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Design system · Migration · Feb – Sep 2026
Conversion is cheap. Review is the throttle.
I led Lula’s move to one design system across nine product surfaces, built so people and AI agents can both read it. An agent converted a whole app in one weekend. Shipping the first surface took eleven more weeks, and the gap between those two numbers is the story.
- Design
- Four product designers: one owns the system, one leads the migration plan
- Partners
- An engineering lead for agent conversion, the package maintainer, platform engineering
- Surfaces
- Nine, across Core and Foresight
- Timeline
- Feb 18 – Sep 29, 2026
LuMi, the resident app, rebuilt from design-system parts in the UI Baseline file. Sample data only.
Summary · 2 minutes
The short version.
24/25LuMi screens converted by an agent in one weekend
315Figma components, with 1,049 variables
45/45built components mapped with Code Connect
~1 hrfor a small design request, down from 2–3
The problem
Nine product surfaces, and no shared contract between them. Core Admin predates any design system. Foresight ran on a looser one that was never fully integrated. By hand, one surface’s main screens took about 30 working days.
The approach
- 1Make the contract a pipelineFigma variables as the source of truth, synced hourly through Supernova into one React and Tailwind package, released automatically.
- 2Agents convert, designers reviewInstead of hiring one person to rebuild nine surfaces by hand: a designer inventories the surface, an agent converts it, a designer validates.
What we did
01A library machines can read1,049 tokens in three tiers, and every public component described to settle ties.
02A baseline of what exists22 LuMi screens rebuilt from system parts, each with an annotation card.
03The pilotAn agent converted 24 of 25 screens in a July weekend, with 3,430 tests passing.
04The first surfaceForesight Coordinator’s App Shell, Released Sep 29 on every authenticated route.
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