Tokens & playbooks / Checklist

Design System Checklist

Review what a design system needs beyond colors and buttons.

Documentation reviewed

Source review
Oct 18, 2026

Understand the resource

What it is.

This open-source checklist organizes work across design language, foundations, components and maintenance. It gives a team a way to identify missing decisions before similar screens develop different rules.

When it is useful

A product is growing from a few screens into a repeatable interface system.

A proposed application

Put it to work.

This example illustrates a possible use. The proposed workflow and expected result are separate from the bounded checks recorded below.

Try this

Review the current form components, mark missing error and disabled states, and assign owners to the gaps.

Result to aim for

A scoped backlog of system decisions and component work.

Before you start

What you need.

A component inventory and people who can own unresolved decisions.

The practical boundaries

What to watch for.

Checking a box is not evidence that a component works for users.
Adapt the checklist to the product and verify accessibility with actual implementation tests.

Review record

What we could establish.

Public primary documentation reviewed. See the account-free evaluation for executed checks and remaining workflow limits.

Source coverage and runtime coverage are separate

The source-review notes describe documentation and identity. The account-free evaluation below records exactly which public interaction or local fixture was checked, what happened, and what remains untested.

Check current access, terms, licensing and data handling before using a resource with your own material.

Runtime and security evaluation

What the evaluation covers.

Bounded runtime checkedAccount-free · Oct 19, 2026

The Foundations category opened with color, layout, typography, elevation and motion sections. Public checklist navigation worked without an account.

Methods: Public HTTP response · Public browser sample. A completed check covers the stated sample; it is not a safety certification.

Target: https://www.designsystemchecklist.com/
Version or capture: Unversioned public page observed on 2026-10-19
Integrity scope: sha256:ba212416fbf59856e9d97af63f08b0d7c074a0eaf8058e04a2fadee1f33bbf18 — initial HTTP 200 response body only; not whole-application integrity.

Test conditions

Chromium 155.0.8059.82, 1365×900 desktop viewport.
Separate fresh, ephemeral browser contexts for entry and interaction; no owner profile, credentials or stored session.
Only GET/HEAD network requests allowed; forms, downloads, WebSockets and service workers blocked. Some analytics endpoints also blocked.
Short bounded waits; no mobile, assistive-technology, cross-browser or performance certification.

Individual checks and observations

Public HTTP response
pass
Public HTTP response: Anonymous GET with redirects followed, response-body SHA-256 and selected security-header summaries; no cookies retained.
Observed: The standalone client received 200 at https://www.designsystemchecklist.com/. This establishes response delivery only.
Fresh browser entry
pass
Public browser sample: Open the catalog URL in a new anonymous Chromium context with read-only network guards and no inherited profile.
Observed: The document returned 200 and identified itself as “Design System Checklist”. 0 image elements were present; no account was used.
Observed public sample or navigation
pass
Public browser sample: Follow the observed Foundations 0/26 link to https://www.designsystemchecklist.com/category/foundations.
Observed: The destination returned 200; title: “Design System Checklist”. 0 page image elements had decoded during the bounded wait. This count is not a catalog size or performance benchmark.

Security findings and boundaries

Passive inspection of the initial public document’s response headers and anonymous browser request hostnames, with read-only guards. No source exploitation, account access, dependency audit or private data.

Observed · info

Public response protections

The initial browser page used HTTPS. Its response included HSTS. No enforcing Content-Security-Policy response header was observed. This records the sampled response only; meta policies, backend authorization and exploit resistance were not assessed.

Observed · info

Request surface in the anonymous visit

Design System Checklist attempted requests to 2 additional hosts, including vitals.vercel-insights.com, designsystemchecklist.com. Host counts include requests stopped by the test guard; they do not establish what data a service retained.

Practical advice · caution

Before using this reference

Turn each relevant checklist item into a test or owner decision. Navigating the checklist does not validate the system being reviewed.

Practical caveats

Turn each relevant checklist item into a test or owner decision. Navigating the checklist does not validate the system being reviewed.
Checking a box is not evidence that a component works for users.

What remains untested

Checkbox persistence, sharing and collaborative state were not changed or tested; no component implementation was audited.
Results describe the observed public pages and a bounded action, not the entire product or the referenced designs.

Security limits

No authentication, authorization, tenant separation, data retention or backend handling was tested.
Header presence or absence is a sampled configuration observation, not a security certification or an exploit finding.
6 blocked-request records were retained across entry and interaction checks. Guards may alter normal page behavior; the logs do not represent unrestricted traffic.

Evaluation sources

Download this evaluation record (JSON)

Follow the evidence

Sources and further reading.

Primary product page

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