Why does design search list categories?

Without a query (or when nothing matches), the categories, each with its count: pass one as category to list it.

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MCP

search_designs

Find a brand's DESIGN.md by name, product, or color, such as stripe or fintech. Each match includes the name, categories, and palette.

Group: Design
Inputs: category?limit?query?
Access: Read-only

When to use it

The user wants a look ("like Stripe", "a dark fintech feel") rather than a component.
Before theming a new app: pick a brand to start from.

Inputs

InputType

category?string

One category: Fintech & Crypto.

limit?number

query?string

A brand, a kind of product or a color: "stripe", "fintech", "dark blue". The best known when unset.

Example prompts

Name the server, so the agent doesn't answer from memory:

Prompts

use shadcnio to find a design system like Linear's

use shadcnio: which fintech brands have a dark design?

Call and response

Asked “Find me a design system like Stripe's to base our app on”, the agent sends this call. The response is real, trimmed: long lists show their first items and long strings are cut.

Call

search_designs({ limit: 5, query: "fintech" })

Response

{
  "count": 5,
  "next": "get_design({ name: \"stripe\" }) returns its DESIGN.md.",
  "query": "fintech",
  "results": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Fintech & Crypto",
        "Banking & Payments"
      ],
      "description": "An inspired interpretation of Stripe's design language — a financial-infrastructure brand built on a deep navy ink, an electric indigo prima…",
      "name": "Stripe",
      "palette": [
        "#533afd",
        "#0d253d",
        "… 3 more"
      ],
      "slug": "stripe",
      "url": "https://kit.dev/design/stripe"
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Banking & Payments",
        "Fintech & Crypto"
      ],
      "description": "An enterprise-payments brand whose marketing chrome runs on near-black canvas with a single mint-green voltage in #00d16a — used only on the…",
      "name": "Adyen",
      "palette": [
        "#00d16a",
        "#001222",
        "… 3 more"
      ],
      "slug": "adyen",
      "url": "https://kit.dev/design/adyen"
    },
    "… 3 more"
  ]
}

Call it by hand

Your MCP client sends this for you. To try the tool without one, post the call yourself; the server answers in server-sent events, the result on the data: line.

Terminal

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What your agent reads

The server's description of search_designs, one of the Design tools. Your agent reads it to decide when to call the tool:

tools/listsearch_designs.description

Find brand design systems (DESIGN.md) by brand, kind of product or color ("stripe", "fintech", "dark blue"): name, categories, palette. The best known when unset.

get_designA brand's DESIGN.md, whole or by section

FAQ

What is a design system on the shadcn MCP?

A DESIGN.md: one Markdown file with a brand's colors, typography, spacing, corner radii and components as tokens, then how to use them (Overview, Do's and Don'ts…). An agent reads it before any UI change, so what it builds looks like that brand.

What can I search design systems by?

A brand's name ("linear"), a kind of product ("fintech", "automotive", "ai") or a color ("dark", "blue", "purple"). Every word has to match: "blue fintech" is the blue fintechs.