Introduction
Tacit Design is the language Tacit's own apps are drawn in. Tacit.Kit is the code that carries it. This page says what each is and how they fit.
The language
Tacit Design is a set of rules and values: one ground for every window, four inks for text and a hairline, a wash of the main ink for every state, a grid of four, and a few motions with a time and a curve each. Tacit's own apps (Files, Music, Settings, the browser) follow it, so they read as one thing. The rules are written down here so that another app can follow them too.
It is deliberately small. An app has a list, a header, a panel and words for actions. It does not have cards, badges, gradients or a second way to say anything.
The kit
Tacit.Kit is one QML module for Quickshell apps. It holds the parts (a list row, a rail, a page header, a docked panel, a field, a menu) and the tokens they read: colours, sizes, spaces, corners and motion. Principles and the Foundations pages say why. The Parts pages say how each part works and when to use it.
The tokens are not copied into each part. Every part reads Kit.tokens, and on Tacit those follow the user's wallpaper, so an app that uses them looks right on every wallpaper without a line of its own.
How they relate
The language comes first and the kit follows it. When the two disagree, the page here is right and the kit has a bug. The values live in one file, tokens/tokens.json, and everything else is made from it: the shell's token block, the QML the kit reads, the CSS this site uses and the tables on these pages.
| Tacit Design | Tacit.Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Rules, values, reasons | QML parts and tokens |
| Where | This site | tacit-kit, installed on Tacit |
| Changes | Rarely, and with a reason said here | With each release of the kit |
Who it is for
You are making an app for Tacit and want it to belong. You may write QML or not: the Foundations pages stand on their own. If you write QML, the kit does most of the work, and the first app shows it in one file.
You are free to leave the kit and draw your own. Then use the same tokens for your own drawing, and the rules here for what goes on screen. An app that does belongs on every wallpaper.
What is still open
The kit is in its first version, 0.1, and each page's status line says that it is Experimental, with anything on that page that is still unsettled. Names are roles and may change between releases; the values behind them may change more.
Experimental, in Tacit.Kit 0.1.
Text and figures: CC BY 4.0. Tacit.Kit: LGPL-3.0 code, OFL fonts. The Tacit name.