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Chapter Three

III

Vibe Design

Practice

Vibe Design Decisions

The work is deciding how intent, context, constraints, and validation shape the system.

  1. Decision
    • Decide why the product exists.
    • Decide what it stands for.
    • Decide what users need to feel.
    • Decide what users need to understand or accomplish.
    • Let the rest of the system follow from that.
    Practice
    • Map-first GIS workspace.
    • AI-Native, agent-orchestrated, project-scoped, desktop-native.
    • In control, with observability and trust.
    • Complete planning tasks.
    • Map canvas state, multilevel memory, human approval gate.
  2. Decision
    • Which tools are fastest for UI exploration?
    • Which tools are best for production-ready prototypes?
    • Which stack keeps design, code, and state aligned?
    • Which tools support agentic workflows, not just mockups?
    • Which tools keep iteration inspiring without losing rigor?
    Practice
    • Figma - Industry standard, pixel-perfect, limit manual prototype
    • Lovable - Most production-ready, ships real prototype, not a mockup
    • Stitch - DESIGN.md, High-fidelity UI but not real code
    • Claude Design - Opus 4.7 as engine, limit prototype, Token black hole
  3. Decision
    • What does design own, and what does the harness own?
    • How does design intent become system behavior?
    • How should the UI expose agent state and approvals?
    • How do design and harness stay aligned as the workflow evolves?
    Practice
    • Vibe design defines the workflow, surfaces, and states.
    • The harness implements prompts, tools, and constraints.
    • The interface shows plans, evidence, and approval gates inline.
    • Design and engineering work in parallel, not in a sequential flow.

Meet NovaWe're still cooking.

Nova is an AI-native ArcGIS interface — a project workspace where the user, the agents, and a shared map all collaborate on geospatial work. The desktop app, where the real system lives, is what everything below describes.

Nova's five context levels+

Each level owns different state. The harness cascades down through them.

ProjectWorkspaceA long-lived workspace. Most continuous work happens here.
ConversationSessionA chat thread inside a project. Carries dialogue context and intent.
TaskJobCreated by a conversation when work needs to persist. A durable thing inside the project.
Map canvasShared stateThe persistent project-level map canvas the user and the agents both read and write.
SettingsApp-levelInstruction, knowledge, memory. Cascades into every project.

Use Case Driven Design — Col. Webb uses Nova

The setting

Scenario brief

Region: Flood-affected area. Northern road network damaged.

Project canvas: depot (3900), Alpha (4421), Bravo (5803), Charlie (6115).

Road status: N-7 closed, N-12 throttled at 12 t/pass, E-4 open.

Constraint: Sector 7 has a civilian evacuation in progress and is declared no-go.

Webb opens a Nova project called Floodline-Relief-Ops and starts a new conversation.

Sector 7no-goN-7 closedN-12 12 t/passE-4 openDepot3900Alpha4421Bravo5803Charlie6115Floodline-Relief-Opsflood region, damaged roads,one shared map canvas
Map sketchClosed corridor: N-7Restricted corridor: N-12Available route: E-4No-go zone: Sector 7
Scene iUser request06:42+

Webb enters a single request.

Webb

Plan optimal routes from depot to Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Give me ETAs and a supply priority ranking.

Nova
Nova treats it as the trigger for planning. The harness locks onto:
  • task intent: plan optimal routes.
  • destination set: depot to Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie.
  • required output: ETAs and a supply priority ranking.
Harness concepts activated
Specification designUser inputTrigger
Scene iiContext assembly and planning06:42 — 06:44+
Nova
Before Nova plans anything, it assembles the full context — drawing from the standing layers already attached to Webb and the Floodline-Relief-Ops project workspace.
  • App Settings operating boundary - planning mode,human review before any transmission.
  • User memory restores Webb's working preferences for concise operational output
  • Project knowledge loads the Floodline-Relief-Ops map state: POIs, road conditions, and stored planning context.
Nova
With those layers loaded, Nova queries and geocodes the POI layer for depot, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, plots them on the map canvas, and calls the routing tool to generate candidate routes and a first-pass supply ranking.
DepotAlphaBravoCharlieMAP SAMPLE
  • Function callgeocoding tool
  • SKILLfeature layer query optional
  • MCProuting tool
  • Approval gatehuman approval
Harness concepts activated
Account settingsUser memoryProject knowledgeSense-before-act
Scene iiiAutomated planning and validation06:45 — 06:46+
Nova

Nova's first pass to Charlie favors a geometrically shorter path, but the constraint layer detects that it would cross Sector 7. The route is blocked before it can appear in the draft plan, and the agent reroutes automatically via E-4.


DepotBravoCharlieSector 7no-goVALIDATION MAP

Before anything reaches Webb, the sandbox runs the validation loop:

  1. Exclusion zone audit — no-go zone registry
  2. Road-status compatibility — routing parameters
  3. ETA confidence bounds — ETAs
  4. Supply priority audit — ranking priority
Nova
All checks pass. Nova now has a validated planning brief rather than an unverified draft.
Harness concepts activated
Feedback loopConstraint architectureSandboxCode execution
Scene ivHuman review and finalisation06:47 — 06:49+
Nova

Nova presents the validated brief on the shared map canvas, but nothing has been executed.

SAMPLE REPORTValidated briefREADYROUTE OVERVIEWSUMMARY BANDS
  • recommended routes
  • ETAs for Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie
  • a ranked priority list
  • a short rationale showing which constraints shaped the result

Webb reviews the plan, asks one follow-up question, and keeps the gate open while Nova answers it.

Webb

"What's the per-pass tonnage on N-12 right now?"

Nova
  1. Nova checks roads.capacity("N-12") and confirms the limit is 12 t/pass.
  2. The convoy math is recomputed against that limit and the affected ETA is updated.
  3. The validation loop re-runs before the revised brief is shown again.
  4. Webb approves the final result for transmission.
Webb

"Confirmed. Finalise and transmit."

Harness concepts activated
Human oversight gateHuman judgmentMap canvasObservability

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Highlighted chipthe main idea or dominant mechanism of that scene
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