed at them.
Two Skills, One Paid Dependency
The repository ships two skills, and the split matters more than the feature list. appllama-usage is the research engine: the README describes it as the full tool map for the Appllama MCP plus playbooks for building an app from scratch, improving an existing screen, and flow and element research. appllama-app-design-skill is the build bar: native-feeling Expo and React Native screens, Apple HIG fidelity, semantic colors, native controls, anti-slop discipline, navigation that behaves, a motion bar, generated image assets, and a full-motion simulator loop.
The dependency is asymmetric. The README states that appllama-usage runs on the Appllama MCP while appllama-app-design-skill is sharper with it connected, and that the design skill stands on its own. So half the repository is usable with no account at all. If you install the pair and never connect the MCP, you keep the build bar and lose the research playbooks, which is a reasonable way to evaluate the project before paying anything.
What the Build Bar Actually Constrains
The design skill's content, as summarised in the README, is a list of constraints rather than a component library. Apple HIG fidelity and semantic colors point at system-provided colour roles instead of hardcoded hex values. Native controls means using the platform's own pickers, switches and navigation primitives rather than reimplementing them. Anti-slop discipline is the README's term for the negative space: the patterns an agent reaches for by default that make an app look generated.
The navigation rules are the most concrete part of the description. The skill covers push versus replace, sheets and overlays, and what the README calls the one-way doors where back must not exist. That last item is a real product constraint: after a purchase completes, allowing a back gesture into the paywall is a bug, not a style choice. The motion bar is similarly opinionated, asking whether something should animate at all, requiring springs that carry the finger's velocity, and keeping work off the JS thread. The verification loop is a full-motion simulator pass, with flows recorded and scrubbed frame by frame rather than judged from screenshots.
Installing the Skills and Pointing Them at the MCP
Installation is one command from the project root, and the README states it works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and other agents:
npx skills@latest add appllama/appllama-skills
The README gives two variations. To skip prompts and target specific agents, append -a claude-code -a cursor -y. To install user-wide instead of per-project, add -g. To take only one skill, use the --skill flag, for example:
npx skills@latest add appllama/appllama-skills --skill appllama-app-design-skill
The manual path is a plain clone and copy, since the README notes that skills are just directories: clone the repository and copy skills/* into ~/.claude/skills/, or into .claude/skills/ for a per-project install, or the equivalent folder for your harness.
The MCP endpoint is https://mcp.appllama.io/mcp. According to the README you add it as a custom connector in Claude, Cursor, Codex or any MCP client and approve the connection with your Appllama account. Two billing details are stated plainly: MCP access is part of Pro, credits reset in full on the 1st of each month, and every call spends one credit except get_credits, which is always free. That free call is the one to run first if you want to know your balance before an agent starts a research pass.
The Cost Model Inside the Agent Loop
Credit consumption is the design decision most likely to surprise people. The README says every MCP call spends one credit, with get_credits exempt. The skill's own playbooks are research-heavy: studying every screen of a category, extracting a design language, then building. An agent following those instructions will make many calls, and the README does not publish a per-call credit price or a monthly allowance, so the cost of a single build session cannot be calculated from the repository alone.
There is a second, quieter cost. The skills are plain Markdown files, so upgrading means re-running the install command or re-cloning, and any local edits you make to a SKILL.md will be overwritten by either path. The README does not describe a versioning scheme or a changelog, and no releases were retrieved for this review, so there is no documented way to pin a known-good revision. If you customise the build bar for your team, keep the edits outside the skills directory or accept that you own the merge.
Licence Terms and the Trademark Carve-Out
The repository is MIT licensed, which permits commercial use, modification and redistribution of the skill files. The README adds a carve-out worth reading carefully: the Appllama name, llama and logo are trademarks of Antmind Ventures Private Limited, and the licence does not grant rights to use them. MIT covers the code and text in the repository, not the brand assets referenced by the README's image links.
That distinction matters if you fork. You can ship a modified build bar inside your own organisation under MIT terms, but you cannot present it as Appllama or reuse the logo. The MCP is a separate matter entirely: the skills are MIT, the hosted endpoint behind appllama-usage is a paid service governed by Appllama's own terms, and the repository does not restate them. This is a description of what the README says, not legal advice; read the LICENSE file and the Appllama terms before redistributing anything.
Where This Is the Wrong Tool
The build bar is written for Expo and React Native. If your app is Flutter, SwiftUI or Kotlin Multiplatform, the HIG fidelity and native control guidance does not map onto your component model, and installing the skill mostly adds noise to the agent's context. That is a scope limit, not a defect.
The sharper limitation is verification. The README's standard is a simulator pass with flows recorded and scrubbed frame by frame. That requires macOS and a working simulator, and it assumes the agent can actually drive one. On a Linux CI runner or a Windows workstation, the loop the skill insists on cannot run as written, and the agent is left asserting quality it has not checked. The README does not describe a fallback for that case.
A third limit is category fit. The research playbooks study top-grossing apps, which is a useful prior for consumer subscription products and a poor one for internal tools, developer utilities or anything where the winning pattern is a dense table rather than a polished onboarding flow. The README's example prompts are all consumer-shaped: habit trackers, fitness onboarding, checkout flows, paywalls.
How This Differs From a Component Library
The obvious comparison is a React Native UI kit such as React Native Paper or Tamagui. Those ship components: you import a Button and it renders. Appllama Skills ships no components at all. It ships instructions that shape what the agent writes, which means the output is bespoke code in your repository rather than a dependency you upgrade.
That difference cuts both ways. There is no version conflict, no peer dependency to reconcile, and no design system to fight when you need something the library does not expose. There is also no shared runtime, no theme provider, and no upstream fixing a bug in a control. Two teams using the same skill will produce two different button implementations. The MCP layer has no direct equivalent in a UI kit either: it is a hosted research service the agent queries, closer in shape to a documentation tool than to a package. Whether that trade is worth it depends on whether you want a library you inherit or a standard your agent follows.
Editorial conclusion
Adopt appllama-app-design-skill if your agent already writes Expo or React Native code and you want a written build bar covering Apple HIG fidelity, semantic colors, native controls, navigation semantics and motion. Skip the pair entirely if your stack is Flutter, SwiftUI or Kotlin, since the build bar is written for Expo and React Native. The usage skill only makes sense with a Pro Appllama account, because MCP access is part of Pro and every call except get_credits spends one credit. Before installing, open skills/appllama-app-design-skill/SKILL.md and check that its motion and navigation rules match how your team already ships, and confirm the current credit reset terms on the Appllama pricing page rather than relying on this summary.
Community notes