1---
 2tagline: "The meticulous final pass between good and great."
 3---
 4
 5## When to use it
 6
 7`/polish` is the last thing you run before shipping. It hunts down the small details that separate a shipped feature from a polished one: half-pixel misalignments, inconsistent spacing, forgotten focus states, loading transitions that flash, copy that drifts in tone. It also aligns the feature with your design system -- replacing hard-coded values with tokens, swapping custom components for shared ones, and fixing any drift from established patterns.
 8
 9Reach for it when the feature is functionally complete, nothing is broken, and something still feels off. Also reach for it when a feature has drifted from the design system and needs to be pulled back in line.
10
11## How it works
12
13Polish starts by discovering the design system (tokens, spacing scale, shared components), then works methodically across six dimensions:
14
151. **Visual alignment and spacing**: pixel-perfect grid adherence, consistent spacing scale, optical alignment on icons.
162. **Typography**: hierarchy consistency, line length, widows and orphans, kerning on headlines.
173. **Color and contrast**: token usage, theme parity, WCAG ratios, focus indicators.
184. **Interaction states**: hover, focus, active, disabled, loading, error, success. Every state accounted for.
195. **Transitions and motion**: smooth easing, no layout jank, respect for `prefers-reduced-motion`.
206. **Copy**: consistent voice, correct tense, no placeholder strings, no stray TODOs.
21
22The skill is explicit about one thing: polish is the last step, not the first. If the feature is not functionally complete, polishing it is wasted work.
23
24## Try it
25
26```
27/polish the pricing page
28```
29
30A healthy run looks like:
31
32```
33Visual alignment: fixed 3 off-grid elements (8px baseline)
34Typography: tightened h1 kerning, fixed widow on testimonial
35Interaction: added hover state on FAQ items, focus ring on email input
36Motion: softened modal entrance, added reduced-motion fallback
37Copy: removed one "Lorem ipsum" stray, aligned button voice
38```
39
40Five small fixes, no rewrites. That is the shape of a good polish pass.
41
42## Pitfalls
43
44- **Polishing work that is not done.** If there are TODOs in the code, you are not ready. Run `/polish` on finished features only.
45- **Treating polish as redesign.** Polish refines what exists. If you find yourself rearchitecting a layout, you needed `/critique` or `/layout` instead.
46- **Running `/polish` without `/audit` first.** Polish catches feel-based issues. Audit catches measurable ones. Use both.