Kuat is the Equal Experts design system. Anyone across the EE network can improve it — this page is the front door. The full model, the per-surface "how" pages, and the decision log live in contribute/.
A small Kuat design system team (custodians) owns the sources of truth — the reference
guidelines, the design tokens, the kuat-mono component library, and the studio asset pack —
and maintains the tooling, gates, and release cadence. The wider EE network (consultants,
product engineers, designers) does the bulk of the fixes and light additions. Custodians don't
build everything; they curate, gate, and enable.
A contribution is a proposal, design, code, doc, or asset — a new feature, enhancement, or fix — released through the system for others to reuse. Improving a component, changing a token, adding a reference pattern, registering a brand asset, authoring a skill: all contributions. Asking which component to use, giving review feedback, or attending a sync are valuable participation, but not contributions.
| Size | What | How |
|---|---|---|
| Fix | A defect in code, design, doc, or asset | Fast, self-directed via the relevant skill + gate |
| Light | A non-breaking addition | Mostly autonomous via skill + gate; light custodian touch |
| Medium | Extends an existing feature | Proposal + custodian review |
| Heavy | New feature, breaking, or foundational | Custodian-led; proposal kick-off |
Fix/Light should be a constant healthy hum; Medium/Heavy are rarer and curated.
- Request — start an open conversation in Slack #design-system: what problem are you solving? This avoids duplicate work and surfaces existing solutions.
- Proposal kick-off (Medium/Heavy only) — agree scope and delivery with a custodian.
- Collaborate — do the work through the matching contributor skill (
add-kuat-component,author-reference,generate-tokens, …). The skill is the guided, house-style path — you drive a skill, not raw files. - Review — the gates run automatically (passive test, link integrity, token drift,
registry drift,
verify-plugins, tests). Fix/Light can pass on green gates; Medium/Heavy add custodian sign-off. (Launch posture: custodians review every contribution while the model matures — see the overview.) - Release — pinned semver,
beta→stablechannels; regenerate the artifacts; communicate the change and log the decision.
Pick the page for what you're contributing — each names the size, the skill to use, the gate, and the request step:
- Proposing a component
- Proposing a token change
- Proposing a reference change
- Proposing a pattern
- Proposing a slide asset
- Proposing an icon or image
- Proposing a skill
Full model: contribute/overview.md · Decisions: contribute/decision-log.md