Bellows owner's guide
Everything from the download to your own palette, read from the files this theme ships.
- 1.0.0
- version
- 8
- pages
- 45
- components
- 63 × 2 modes
- tokens
- 4
- workflows
unzip bellows-1.0.0.zip
cd bellows-1.0.0
bun install
bun devThe download is a complete Next.js project, not a folder of snippets. It carries 8 routes, the token file, 45 components and the agent kit.
See the priceInstall
Three ways in: the zip, the shadcn registry, or your agent over MCP.
The artifact is versioned and immutable, so the file you get is bellows-1.0.0.zip. Unzip it, run the four commands above, and the site is on localhost:3000.
The link arrives with your license, and stays valid for every future version.
Every theme is a registry item the real shadcn CLI installs. Files land under src/tailthemes/bellows/, mirroring the tree below.
Bellows is paid, so the request has to carry your license key. Put it in TAILTHEMES_LICENSE_KEY in your .env.local, then add this to components.json. The CLI expands the variable and sends the key as a header, so it never enters a URL.
{
"registries": {
"@tailthemes": {
"url": "https://tailthemes.com/r/{name}.json",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer ${TAILTHEMES_LICENSE_KEY}"
}
}
}
}bunx shadcn add @tailthemes/bellowsAn all-access key works on every slug. A single-theme key works on the theme it was bought for.
A registry item is JSON, so image assets cannot travel with it. Themes that import images need the zip as well.
Point any MCP client at https://tailthemes.com/api/mcp and your agent can read the manifest, both token tables and AGENTS.md before it touches a file.
the four toolsWhat unzips
One directory, laid out the way you would lay it out yourself.
every file
Three of these do the work: src/theme.css holds every design decision, AGENTS.md is the contract your agent reads first, and .claude/skills/ holds the 4 workflows it can run.
Screenshots are not in the download. They are generated by the publish pipeline and live on the listing, not in your project.
Using it
Every page is a plain component, and the tokens are scoped to one class.
- /Commissioned photography, licensed by the frame7 sections
- /workThe frame sheet4 sections
- /commissionOne commission, end to end7 sections
- /framesThe frame register3 sections
- /licensingUsage and fees7 sections
- /studioThe practice6 sections
- /enquireBrief a shoot4 sections
- /componentsThe parts2 sections
Tokens are declared on .tt-bellows as well as :root, so an install cannot repaint components you already have. Wrap the page in <div className="tt-bellows"> and everything inside picks them up.
Dark mode is a dark class on <html>. There is no second stylesheet and no dark: utility in the components.
The HTML edition
The same site again, with no framework under it.
Everything under html/ is a second, independently authored edition of the theme. html/dist/ is 8 compiled routes with local fonts and vanilla JavaScript — copy it to any static host and it is live, with no build step and no Node on the server. html/src/ is the Nunjucks source those routes compile from.
bun run build:html recompiles html/dist/ after you change the source or the tokens. bun run preview:html serves the compiled edition locally. Both ship in the download's package.json, backed by the two files in scripts/.
One token file drives both editions, so a rebrand made in src/theme.css reaches the HTML edition the next time you run the build — dist/ carries compiled CSS and never updates by itself.
The two editions are kept in step by the publish gate: every route in the manifest must have a compiled counterpart before a version ships, so the 8 pages you saw above exist in both.
Making it yours
Tokens are the API: change the values, never the names.
- Edit the values. All 63 tokens live in src/theme.css, in a light block and a dark one. Nothing in src/components/ carries a colour.
- Watch it land. Open /components. The styleguide reads every swatch, type step and radius live, so you see what the change did to the whole system at once.
- Re-check contrast. Run the check-quality workflow. The palette ships verified to WCAG AA in both modes and a rebrand should keep it there.
- .claude/skills/add-page
A page in src/app/ composes sections and does nothing else: no data fetching, no arithmetic, no markup that belongs in a section. Eight routes ship today.
- .claude/skills/add-section
A section is one file in src/components/, self-contained, importing only from src/components/ui/ and src/fixtures/. Sections never import each other — that rule is what lets a buyer delete one without a cascade.
- .claude/skills/check-quality
Five checks, in this order. The first four are mechanical; the fifth is the one that finds real defects, because this theme's failures are visible in a capture and invisible in a diff.
- .claude/skills/rebrand
A rebrand here is three files and one directory:
Those summaries are the files' own opening lines. They are written against this repo, so where one names themes/bellows/ your copy has the project root instead.
For your agent
The theme brought its own rules, so nothing has to be reverse-engineered.
AGENTS.md is 501 lines of invariants, the file map, the type and spacing scale, and what never to touch. It opens like this.
# Bellows — the rules
You are working inside a shipped theme. This file is the contract; the repo's
`themes/CONTRACT.md` is the law above it. Read both before changing anything.
## What this theme is
**Bellows** is a commissioned photographer's site. It ships the half of the job
every photography template omits: what the client receives, what they may do
with it, for how long, where, and for how much.
**Positioning.** For the developer building a working photographer's site,
Bellows draws the licence instead of asserting it, where the ten-layout packs
ship ten homepages and one gallery.
**Category** `portfolio`, second occupant behind the free `foundry`. Eight
routes, all single-segment:
| route | the question it answers | opening instrument |
|---|---|---|
| `/` | what is this, and what does the client get? | the cut at full size |
| `/work` | is this person good, and what do they shoot? | the frame sheet, fourteen cuts at equal optical area |
| `/commission` | what does one job look like end to end? | the commission head |
| `/frames` | we need TC-014 again, what is it licensed for? | the frame register |
| `/licensing` | what does usage cost, and what am I buying? | one frame, three cuts, drawn at once |
| `/studio` | can they turn it round, and who are they? | the method rail |
| `/enquire` | how do I brief a shoot and get an indicative fee? | the brief form |
| `/components` | the living styleguide | exempt |
**Single-segment is a constraint, not a style.** `/commission` is one job shown
in full rather than `/work/[slug]`: `check-registry` and `lib/pipeline/package.ts`
both break on a two-segment route, so a detail page is its own top-level path.
The catalog already does this with `/matters` and `/matter`. Adding `/work/[id]`
to this theme breaks packaging, not layout.The kit is plain markdown, so the work continues on your machine and your own account. Nothing calls back here.