Principles
The system cannot answer every question. These are the tiebreakers for the ones it leaves open — written as decisions, so they can be disagreed with.
Tokens or nothing
If a value is worth typing twice it is worth naming once. A literal in a component is a decision that no other page can inherit and no future change can reach.
Hierarchy before emphasis
Reach for size, weight and space before reaching for colour. Colour is the smallest lever available and the first one people overuse; if a layout only works once something is blue, the layout is not working.
Motion confirms, it does not perform
An animation earns its place by telling the reader what just changed or where something came from. Motion that exists to be noticed is a cost paid by every visitor on every visit.
Touch is the default, hover is the bonus
Design the state that works with a finger first, then add what a cursor makes possible. A hover effect that hides necessary information is a bug on most of the devices that will load the page.
Contrast is not a style choice
Every ink tone in this system passes WCAG AA on the page surface. When a measured reference failed that bar, the value was darkened until it passed rather than copied faithfully.
Measure before deciding
Taste is faster when it is arguing with numbers. Run the extractor against a page — your own or a reference — and start from what is actually on screen rather than from an impression of it.
The system may be wrong
When a page genuinely needs something the system lacks, the answer is to add a token or a primitive, not to make an exception inside a component. Exceptions are invisible; additions are reviewable.