Design systems that survive the handoff to engineering
A beautiful Figma library is worthless if it drifts from the code. How we keep design and implementation in lockstep with tokens.
The graveyard of design systems is full of gorgeous Figma files that engineering quietly ignored. The problem is almost never the design — it's the handoff. The moment design and code diverge, the system becomes documentation nobody trusts.
Tokens are the contract
Design tokens — named values for color, spacing, typography and radius — are the single source of truth that both sides share. Designers edit tokens in Figma; a pipeline exports them to code. Nobody hand-copies a hex value ever again.
- Primitive tokens: the raw palette, e.g.
blue-500. - Semantic tokens: intent, e.g.
color-action-primary. - Component tokens: per-component overrides when truly needed.
One component, one source
For each component we keep the Figma component and the coded component mapped one-to-one, with a visual regression test that screenshots both. When they drift, the build fails — so they never drift for long.
The politics matter as much as the tooling. We give one team ownership of the system and a clear contribution path for everyone else. A design system is a product, and products need an owner.