Design System Reverse Engineering

Design System Reverse Engineering

Use this skill to infer a project-specific design system from existing code, design artifacts, and knowledge bases, then publish outputs in Adobe Spectrum's structural taxonomy.

Non-negotiable constraints

• Treat Adobe Spectrum as a structure reference only.
• Derive all project rules from project evidence (code, design assets, documentation).
• Maintain deterministic pipelines with explicit finite states.
• Keep missing values explicit as unknown or na; do not leave semantic gaps as blank.
• Record evidence links for every decision.
• Intent over implementation: design intent (why) takes precedence over implementation facts (what). When intent and implementation diverge, flag the divergence and treat intent as authoritative.

Source truth hierarchy

Sources are classified into intent sources (design meaning and purpose) and fact sources (implementation reality). Intent sources have higher authority for design system documentation.

Rules:

• A code-only observation without intent backing is an implementation detail, not a design rule.
• A Notion/Figma observation without code backing is a design intent gap to be flagged, not dismissed.
• When Notion MUST rules and code implementation conflict, the Notion rule is authoritative and the code is flagged for remediation.
• evidence_level classifies evidence reliability; source_truth_priority classifies authority for design decisions. Both are tracked independently.

Architecture principles

1. Declarative
2. Self-describing
3. Deterministic
4. Explicit State
5. Finite State
6. Self-documenting
7. Exhaustive
8. Predictable

Required structure contract (Adobe Spectrum)

• Principles
• Foundation
  • design_tokens
  • platform_scale
  • theming
  • color
  • typography
  • object_styles
  • motion
  • states
  • iconography
  • illustration
  • inclusive_design
  • international_design
  • bi_directionality
  • data_visualization
• Content
  • voice_and_tone
  • grammar_and_mechanics
  • language_and_inclusivity
    • inclusive_ux_writing
    • writing_about_people
    • writing_for_readability
    • writing_with_visuals
  • in_product_word_list
  • writing_for_errors
  • writing_for_onboarding

Inputs

Collect inputs into a single registry CSV first:

• source_type
• source_locator
• source_section
• evidence_level
• priority
• notes

All six columns are required. During normalization, blank source_section becomes unknown, blank evidence_level and notes become na, and priority must be one of high, medium, or low. Unsupported finite values make the row invalid with an explicit reason.

Start from assets/source-registry.template.csv and adapt per project.

Resource roles:

• Use assets/foundation-observation-schema.template.csv when structuring Foundation observations.
• Use assets/content-observation-schema.template.csv when structuring Content observations.
• Use assets/spectrum-taxonomy.yaml when validating the final Spectrum structure mapping.
• Load references/unified-modeling-theory.md and references/unified-modeling-practice.md only when the task explicitly needs cross-layer domain, information-architecture, and design-system modeling.

Data intake and normalization

1. Ingest all source locators into one registry table.
2. Normalize locators into machine-joinable identifiers.
3. Validate required fields and supported source types.
4. Deduplicate using deterministic canonical keys.
5. Split invalid and duplicate rows into separate audit files.
6. Freeze queue order before extraction.

Resolve two absolute bases before running the normalizer:

• SKILL_ROOT: this skill directory; bundled scripts and assets resolve here.
• WORKSPACE_ROOT: the repository or project being analyzed; generated inventory resolves here.

Only these two bases may be used. Pass relative --input and --out-dir values; the script rejects absolute paths and .. traversal. Existing output files are not replaced unless --overwrite is explicitly present.

Run:

python "$SKILL_ROOT/scripts/normalize_sources.py" \
  --workspace-root "$WORKSPACE_ROOT" \
  --input-scope skill \
  --input assets/source-registry.template.csv \
  --out-dir design-system-inventory/intake

Generated files:

• normalized.csv
• duplicates.csv
• invalid.csv
• summary.json

Finite states

Evidence lifecycle:

• S0 Candidate
• S1 Extracted
• S2 Structured
• S3a StructureValidated
• S3b ContentValidated
• S4 Approved

Allowed transitions:

• S0 -> S1 -> S2 -> S3a -> S3b -> S4
• Do not skip states.

Execution flow

For work spanning multiple sources or more than one extraction phase, report a compact progress update after Phase 0.5 and after each completed numbered phase. State the completed phase, artifact paths, invalid or unresolved counts, and the next phase. Do not emit progress updates inside a short single-phase task.

Phase 0: Input Freeze

• Freeze source scope (code, design, docs, operations records).
• Freeze branch/commit and extraction window.
• Define priority scope.

Phase 0.5: Deterministic Intake

• Normalize all source locators.
• Generate canonical keys and queue order.
• Isolate invalid rows with explicit reasons.
• Persist duplicate logs.

Phase 1: Code Reverse Engineering

• Extract Foundation, Content, and Components observations from implementation.
• Keep line-level evidence references (path:line).
• Mark non-applicable entries with reasons.

Phase 1.5: Knowledge Reverse Engineering

• Extract rules from documentation/knowledge sources.
• Separate first-class evidence from secondary evidence.
• Map statements into Foundation/Content/Components/Operations candidates.

Phase 2: Design Reverse Engineering

• Extract observations from design files (nodes, styles, variants, states).
• Normalize design node identifiers before extraction.
• Keep raw-response references and extraction parameters.

Phase 2.5: Foundation Schema Fixing

• Harmonize code/design/knowledge observations into one Foundation schema.
• Enforce conditional required fields by source type.
• Compute identity_key and merge_key.

Phase 2.6: Layout Abstraction (Grid System x Canonical Layout)

• Separate Grid System as the abstract layer and Canonical Layout as the concrete layer.
• Treat Material Design 2 layout grid as axis definitions only (columns/gutters/margins/container); never copy values directly.
• Treat Material Design 3 understanding-layout guidance as the layout behavior baseline; derive concrete canonical templates from project evidence plus platform canonical references.
• Fix abstract observation axes to columns, gutter, margin, container_max_width.
• Fix concrete observation axes to layout_id, primary_regions, pane_count, navigation_mode, transition_rule.
• Require canonical_layout -> grid_rule_set_id linkage so concrete rules always reference abstract rules.
• For abstract grid measurement, observe code evidence from theme.breakpoints.values, theme.spacing, maxWidth, padding, margin, gap, grid-template-columns, and flex-basis.
• For abstract grid measurement, observe design evidence from Grid, Auto Layout, and Constraints settings.
• Keep evidence references as path:line for code and source_url + node_id for design.
• For canonical extraction, infer regions and pane transitions by responsibility plus window-size class/breakpoint transitions.
• Promote a canonical candidate only when at least two independent screens reproduce the same responsibility pattern.
• Build grid_rule_set candidates per viewport bucket and rank canonical_layout candidates by coverage, state completeness, and code/design agreement.
• Record unresolved conflicts as layout_mismatch (abstract conflict) or canonical_mismatch (concrete conflict) and route to conflict resolution.
• Validate by reapplying canonical_layout + grid_rule_set to representative screens and log layout-diff rows.
• Any residual diff must include exception_reason or rule_set_split; no silent exceptions.
• Track layout abstraction state transitions explicitly:
  • LA0 RawObserved
  • LA1 GridMeasured
  • LA2 CanonicalHypothesized
  • LA3 Linked
  • LA4 Validated
  • LA5 Adopted

Phase 2.7: Content Schema Fixing

• Harmonize text and writing observations into one Content schema.
• Preserve state, audience, and language/inclusivity subtopics.
• Enforce per-element required keys.

Phase 2.8: Style Reverse Engineering

• Build a multi-source text corpus.
• Apply deterministic text normalization rules.
• Infer voice/tone, grammar/mechanics, inclusivity patterns.
• Log all style conflicts explicitly.

Phase 3: Principles Inference

• Infer project-specific principles from recurring evidence.
• Require counter-evidence checks before approval.
• For every conflict, record conflict_type and resolve_action.

Phase 4: Structure Mapping

• Map all approved observations to Spectrum structure.
• Keep structure-fit and content-validity as separate fields.
• Keep unclassified records only with explicit reasons.

Phase 5: Gap and Decision

• Compute missing, duplicate, and conflicting rules.
• Record adoption decision (adopt, defer, reject) with evidence.

Phase 6: Documentation

Publish intent-first design system documentation. Every section follows the Intent → Rule → Evidence structure, not the reverse.

6.1 Intent-first section structure

Each Foundation element, Content element, and Component category must be documented in this order:

1. Design Intent (Why) — The design purpose derived from priority-1/2 sources (Notion MUST rules, Figma structure). Answers "why does this exist?" and "what problem does it solve for users?"
2. Usage Guidelines (When) — Do/Don't rules that tell practitioners when to use and when not to use. Derived from intent + cross-source conflict resolutions.
3. Token/Rule Specification (What) — The concrete values, scales, and schemas. Derived from all sources, validated against intent.
4. Evidence — Source pills indicating which sources support each rule, with priority-tagged references.

Anti-pattern: listing implementation facts (token values, component props) without explaining why they exist or when to use them.

6.2 Source attribution

Every rule and intent statement must include source attribution using source pills:

• [Notion] for knowledge base / MUST/SHOULD rules (priority 1)
• [Figma] for design file observations (priority 2)
• [ADR] for architecture decision records (priority 3)
• [Code] for implementation evidence (priority 4)

When a rule is supported by multiple sources, list all with their priorities. When only code evidence exists, explicitly flag it as "implementation-only, intent unverified."

6.3 Connecting Principles to specifics

Each Principle must include:

• A "Why" block explaining the product requirement or design constraint it serves
• Connection links to the specific Foundation elements, Components, and Content rules it governs
• MUST rule references (if applicable) that this principle derives from

6.4 Divergence documentation

When intent (Notion/Figma) and implementation (code) diverge:

• Document the intent as the authoritative rule
• Flag the implementation as a known gap
• Include remediation guidance where possible

Publish:

• design-system/principles.md
• design-system/foundation.md
• design-system/content.md

Output requirements

• Output structure must remain Principles/Foundation/Content.
• Every section must lead with design intent (why), not implementation facts (what).
• Include evidence links for every normative rule, with source truth priority visible.
• Keep structure references and project-content evidence separated.
• Keep conflict logs and decision logs as first-class deliverables.
• Include layout abstraction artifacts as first-class outputs:
  • design-system-inventory/layout-grid-observations.csv
  • design-system-inventory/layout-grid-rules.csv
  • design-system-inventory/canonical-layout-observations.csv
  • design-system-inventory/canonical-layout-rules.csv
  • design-system-inventory/layout-abstraction-validation.csv
  • design-system-inventory/layout-abstraction-rulebook.md

Validation checklist

• Every Foundation element has an observed row or explicit non-applicable reason.
• Every Content element has an observed row or explicit non-applicable reason.
• language_and_inclusivity includes all four subtopics.
• No approved rule is justified by secondary evidence only.
• No direct copy of Spectrum prose into project principles.
• layout-grid-observations.csv rows always include viewport_bucket, columns, gutter, margin, container_max_width, and evidence_ref.
• layout-grid-rules.csv rules always include at least one code evidence and one figma evidence; single-source rules remain pending.
• canonical-layout-rules.csv rows always include layout_id, primary_regions, pane_count, navigation_mode, transition_rule, and grid_rule_set_id.
• layout-abstraction-validation.csv diff rows always include either conflict_type (layout_mismatch or canonical_mismatch) or resolve_action.
• All pending conflicts have owners and statuses.

Load references/REFERENCE.md when defining schemas, canonical keys, state transitions, output packages, or the final definition of done.