SharePoint can do far more list styling than anyone uses, because the JSON is hard to write by hand. The Pattern and Practices community has built a sample library. This guide turns it into a skill the AI can consult.
Meta takeaways
Source
Pattern and Practices GitHub is the catalog of SharePoint list formatting recipes.
Bridge
A reference file turns those recipes into something the AI can read on demand.
Trigger
A skill tells the AI when to read that file — when a styling request shows up.
The PnP samples library is the unlock
SharePoint has an enormous set of formatting capabilities that most users never see, because writing the JSON by hand is hard. The Microsoft Pattern and Practices (PnP) community has published a public GitHub library full of working formatting samples — the kind of designs you wouldn't think SharePoint could do.
The capabilities have been in SharePoint all along. The PnP library makes them discoverable and copy-pasteable, which is the real unlock.
The video uses this library as raw material. The goal: turn the catalog into something an AI can use without you having to wire each sample into a prompt by hand.
The technical reference file
The author generated a single document — a list formatting technical reference — from the PnP data set. It describes, in detail aimed at an AI, every kind of formatting you can do on a SharePoint list or library: timelines, galleries, card layouts, status colours, row backgrounds, all of it.
The reference file is the AI-readable version of the PnP catalog. One file, every pattern, written so the model can pick the right one for any styling request.
This is heavy content. You don't want it in every prompt — only when a styling request actually needs it.
This reference isn't a fixed set of templates. It teaches the AI the patterns so it can adapt them to the columns and data the user actually has.
A skill tells the AI when to read it
Alongside the technical reference, the author wrote a small skill. The skill's only job is to tell SharePoint's AI: "when the user asks to design or style a list, go read the reference file before doing anything." Without the skill, the AI doesn't know the file exists.
The skill is a trigger. The reference file is the knowledge. The two together turn a one-shot prompt into a reliable styling capability.
Both files — the skill and the reference — live in the SharePoint site's Agent Assets Library. The author has published them on GitHub so anyone can drop them into their own tenant.
The demo library setup
The demo starts with a fresh SharePoint site containing a few lists — product launch milestones is the first one. The skill and its reference file have been uploaded to the site's skills library. From there, every list in the site can call the same styling skill.
You install the skill once at the site level. Every list in that site can use it. The AI looks up the skill the moment a styling request mentions design.
The first prompt in the demo is intentionally simple: style this as a timeline. The skill activates, reads the reference, picks a timeline pattern, and applies it to the milestones list.
You don't have to point at the reference file by name. The skill knows to load it whenever a design or styling intent is detected.
Flashcards — Foundations
01 · Foundations
PnP samples library
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The Microsoft Pattern and Practices GitHub catalog of SharePoint list and library formatting recipes — timelines, galleries, status colours, more.
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01 · Foundations
Technical reference file
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A single AI-readable document distilled from the PnP catalog. Describes every list-formatting pattern in detail so the model can pick one per request.
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01 · Foundations
Skill gate
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A small skill that tells SharePoint's AI to load the technical reference whenever a styling or design request comes in. The trigger for the knowledge.
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01 · Foundations
Agent Assets Library
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The per-site SharePoint location where skill files and their reference docs live. Once uploaded, every list in the site can call those skills.
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01 · Foundations
Demo library
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The starter SharePoint site used in the video — a small set of lists (product launch milestones first) used to exercise the styling skill end to end.