Platform presets and variants

Platform presets

A platform preset is the device a screen is designed for: its frame size, the safe areas the system keeps clear, and the platform's conventions.

Preset	Frames	What the preview draws
iPhone	iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone SE	Status bar and home indicator
iPad	iPad Air 11″, iPad Pro 13″	Status bar and home indicator
Android phone	Pixel 9, compact phone	Status bar and gesture bar
Android tablet	Android tablet	Status bar and gesture bar
macOS window	1280 × 800, 1440 × 900	Title bar with window controls
Windows window	1280 × 800, 1920 × 1080	Title bar with caption buttons
Responsive web	390, 768, 1280 and 1440 wide	Nothing: breakpoints at 640, 768, 1024 and 1280
Email	600 wide, phone	Nothing: one 600 px column

A screen uses its surface's default preset: an iOS surface uses iPhone, Android uses Android phone, desktop uses macOS window, and a website uses Responsive web. A screen with no surface has no preset and keeps the app's default frame.

To pick another preset, choose one in New screen, or open Variants on a screen and change Platform preset. Show app bar guides outlines where the platform's navigation bar, tab bar or top app bar goes. The screen draws those bars itself.

The design agent reads the preset before it designs a screen, so it follows the platform's conventions. For example, it uses a bottom tab bar on iPhone, a Material top app bar and navigation bar on Android, and a sidebar in a desktop window.

Variants

A variant is a copy of a screen that you change to try another idea, such as "B", "Dense" or "Empty".

1. Open Variants

   Select a screen, then choose Variants in the top right of the canvas.

2. Make a variant

   Type a name, or pick Empty, Loading or Error, then choose Make variant. The variant is a draft copy of the screen you have open. It joins the original's group, even when you copy another variant.

3. Compare and choose

   The original and its variants are drawn side by side, each in its platform frame. Choose Choose this one on the one you want. Choose it again to clear the choice. Open shows that variant on the canvas, where you edit it like any screen.

Variants are design drafts. This is not A/B testing: nothing is split between real users and no results are measured.

Making or choosing a variant never changes a release. A release keeps the screens it was made from.

Deleting the chosen variant clears the choice. Deleting the original keeps its variants as screens of their own.

Viewers can see variants. Editors can make and choose them.

From a coding agent

The same actions are MCP tools: taste_list_platform_presets, taste_set_screen_platform_preset, taste_list_screen_variants, taste_create_screen_variant and taste_set_chosen_screen_variant. taste_create_screen takes platform_preset, and taste_get_screen_catalog returns the preset to design to when you pass screen_id, surface_id or platform_preset. See MCP tools.