How is Vantage different from ChatGPT or Claude?

ChatGPT and Claude are great for one-off generation. Vantage is a full workspace. It connects your tools, tracks dependencies across projects, catches conflicts between products, and surfaces what needs your attention every morning. It also remembers every past decision, so a new PM can query across all projects and get cited answers in seconds.

Do I have to switch away from Notion or Linear?

No. You keep all your tools. Vantage connects to them and builds intelligence on top. When you're ready, you can push tickets to Linear or Jira. But the value starts before you create anything — just by connecting your tools and seeing what the intelligence layer surfaces.

What happens on day one?

You connect your tools — GitHub, Linear, Slack — 2 minutes each. Vantage indexes your existing data overnight. By the next morning, you see your first decision queue: what's stale, what conflicts, what changed. No manual setup. No templates to fill out.

What if I only manage one project?

Vantage works for single projects, but it shines when you manage 3–5 or more. Conflict detection, cross-project memory, and the decision queue are most valuable when you have multiple projects that need to stay in sync. If you manage one project, start with the free tier and see if the cited query engine alone saves you time.

All data encrypted in transit and at rest. We never train on your data — the AI providers we use are contractually barred from it. You can disconnect any integration or delete your account at any time. Pursuing SOC 2 Type II.

How does Vantage keep documents and tickets up to date?

When context shifts, you add the new information and Vantage rebuilds every connected deliverable. Documents, prototypes, and tickets all update. You review the changes, accept or reject each one, and approve. Nothing updates silently, and every change is traceable.

How do I get started?

Sign up free at app.vantageos.tech. Connect your tools, and generate your first grounded document within minutes. No credit card required. Upgrade when you need more projects or features.

What is the difference between Figma variables and Figma styles?

Variables store single values (a color, a number) and support modes for theming. Styles store compound properties (a text style includes font family, size, weight, and line height together). Use variables for colors, spacing, and radius; use styles for typography and effects like shadows.

How do I sync Figma design tokens to my codebase?

Use the Tokens Studio plugin to export variables as JSON, then use a build tool like Style Dictionary to transform them into CSS custom properties, Tailwind values, or platform-specific formats. Automate this with a GitHub Action that runs whenever the token JSON file changes.

Should I use Tokens Studio or native Figma variables?

Native Figma variables are best if your token needs are straightforward and you want zero plugin dependencies. Tokens Studio adds features like token math, cross-file syncing, and GitHub integration that are valuable for larger design systems with multiple platforms and contributors.

How-To2026-09-0311 min read

How to Create Design Tokens in Figma

Design tokens are the atomic building blocks of a design system — the named values for colors, spacing, typography, and other visual properties that ensure consistency across every screen, component, and platform. Without tokens, you end up with fourteen slightly different shades of blue and spacing values that drift apart every time a designer makes a judgment call.

Figma's Variables feature provides a native way to define and manage design tokens directly in your design tool. This guide walks you through creating a token architecture in Figma that maps cleanly to code, supports theming, and scales as your design system grows.

Step-by-step guide

Define your token taxonomy and naming convention

Before creating anything in Figma, establish a naming hierarchy for your tokens. Use a three-tier structure: primitive tokens (raw values like blue-500, spacing-4), semantic tokens (purpose-driven names like color-primary, spacing-section), and component tokens (scoped names like button-padding, card-radius). Document this hierarchy so your entire team uses it consistently.

Create a spreadsheet mapping every visual value in your product to a token name
Follow the format category/property/variant — for example, color/text/primary or spacing/gap/lg
Define aliases where semantic tokens reference primitives — color/primary references blue/500

Create primitive color variables in Figma

Open your Figma design system file and navigate to the Variables panel. Create a new variable collection called Primitives. Add color variables for your full palette — every shade of your brand colors, neutrals, and utility colors. These are raw values that should never be used directly in designs; they exist only to be referenced by semantic tokens.

Define your color ramp with consistent steps: 50, 100, 200, ..., 900 for each hue
Include neutrals from white through grays to black with the same step convention
Add utility colors for success, warning, error, and info states

Build semantic color tokens that reference primitives

Create a second variable collection called Semantic. Define purpose-driven tokens like color/bg/primary, color/text/default, color/border/subtle, and color/accent/default. Each semantic token should alias a primitive token — for example, color/bg/primary aliases neutral/white in light mode. This indirection layer is what makes theming possible.

Map every UI surface to a semantic token: backgrounds, text, borders, and interactive states
Include hover, active, and disabled variants for interactive elements
Ensure every semantic token has a clear usage description so designers know when to apply it

Add spacing, radius, and typography tokens

Create number variables for your spacing scale (4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64) and border radius values (none, sm, md, lg, full). For typography, use Figma's text styles rather than variables since Figma variables do not yet support all font properties. Name your text styles following the same token convention: text/heading/lg, text/body/md, text/caption/sm.

Define a spacing scale based on a 4px grid: 0, 1 (4px), 2 (8px), 3 (12px), up to 16 (64px)
Create radius tokens: none (0), sm (4), md (8), lg (12), xl (16), full (9999)
Build text styles for each combination of size, weight, and line-height you use

Configure modes for theming (light and dark)

In your Semantic variable collection, add a second mode called Dark. For each semantic color token, set the dark mode value to the appropriate primitive — for example, color/bg/primary aliases neutral/900 in dark mode instead of neutral/white. When a designer switches a frame's mode to Dark, every token-driven surface updates automatically without manual color swapping.

Set up Light and Dark modes in the Semantic collection's mode configuration
Remap every semantic color token to its dark mode equivalent primitive
Test the theme switch on a sample page to verify all surfaces, text, and borders adapt correctly

Apply tokens to your component library

Go through every component in your design system and replace hardcoded color, spacing, and radius values with the corresponding variables. A button's background should reference color/bg/accent, not a raw hex value. Its padding should reference spacing/3 and spacing/5, not manually typed 12px and 20px values. This is where the investment in tokens pays off — every component becomes theme-aware and consistent by default.

Start with your most-used components: buttons, inputs, cards, and navigation elements
Replace every fill, stroke, and text color with the appropriate semantic variable
Replace all padding and gap values with spacing variables from your Primitives collection

Export tokens for developer handoff

Use the Tokens Studio for Figma plugin or Figma's built-in REST API to export your variables as JSON. Transform this JSON into the format your codebase needs — CSS custom properties, Tailwind config values, or a platform-specific token format. Establish a sync workflow so token changes in Figma automatically propagate to your code repository via a pull request.

Install Tokens Studio or use Figma's Variables REST API to extract token values
Transform the export into CSS custom properties or your framework's token format
Set up a GitHub Action or CI step that syncs token changes from Figma to your codebase

Common mistakes

Using primitive tokens directly in components

If a button's background is set to blue/500 instead of color/bg/accent, theming breaks because the primitive does not change between modes. Always use semantic tokens in components and reserve primitives as the source values that semantics reference.

Creating too many tokens too early

Defining 500 tokens before you have components to use them leads to an unmaintainable system where half the tokens are unused. Start with the tokens your existing components need and expand as new patterns emerge.

Not documenting token usage guidelines

A token named color/text/secondary is meaningless without documentation explaining when to use it versus color/text/muted or color/text/default. Add descriptions to every token in Figma and maintain a usage guide that designers reference when choosing tokens.

Tips

Use Figma's variable scoping feature to restrict where tokens can be applied — for example, limit color tokens to fills only or strokes only to prevent misuse

Create a token documentation page in your Figma file that shows every token with its value, usage, and a visual example of where it appears in the UI

Name your modes consistently across collections (Light/Dark, Default/Compact) so switching modes on a frame updates all collections at once

Review your token usage quarterly to prune unused tokens and consolidate near-duplicates that have drifted into the system

How Vantage helps

Vantage integrates directly with Figma, allowing PMs to pull design context into their product specs. When your design system uses tokens, Vantage can reference specific token values in requirements, ensuring the implementation matches the design system exactly without manual specification.