Components › Foundation › Empty States
AI07 · Transparency

Empty States

Purpose Zero-state and onboarding UI for AI surfaces — communicates what the system does, what inputs work, and provides calibrated starter prompts.
Use when User has no history in the interface, or the context area is empty and needs direction.
Do not use As a general loading state (use AI02) or as an error state (use AI04).
Failure mode prevented Users staring at a blank input without understanding what to ask, what context is needed, or what the system can do — and leaving without engaging.
Example Dark Academia
Dark Academia
The Atelier
Neon Tide
The Archive
Candlelight
The Conservatory

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Overview
Design rule

Zero states must communicate three things: what this surface does, what kinds of inputs work well, and at least three starter prompts calibrated to the actual use case. Generic prompts ("Ask me anything") are not acceptable.

Theming API

Override these CSS custom properties to apply your own visual treatment without touching the component's behavioral contracts.

Shared semantic tokens

Token Controls
--rad-color-text-primary Title text
--rad-color-text-meta Description text
--rad-radius-card Card and suggestion pill border radius

Component-scoped tokens

Token Controls
--rad-empty-surface Card background
--rad-empty-border Card border
--rad-empty-icon-bg Icon circle background
--rad-empty-icon-border Icon circle border
--rad-empty-icon-color Icon glyph color
--rad-empty-suggestion-bg Suggestion pill background
--rad-empty-suggestion-border Suggestion pill border
--rad-empty-suggestion-color Suggestion pill text
--rad-empty-suggestion-hover-bg Suggestion pill hover background
--rad-empty-suggestion-hover-border Suggestion pill hover border
--rad-color-focus Focus ring on suggestion buttons

"*Nobody's here yet. Make them want to come back.*"

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© 2025 Jackie Curry. All rights reserved. Publication date: 2025.

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