The Design System Was Fine Until the Agents Moved In
Most design systems don't collapse. They drift, one AI-assisted shortcut at a time, until the product barely matches what the system says it should.
Slot Machine
Design systems, AI tooling, and web components. Built by TJ Pitre, founder of Southleft.
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The Case for Slots
Figma's native slots bring design systems a step closer to how code already works
Use AI to Need Less AI
Component specs, token specs, and contracts are converging on the same idea. Let the model do the heavy lift once, then hand the work to machinery that can't improvise.
AI Proposes. The Design System Disposes.
The flashy demo is downstream of something unglamorous. Here's the token architecture underneath it.
Machine-Readable, Not Machine-Governed: What Config 2026 Actually Proved
Two weeks of design systems writing converged on one argument. Here's where I land on it, and the evidence that changed my mind about how urgent it is.
Figma Motion Is the Feature I Didn't Know I Was Waiting For
Notes from my first Config as a Figmate, plus a demo of controlling Motion's keyframes and timeline through the Figma Console MCP.
Life After the Prototype
Your prototype looks great. Now what? The sequence from a throwaway demo to something engineering can actually ship.
My Beef with Agentic Design Systems
I build with agents every day. That’s exactly why this term worries me.
Code prototypes are fast. Feedback on them is not.
Amy Lima built a skill that brings live prototypes onto the Figma canvas. She had me on her show to pull it apart, and it's worth a longer look.
Some Good Reads: Design Systems & AI, Right Now
A dozen resources from the past couple of weeks. Things to keep an eye on, plus a few I just found entertaining and informative.