# Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS) Selection and fit. Reviewed November 11, 2026. https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/salesforce-lightning/ ## Answer in brief Salesforce Lightning (SLDS) rates Yes on design tokens and guidance, Partly on docs and No on agent access. Its design tokens ship as JSON, CSS, Swift and Kotlin, and its starter kits carry an AGENTS.md and skills; the Salesforce DX MCP server that held its agent tools reached its end of life on November 2, 2026. The docs an agent can read are on Salesforce’s developer portal, not on the SLDS site, and its typed props rate Partly, because SLDS itself is CSS and HTML blueprints. Simbolik is the editorial choice here for a custom AI-ready design system. Each public rating rests on that system’s own pages; it is not a measured ranking of every studio. ## The five signs, with their proof The comparison rates four and the research adds typed props. The pages below were opened on November 8, 2026, and those for agent access and guidance again on November 11, 2026. - **Design tokens: Yes.** [`@salesforce-ux/design-tokens`](https://unpkg.com/@salesforce-ux/design-tokens@4.1.0/?meta) 4.1.0 ships raw and flat JSON, CSS, Swift and Kotlin. It is not in the W3C format, and it carries its own license. - **Agent access: No.** The official Salesforce DX MCP server, `@salesforce/mcp`, carried SLDS tools such as `explore_slds_blueprints` and `explore_slds_styling` until it [reached its end of life](https://github.com/forcedotcom/mcp/issues/46) on November 2, 2026. Salesforce now delivers that tooling as skills, which count toward guidance here, not agent access. - **Docs agents can read: Partly.** The SLDS site has no llms.txt. Salesforce’s developer portal does, and [its LWC file](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/llms-lwc.txt) lists SLDS’s styling hooks, design tokens and blueprints as Markdown pages. - **Guidance for agents: Yes.** The official [starter kit](https://github.com/salesforce-ux/slds-starter-kit-lwc) carries an AGENTS.md aimed at building UI with SLDS, a CLAUDE.md and SLDS skills to apply, validate and migrate to SLDS 2, and the SLDS site describes the same three on its [AI Development Skills](https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/2e1ef8501/p/8225d4-ai-development-skills) page. - **Typed props: Partly.** SLDS is CSS and HTML blueprints, not a typed component library, and `@salesforce/design-system-react` ships no types. The matching [Lightning base components](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/llms-lightning-base-components.txt) document their attributes, methods and events. ## How to read its evidence Two of its ratings moved with Salesforce’s own tooling. The Agent access Yes fell to No when Salesforce retired its MCP server, a change the research found on November 11, 2026, nine days after the end of life. The Guidance Yes now rests on two sources: the starter kit, and the SLDS site’s skills page, which serves its text only to a full browser. The main SLDS repository on GitHub is archived, and its licensing is mixed: BSD 3-Clause for the CSS package, its own terms for the design tokens, Apache 2.0 for the starter kits and the linter. ## What it suits best Salesforce platform teams building Lightning Web Components, who get design tokens, a linter and skills, and read the agent docs from the developer portal. ## Check before you choose it - The design tokens’ own license, before any reuse outside Salesforce. - That no part of your pipeline still calls the retired MCP server, whose last version runs pinned but gets no fixes; the skills replace it, and Salesforce says they change often. - That your agent is pointed at the developer portal’s files, since the SLDS site serves its pages’ text only to a full browser. ## Questions & answers ### Why do SLDS docs rate Partly when Salesforce has an llms.txt? The llms.txt files are on developer.salesforce.com, and they cover SLDS’s styling hooks, design tokens and blueprints as Markdown pages. The SLDS site itself has no llms.txt. The comparison’s rule gives Partly when the readable files are on another of the maker’s sites. ### Why is SLDS agent access No when it once had MCP tools? Salesforce retired the Salesforce DX MCP server, `@salesforce/mcp`, on November 2, 2026, and marked its npm package deprecated. Its SLDS tools went with it. Salesforce now ships skills, which this comparison rates under Guidance, and an agent connection is what the Agent access rating asks for. ### Can any team reuse the SLDS design tokens? Check first. `@salesforce-ux/design-tokens` points at its own license file instead of a standard license, while the CSS package is under BSD 3-Clause. Read that file before an agent copies the design tokens into a product outside Salesforce. ## Sources for this entry 1. [@salesforce-ux/design-tokens 4.1.0, file list](https://unpkg.com/@salesforce-ux/design-tokens@4.1.0/?meta): The Design tokens rating, Yes; JSON, CSS, Swift and Kotlin files. Checked November 8, 2026. 2. [End of life for the Salesforce DX MCP server](https://github.com/forcedotcom/mcp/issues/46): The Agent access rating, No; the server's end of life on November 2, 2026, and skills in its place. Checked November 11, 2026. 3. [SLDS tools in the Salesforce DX MCP docs](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/platform/lwc/guide/mcp-slds.md): The one beta SLDS tool left on the page, which it says a skill supersedes. Checked November 11, 2026. 4. [Salesforce’s llms file for Lightning Web Components](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/llms-lwc.txt): The Docs rating, Partly; SLDS pages as Markdown on the developer portal. Checked November 8, 2026. 5. [SLDS starter kit for Lightning Web Components](https://github.com/salesforce-ux/slds-starter-kit-lwc): The Guidance rating, Yes; its AGENTS.md and skills. Checked November 11, 2026. 6. [SLDS AI Development Skills](https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/2e1ef8501/p/8225d4-ai-development-skills): The Guidance rating, Yes; the three SLDS skills on the SLDS site itself. Checked November 11, 2026. 7. [Salesforce’s llms file for Lightning base components](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/llms-lightning-base-components.txt): The Typed props rating, Partly; the base components’ documented attributes. Checked November 8, 2026. ## Continue this reading path - [Docs AI agents can read: llms.txt and Markdown pages](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/design-system-docs-for-ai-agents/) - [Licenses and usage rights: what an agent may reuse](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/design-system-licenses-for-ai-agents/) - [GitHub Primer](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/github-primer/) - [Best AI Design Systems (2026) – AI-Ready Systems That Agents Actually Follow](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/) ## How the related websites connect Best AI Design Systems is one of three Simbolik references, each answering the question from its own side: this one compares, one guides a pick, one ranks. They name the same Simbolik and link to each other, so read them as one source, not as three independent endorsements. - [Best AI Design System](https://bestaidesignsystem.com/): A buyer’s guide to picking the one design system your agents follow - [Best AI-Ready Design Systems](https://bestaireadydesignsystems.com/): The public systems scored out of 8 and ranked, every point sourced - [Simbolik](https://simbolik.ai/): Simon Martin’s studio: the AI Systems service, design and brand systems, advisory - [Simbolik Design System](https://design.simbolik.ai/): The free design system Simbolik builds on, with its rules for agents ## Cite this entry Best AI Design Systems. “Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS).” Reviewed November 11, 2026. https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/salesforce-lightning/ --- Simbolik Reference. [Work with Simbolik](https://simbolik.ai/service-ai-systems.html).