---
id: design-tokens
kind: topic
title: "Design tokens and DTCG"
atlas_url: https://designsystems.fly.dev/nodes/design-tokens.md
---

# Design tokens and DTCG

The most formalised layer in a design system, and still hand-copied by the majority. DTCG is the W3C-track interchange format.

60% of teams have no token pipeline at all (zeroheight, n=147)

## Edges

- <- about <- 50 design token files, one problem: your agents can't read the meaning, A Design Tokens Workflow (Part 17) - How Colour Works with the DTCG Design Tokens Color Module, Agent-Ready Design Systems Index, Agentic AI, design systems and Figma, Agentic Design Systems Codebase Navigation, Base MCP: Teaching AI agents to speak the Base Design System, Beyond Design Tokens: Building an AI-Ready Figma Handoff, Build Scalable UI in Figma & AI, Building an Agentic Design System, Building the Next Generation of a Design System With In-House Designers, Claude to Figma: keeping AI-generated UI bound to your design system, Design Systems News, issue 221, Design Systems Report 2026, Design Systems Without Figma: Our AI-Powered Code-First Approach, Design Tokens Format Module 2025.10, Figma Handoff to AI Agents, Introducing Linting to your Existing Design Tokens System, Learning Agentic Design Systems, Not tokens, Use AI to Need Less AI, What are hypertokens? The layer between tokens and components, rebuilt for agents., Why Design System Governance Belongs in Code
- <- focus <- Ali Asghar Aamir, Christine Vallaure, Dei, Donna Vitan, Donnie D'Amato, Drew Powers, James Nash, Jan Six, Josef Richter, Kathleen McMahon, Kiryl Zhukouski, Louis Chenais, Matthew Ström-Awn, Michael Schultz, Mike Kamminga, Nate Baldwin, Phong Trần, Robin Di Capua, Romina Kavcic, Stuart Robson, TJ Pitre
- <- ships <- Base (Uber), Design Systems News, Design Tokens Format Module

## Sources

- https://report.zeroheight.com/
- https://www.designsystems.one/ai-ready/systems