Design System Foundations

Overview

Use this skill to establish stable UI foundations that multiple teams can adopt without diverging conventions.

Scope Boundaries

• Use this skill when the task matches the trigger condition described in description.
• Do not use this skill when the primary task falls outside this skill's domain.

Shared References

• Lifecycle governance guidance:
  • references/foundation-lifecycle-guidance.md

Templates And Assets

• Foundation inventory:
  • assets/foundation-inventory-template.csv
• Ownership and lifecycle model:
  • assets/foundation-ownership-model-template.md

Inputs To Gather

• Current component inventory, duplication hotspots, and drift patterns.
• Product surface priorities and expected growth areas.
• Engineering constraints (frameworks, theming model, release cadence).
• Governance expectations (ownership, review, and change control model).

Deliverables

• Foundation architecture map (primitives, composition rules, and boundaries).
• Ownership model with lifecycle states (draft/active/deprecated/retired).
• Adoption strategy with migration sequence and risk notes.
• Decision log for rejected alternatives and rationale.

Quick Example

• Primitive ownership: typography, spacing, and color scale managed centrally.
• Shared component ownership: cross-product components owned by design system team.
• Product extension policy: local variants allowed only with expiration and convergence plan.
• Lifecycle rule: deprecated components blocked for new usage after defined cutoff.

Quality Standard

• Foundation boundaries are explicit and do not overlap ambiguously.
• Ownership and lifecycle are defined for every foundation artifact.
• Adoption plan minimizes breaking migrations for active teams.
• Accessibility and localization constraints are baked into foundation definitions.

Workflow

1. Audit existing UI patterns and capture inventory in assets/foundation-inventory-template.csv.
2. Define foundational primitives and composition boundaries.
3. Assign ownership and lifecycle governance per foundation area using assets/foundation-ownership-model-template.md.
4. Validate technical feasibility with implementation teams.
5. Publish adoption plan with phased migration guidance and lifecycle policy from references/foundation-lifecycle-guidance.md.

Failure Conditions

• Stop when foundation scope is too broad to govern consistently.
• Stop when ownership is undefined for shared artifacts.
• Escalate when migration cost is known but lacks mitigation plan.