# The W3C Design Tokens format Tokens and data. Reviewed November 9, 2026. https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/w3c-design-tokens-format/ ## Answer in brief The W3C Design Tokens format is the file format for design tokens written by the Design Tokens Community Group, a community group at the W3C. Its version 2025.10, dated October 28, 2025, is a Final Community Group Report that calls itself stable, and also says plainly that it is not a W3C Standard. It sets how a file names a value, types it, describes it and points one design token at another, so any tool that follows it can read the file. 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. ## What the format settles A design token file in the format is JSON. Each design token has a `$value` and a `$type`, and can carry a `$description`, a `$deprecated` flag and `$extensions` for a tool’s own data. Design tokens sit in groups, one can point at another with a reference in curly braces, and composite types hold values such as a whole typography style. The report recommends the media type `application/design-tokens+json` and the extensions `.tokens` and `.tokens.json`. The group published three modules the same day, October 28, 2025: the Format, a Color module and a Resolver module. The Format report is published under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement. ## What it gives an agent A file in a known format answers the questions an agent would otherwise guess at: what a value is, what type it has, and what it is for, when the description says so. A reference such as `{colors.blue}` keeps the meaning of a semantic token (the [glossary entry](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/glossary/semantic-token/) has the term) instead of copying a hex code. The [guide to design tokens as data](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/design-tokens-as-data/) shows a file and how to turn yours into one. ## Where the rated systems stand Of the 12 systems compared, IBM Carbon’s theme files point at the format’s schema and use `$value` and `$type`. GitHub Primer’s own guide says its source files follow the format; the research listed the shipped JSON without validating it. Atlassian, Ant Design and Salesforce Lightning publish design tokens as JSON or YAML in formats of their own, and Microsoft Fluent 2 as TypeScript. Each [directory entry](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/) links the file. ## Check before you rely on it - Which version a tool supports. Style Dictionary, for one, says 2025.10 is not fully supported yet. - Your colors. In 2025.10 a color is an object with a color space, components and a hex value, so files that store colors as strings need converting. - The group’s list of tools that ship the format is the group’s own claim. Test the tool you use with your own file. ## Questions & answers ### Is the W3C Design Tokens format a W3C standard? No. The 2025.10 report says it is not a W3C Standard nor on the W3C Standards Track. It is a Final Community Group Report, which the document says is stable and intended for implementation, and later versions will supersede it. ### Does an AI-ready design system need the W3C format? Not to rate Yes here. The comparison counts design tokens as data in any format a program reads. The W3C format adds that every tool which follows it reads the same file the same way, which matters once design tokens move between a design tool, a build tool and an agent. ## Sources for this entry 1. [Design Tokens Format Module 2025.10](https://www.designtokens.org/tr/2025.10/format/): What the format defines, its status as a Final Community Group Report, its media type and file extensions. Checked November 9, 2026. 2. [Design Tokens Community Group](https://www.designtokens.org/): The first stable version, 2025.10, and the tools the group says ship the format. Checked November 9, 2026. 3. [Design Tokens Community Group at the W3C](https://www.w3.org/community/design-tokens/): The Format, Color and Resolver modules published on October 28, 2025, with their licensing commitments. Checked November 9, 2026. 4. [Carbon’s theme design tokens, white theme](https://unpkg.com/@carbon/themes@11.85.0/tokens/themes/white/theme.tokens.json): A rated system’s design token file pointing at the format’s schema. Checked November 8, 2026. ## Continue this reading path - [Design tokens as data, in the W3C community format](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/design-tokens-as-data/) - [W3C Design Tokens format](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/glossary/w3c-design-tokens-format/) - [Style Dictionary](https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/style-dictionary/) - [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. “The W3C Design Tokens format.” Reviewed November 9, 2026. https://bestaidesignsystems.com/directory/w3c-design-tokens-format/ --- Simbolik Reference. [Work with Simbolik](https://simbolik.ai/service-ai-systems.html).