michaelschiemer/docs/todo/design-system-improvements.md

Design System Improvements - Todo List

Status: Planning Priority: Low-Medium Estimated Effort: Small (ongoing)

Overview

Incremental improvements to the existing Design System infrastructure, separate from the CSS Generation System.

Parser & Analysis Enhancements

CSS Parser Improvements

• Add support for CSS @layer parsing
• Parse @container queries
• Extract @media query information
• Parse CSS animations (@keyframes)
• Support CSS nesting syntax
• Add CSS validation (warn about invalid properties)

Design System Analyzer Enhancements

• Add accessibility analysis

  • Check for sufficient color contrast
  • Validate ARIA-compatible class names
  • Report accessibility issues

• Add performance analysis

  • CSS file size reporting
  • Selector complexity scoring
  • Unused CSS detection

• Add consistency checks

  • Token naming conventions
  • Class naming patterns (BEM, utility, etc.)
  • Spacing scale consistency

New Analyzers

• Create CssComplexityAnalyzer

  • Measure selector specificity
  • Count nested selectors
  • Identify overly complex rules

• Create DesignTokenUsageAnalyzer

  • Which tokens are actually used?
  • Which tokens are unused?
  • Token usage frequency

Value Objects & Core Types

CSS Value Objects

• Extend CssColor Value Object

  • Add color manipulation methods (lighten, darken, saturate)
  • Color contrast calculation
  • WCAG compliance checking

• Create CssAnimation Value Object

  • Represent @keyframes animations
  • Timing functions, durations
  • Animation composition

• Create CssMediaQuery Value Object

  • Parse and represent media queries
  • Breakpoint Value Objects
  • Query composition helpers

• Create CssContainerQuery Value Object

  • Container query representation
  • Size-based conditions

Design Token Enhancements

• Add token aliasing support

  • --color-primary: var(--color-blue-500);
  • Track token dependencies

• Add token transformations

  • Light/dark mode variants
  • Responsive token values
  • Platform-specific tokens (web, iOS, Android)

• Token validation

  • Type checking (color must be valid color)
  • Range validation (spacing must be positive)
  • Format validation

Component System Integration

Component Discovery

• Enhance component attribute discovery

  • Find all components with #[ComponentName]
  • Build component dependency graph
  • Detect circular dependencies

• Component usage tracking

  • Where is each component used in templates?
  • Component usage statistics
  • Unused component detection

Component Documentation

• Auto-generate component documentation

  • Extract props from component constructors
  • Generate prop tables
  • Extract usage examples from tests

• Component playground/preview

  • Live preview of all components
  • Interactive prop editing
  • Code generation from preview

Template System Integration

Template Analysis

• Create TemplateAnalyzer

  • Find all template files
  • Extract used components
  • Extract used CSS classes
  • Find inline styles

• Template-CSS correlation

  • Which CSS classes are used in templates?
  • Which classes are defined but not used?
  • Dead CSS detection

Template Validation

• Validate component usage in templates
  • Check for valid component names
  • Check for required props
  • Validate prop types

MCP Integration Enhancements

New MCP Tools

• analyze_design_tokens MCP tool

  • List all design tokens
  • Show token usage statistics
  • Find token conflicts

• validate_css_usage MCP tool

  • CSS coverage analysis
  • Unused CSS detection
  • Suggest optimizations

• generate_component_docs MCP tool

  • Auto-generate component documentation
  • Export as Markdown/HTML

Console Commands

New Commands

• design:analyze - Full design system analysis

  • Run all analyzers
  • Generate comprehensive report
  • Output as JSON/Markdown

• design:validate - Validate design system

  • Check token naming conventions
  • Validate component definitions
  • Check CSS consistency

• design:report - Generate design system report

  • Token inventory
  • Component inventory
  • CSS statistics
  • Usage analytics

• design:optimize - Optimize CSS

  • Remove unused CSS
  • Combine similar rules
  • Suggest token consolidation

Documentation

Design System Documentation

• Create design system handbook

  • Token usage guidelines
  • Component creation guide
  • CSS conventions
  • Best practices

• Create visual component library

  • Showcase all components
  • Interactive examples
  • Copy-paste code snippets

Developer Guides

• CSS architecture guide

  • ITCSS methodology explanation
  • Layer organization
  • Naming conventions

• Token system guide

  • When to create new tokens
  • Token naming conventions
  • Token categories explanation

Testing

Test Coverage

• Add tests for all parsers

  • CssParser edge cases
  • CustomPropertyParser
  • ClassNameParser

• Add tests for analyzers

  • DesignSystemAnalyzer
  • ColorAnalyzer
  • TokenAnalyzer

• Integration tests

  • Full design system analysis
  • Token extraction from real CSS
  • Component discovery

Performance Optimization

Parser Performance

• Benchmark CSS parsing performance
• Optimize regex patterns
• Add caching for parsed results
• Parallel file parsing

Analysis Performance

• Cache analysis results
• Incremental analysis (only changed files)
• Lazy loading for large design systems

Future Considerations

Advanced Features

• Design system versioning

  • Track token changes over time
  • Breaking change detection
  • Migration guides

• Design system diffing

  • Compare two versions
  • Show token additions/removals
  • Highlight breaking changes

• Multi-theme support

  • Light/dark mode tokens
  • Brand theme variants
  • A/B testing themes

• Design token export

  • Export to JSON (Style Dictionary format)
  • Export to CSS
  • Export to SCSS/Less
  • Export to JS/TS

Tooling Integration

• Figma plugin integration

  • Sync tokens from Figma
  • Export components to Figma
  • Keep design and code in sync

• Storybook integration

  • Auto-generate stories from components
  • Token documentation in Storybook

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Last Updated: 2025-10-19 Status: Ongoing improvements