Implementing AtlasKit
Asked by Charisma Riley:

I have read the user documentation repeatedly, but nowhere can I find how to begin \*using\* AtlasKit. Is there something to enable? Download? Or is it already a part of Atlassian products and you must simply start using it? Any help is appreciated. Thank you!


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hi Charisma,

What are you trying to do exactly? Are you developing an add-on? Cloud is currently using the new design guidelines, and you can find more information about it on this page:

* [Atlaskit by Atlassian](https://atlaskit.atlassian.com/)

Regards,

Shannon

comments: author: Charisma Riley
body: Hi, Shannon. I have read that page over and over and am not sure how to use it. There's nothing to plug-in or add-on? It's not even completely clear what it is a UI for--the UI/UX of Atlassian applications themselves, like Confluence and JIRA? Or is it a UI design guideline or something? Maybe for the UI/UX of external apps and plugins? As you can see, I am very confused, haha. I was looking into something like a framework I could use to style the UI/UX of Confluence.


author: Shannon S
body: AtlasKit is our UI library, based on [our design guidelines](https://atlassian.design/). It's what we use to make our products look the way they do.

Vendors that are developing their own add-ons can use it in order to get it to match the look of the product they are developing for, so that it can blend in seamlessly.

From your description, it sounds like you might be trying to change the look of Confluence away from our design guidelines. Is this correct? What kind of changes are you attempting to make?

In Confluence Server, a few modifications are possible using custom CSS. Have a look here:

* [Changing the Look and Feel of Confluence](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/changing-the-look-and-feel-of-confluence-147534.html)
* [Customizing Site and Space Layouts](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/customizing-site-and-space-layouts-149374.html)

In Confluence Cloud, which is what I assume you might be using per your tags, it is not possible to adjust the look in the same way. You can still [change the look and feel](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/changing-the-look-and-feel-of-confluence-724765494.html) to a certain degree, or you can make small changes to individual spaces:

* [Customize your space](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/customize-your-space-724764768.html)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Shannon


author: Charisma Riley
body: I'm not really changing the Atlassian look away from Confluence, rather adding some additional formatting that allows us to brand our Intranet to ourselves, as well as deliver clear and informative technical documentation to our teams. I've been using CSS, and that's going very well. I wasn't quite sure what AtlasKit was, but I had my suspicions. Now that I know for certain that it's not a so much a framework as a specification and library, I will keep it in mind (I did read all the AtlasKit and AUI design docs) in case we develop any additional tools for ourselves. I really appreciate your assistance and clarification! Thanks!

(For anyone coming to this thread later looking for similar information, the thread is marked as the correct answer because the clarification I was looking for about AtlasKit is in the post above this one. HTH.)


author: Shannon S
body: Charisma,

You're welcome! Happy to help.

Take care,

Shannon


Tags: atlaskit

cloud

confluence-cloud