We know how to build design systems, but we don't know how to operate them
The practices exist. The discipline hasn't caught up
Design systems32
Your design system is fragmenting into agent files
AGENTS.md, SKILL.md, DESIGN.md, and where each one fits
Every component in your design system is a promise
How the promises your system makes became the thing agents read first.
When frequency isn't signal
The rule design systems use to promote patterns stops working the moment AI is generating the instances.
The job nobody assigned
Design system teams are governing AI-generated output – a mandate nobody assigned them. Here's what that work actually involves, and how to make it visible to your organisation.
Design system archaeology
Reading a system you didn't build, and why the first 90 days look nothing like building
Agents are the most honest reviewers your design system will ever have
The most useful feedback your system has ever produced is on a thirty-day timer
What your components look like as data
Why every layer name, variant, and token reference is an architectural decision
The prompt you never wrote
How your design system vocabulary becomes AI context