planifest 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
- Audit existing UI patterns and capture inventory in
assets/foundation-inventory-template.csv. - Define foundational primitives and composition boundaries.
- Assign ownership and lifecycle governance per foundation area using
assets/foundation-ownership-model-template.md. - Validate technical feasibility with implementation teams.
- 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.