Design system

The design system is part of product intent. It gives generated surfaces a coherent visual character without turning CSS into the only record of design decisions.

What the model owns

Design intent can include:

• color roles and contrast choices;
• typography families, scale, weight, and rhythm;
• spacing and density;
• radius, borders, and elevation;
• component character;
• motion duration and easing;
• actor-specific voice or density where appropriate;
• rationale explaining important decisions.

Tokens should use semantic roles—surface, text, accent, danger—rather than bind the product to one component implementation.

One authored source

The Designer is the authoring surface; the brand section of the Evolutionary Model is the stored authority; preview and generators are consumers.

Designer → model brand intent → preview
                              └→ generated application

If preview and code maintain separate token catalogs, drift is inevitable. A value should be resolved once and projected consistently.

Presets and customization

A preset or mood is a starting decision. It should seed concrete tokens and then stop acting as a hidden override layer. Later edits operate on the resolved design intent.

A bespoke design package can extend the supported system for a known product language. Its ownership and precedence must be explicit; it is not a license to create an untracked fork inside managed files.

Accessibility

Generation should preserve:

• sufficient contrast;
• keyboard reachability and visible focus;
• semantic HTML and accessible labels;
• reduced-motion preferences;
• touch target size;
• readable density and type at narrow widths.

Accessibility is not a theme option. It constrains both the design system and component emitters.

Design review

Review the system across representative patterns, not a single hero screen. Include forms, tables, dense worklists, empty states, validation errors, dialogs, and mobile navigation. A token set that looks attractive on a dashboard can still fail in operational screens.

Continue with Preview fidelity or Technology stack and add-ons.