Writing
Building Arbor · Part 1
Structure, Not House Style
A design system is not a component library — it is product infrastructure. Standardize structure so expression can scale safely.
Building Arbor · Part 2
A Design System That Researches Itself
Most design systems decide from taste and seniority. I wanted ours to decide from evidence — so I pointed AI at the frontier and made it answer with receipts.
Building Arbor · Part 3
Meeting People Where They Work
The right thing has to also be the easy thing, at the moment of the decision. So I put the system’s intelligence directly on the Figma canvas.
Building Arbor · Part 4
One Conductor, Many Surfaces
The real unlock wasn’t any single tool. It was an MCP server that acted as a conductor — routing every question to whichever source held the truth, and reconciling the answers.
Building Arbor · Part 5
Closing the Loop on Code — and Why the Foundation Comes First
Arbor Doctor brought the system’s recommendations into the pull request. And the whole thing only worked because the foundation was built before the intelligence sat on top of it.
thoughtbot · Archive
An Honest Look at Tailwind as an API for CSS
Treat Tailwind as an API for CSS and avoid common pitfalls of utility-first CSS frameworks.