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Theme Migration Guard

Keep saved themes working when the tokens underneath them are renamed or replaced.

involved Design Systems

What it adds

A versioned migration path that upgrades stored themes as the token set changes beneath them.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Stamp every stored theme with the version of the token set it was written against, and refuse to apply a theme whose version you do not recognise rather than applying it partially.

  2. 2

    Write each token change as an explicit forward migration step — a rename, a split of one token into two, a merge, or a removal — and run the steps in order. Inferring the mapping by matching names produces plausible and wrong results the first time a token is split.

  3. 3

    Keep a record of which values a user actually chose and which were inherited from defaults, so a migration can carry the deliberate overrides forward and let everything else be regenerated from the current defaults.

  4. 4

    Supply a value for every token that becomes required, derived from the theme's existing values where a sensible derivation exists and from the shipped default where it does not. A theme missing a required token must never reach the renderer.

  5. 5

    Do not migrate lazily on read without persisting the result. A theme that is re-migrated on every load will be migrated twice by two tabs, will hide the cost of a slow migration, and will keep failing in exactly the same way with no record of it having failed before.

Edge cases it handles

7
  • Every saved theme needs a version stamp, because a theme with an unknown provenance cannot be migrated safely and must be refused rather than half-applied.
  • User overrides have to survive the migration intact and distinguishable from inherited defaults, or a migration quietly resets the one colour somebody cared enough to change.
  • Tokens that become required need a supplied value — derived where a derivation makes sense, defaulted where it does not — so no theme ever reaches the renderer incomplete.
  • A migration interrupted midway must be recoverable. Write the result atomically, or keep the original alongside the new one until the migration is confirmed complete, so a failed upgrade does not leave a theme that is half old and half new.
  • Two tabs or two devices may attempt the same migration at once; make the operation idempotent so running it twice produces the same theme as running it once.
  • A theme created by a newer version of the app than the one running must be refused with a clear message rather than downgraded by guesswork.
  • Keep the previous version of a migrated theme long enough for someone to revert, since a bad migration is usually only noticed after the user has closed the tab.

Definition of done

9
  • Every stored theme carries the token-set version it was written against.
  • Migrations are explicit ordered steps, not name matching.
  • User-chosen values are preserved through migration and remain distinguishable from defaults.
  • Newly required tokens receive derived or default values, and no incomplete theme reaches the renderer.
  • An interrupted migration leaves either the original theme or the fully migrated one, never a mixture.
  • Running a migration twice produces the same result as running it once.
  • A theme from a newer version is refused with a clear message.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.