Single source of truth

Single source of truth (SSOT) is the principle that one canonical store of design tokens and components powers every product surface — Figma, web, iOS, Android, marketing site — so changes propagate everywhere automatically. In a design system it's the difference between updating brand colour in one place versus chasing it through twelve repos.

Practically, SSOT is delivered through tooling: token files in JSON, transformed via Style Dictionary or Tokens Studio into platform-specific code; components published from one repo into many products. We've documented one full pipeline in automating design systems from Figma to production in Craft CMS. The cost-saving case is in how design systems reduce cost and improve team efficiency.

Related: Design system · Design tokens · Component library · Style Dictionary