Making AI agents actually follow your design system

If you've been building with AI lately, you've probably noticed the gap between what the demos show and what actually ships. AI tools can generate code, write copy, and create images — but they often ignore your design system. The result looks like a prototype that forgot to check the brand guide before going live.

The new approach is simpler than it sounds: instead of hoping the AI gets it right, you give it the rules upfront. Feed it your style tokens, spacing scales, color palettes, and component variants. Make the system explicit — the kind of thing your designers already have in Figma, just translated into something the model can read. When you ask it to do something, it checks against the rules you gave it, and the output stays consistent.

Why this matters for us: the people who can set up their own design rules without waiting for a senior designer to sign off are the ones who'll actually use AI without it making their work look like everyone else's.