Answer in brief
The W3C Design Tokens format is the file format for design tokens published by the Design Tokens Community Group at the W3C: JSON in which each design token has a `$value`, a `$type` and an optional `$description`, and can point at another design token. Version 2025.10 is a stable Final Community Group Report, not a W3C Standard. It is often shortened to DTCG, after the group.
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.
Where the term shows up
In a design system’s docs and package files, the format shows in two places: a $schema line that names designtokens.org, and keys that start with a dollar sign. IBM Carbon’s theme files have both. A file with value and type without the dollar sign is in an older format, such as the one Style Dictionary used in its version 3.
What to ask of a design system
Ask which format its design token files follow, and which version of it. “JSON” on its own says a program can read the file, not that every tool reads it the same way. The directory entry covers what the format settles and which of the 12 rated systems follow it.
Questions & answers
The letters are the Design Tokens Community Group’s, the W3C community group that writes the format. Tools such as Style Dictionary and Tokens Studio name the format DTCG in their settings and docs.
Sources for this entry
- Design Tokens Format Module 2025.10 (opens in a new tab)
The format’s keys, its status as a Final Community Group Report, and that it is not a W3C Standard.
- Style Dictionary and the DTCG format (opens in a new tab)
A build tool naming the format DTCG, and its older format with `value` and `type`.
- Tokens Studio, token format setting (opens in a new tab)
A design tool’s setting that names the format W3C DTCG.
Continue this reading path
Tokens and data
Tokens and data
Tokens and data
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 (opens in a new tab)A buyer’s guide to picking the one design system your agents follow
- Best AI-Ready Design Systems (opens in a new tab)The public systems scored out of 8 and ranked, every point sourced
- Simbolik (opens in a new tab)Simon Martin’s studio: the AI Systems service, design and brand systems, advisory
- Simbolik Design System (opens in a new tab)The free design system Simbolik builds on, with its rules for agents
Cite this entry
Best AI Design Systems. “W3C Design Tokens format.” Reviewed . https://bestaidesignsystems.com/glossary/w3c-design-tokens-format/