Machine-Readable Design Systems

A design system an agent can read, not just a library humans browse.

Tokens, module, column rules and measure written as structured context rather than a slide deck. The test is whether someone who isn't a designer can direct an AI to build a screen and have it come back on-brand. If the system only lives in Figma, they can't.

When you need this

Your team generates code with AI and it comes out off-brand every time, so someone spends their afternoon correcting spacing and colour. The design system exists in Figma, which the agent writing the code cannot read.

How I run it

A design system written only for people is now half a system. If AI tools are producing screens in your codebase, the rules need to exist somewhere those tools can read before they generate, not in a document someone checks afterwards.

That means the tokens, the module, the type scale and the actual constraints — what to do, what never to do — written as a plain file that lives with the code. Specific enough to be checkable. “Use spacing generously” is useless; “every vertical gap is a multiple of the module” can be verified.

This site runs on exactly that. There's a published rules file, it's the same file the build process works from, and it's linked publicly from the design system page.

What you get

  • A rules file in the codebase, written for machines and readable by people
  • Tokens, module and type scale expressed as checkable constraints
  • Explicit prohibitions, not just recommendations
  • A process for keeping the file current as the system changes

How the work runs

Two to four weeks if a design system already exists. Longer if the underlying system needs defining first.

Common questions

Does this replace our Figma library?

No. It's the same system expressed where the code gets written, so both halves stay in agreement.

Which AI tools does it work with?

Any that read files from the repository. It's a plain text file, not a tool-specific format.

See the work behind this
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