Design Tokens CLI

A design-tokens-format-adhering token transformation CLI (Command Line Interface).

Supports

• Converting from design tokens in the standard JSON format...
• ...to CSS (custom properties)
• ...to Sass (scss) variables
• ...to ES modules
• ...to JSON (flattened to name/value pairs)
• (Chained) token reference resolution
• Reference resolution between separate tokens files in one transform
• Reference resolution between separate tokens between separate transforms
• Composite tokens ($values as objects)
• *.tokens.json and *.tokens file types
• Concatenation of separate token files under a single name

Getting started

Installation

Install the CLI globally using npm:

npm i -g design-tokens-cli

Configuration

Transformations are defined using a master config file. Here is a configuration with just one transform:

{
  "transforms": [
    {
      "from": "origin/tokens",
      "to": [
        {
          "as": "scss",
          "to": "destination/scss"
        },
        {
          "as": "css",
          "to": "destination/css"
        },
        {
          "as": "mjs",
          "to": "destination/js"
        }      
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Formats

The to array for each transformation lists the formats you want and their respective output folders. The as property must be the file extension for the output format. Both mjs and js output ES modules.

Running the transforms

Either you explicitly define the path to the config file…

designTokens transform ./path/to/my-config.json

…or you leave that argument out and the CLI will look for a tokens.config.json file anywhere in the current working directory:

designTokens transform

File names and groups

By convention, the file name for each tokens file found in from represents the top level "group" name for those tokens. In practice, this means converting /origin/tokens/color-greyscale.tokens.json will result in a set of tokens each prefixed with color-greyscale-. For js/mjs transformations the file would look something like the following, with color-greyscale converted into camel case:

export const colorGreyscale = {
  'color-black': '#000000',
  'color-blanche': '#ffffff',
}

globalPrefix

You can prefix all tokens with a common string using the top-level globalPrefix property in your config file. Using...

"globalPrefix": "token-"

...color-brand-light becomes token--color-brand-light.

Concatenation

If the transform has a name property, multiple files found in the from origin will be concatenated into a single output file of that name. Take the following example:

{
  "transforms": [
    {
      "name": "layout",
      "from": "origin/tokens",
      "to": [
        {
          "as": "css",
          "to": "destination/css"
        }   
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Where there are breakpoints.tokens.json and sizes.tokens.json files in /origin/tokens, their tokens will be placed in the same /destination/css/layout.tokens.css file. Without the name, separate breakpoints.tokens.css and sizes.tokens.css files would be made.