Google’s Stitch team has open-sourced <a href="http://DESIGN.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">DESIGN.md</a>, a file format that lets AI agents read and act on visual identity and design systems.
The idea is straightforward: instead of an agent guessing at your brand’s colors or typography, it reads a single file that explains both the actual values (hex codes, font sizes) and the reasoning behind them (why those choices were made). Human-readable rationale and structured design tokens live together in one place.
The spec, now published on GitHub, sets baseline rules while leaving room for extensions. A few things worth noting:
<ul>
<li>A token section pairs design values with the reasoning behind them</li>
<li>A components section (still in progress) lets you reference roles rather than hardcoding values</li>
<li>A CLI tool validates <a href="http://DESIGN.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">DESIGN.md</a> files against the spec, including WCAG contrast ratio checks</li>
</ul>
The goal is to give any agent or tool a shared foundation for generating and consuming design systems consistently, rather than every platform reinventing its own approach.
The spec is live on GitHub, and Stitch has already shipped support for it.

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Google's Stitch team has open-sourced DESIGN.md, a file format specification that enables AI agents to read and act on design systems. The format pairs structured design tokens (hex codes, font sizes) with human-readable rationale explaining the reasoning behind design decisions. The GitHub-published spec includes a token section, a work-in-progress components section for role-based references, and a CLI tool that validates files against the spec with WCAG contrast ratio checks. The goal is to provide a shared foundation so AI agents and tools can consistently generate and consume design systems without each platform inventing its own approach.

DESIGN.md: an open standard for describing design systems to AI agents

There is a Bug in the <a href="http://Design.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Design.md</a> link

That sure does look interesting. Great idea from Google.

Long waited improvement for .md files