Choose the path that matches the product’s actual state.
Start a new product
Answer Layer 1, establish semantic tokens and product decisions, adopt baseline components, and make the Catalog part of the product from the beginning.
Bring an existing prototype
Analyze first, then move through Import → Catalog → Names → Cleanup → Rules → Wire. Preserve the interface long enough to understand it before standardizing it.
Strengthen the engineering foundation
A separate sibling track after the design-system six: Reproduce → Contract → Prove → Harden → Contain → Open.
Extend the system
Search first, extend when possible, build locally with semantic tokens when necessary, and make contribution candidates explicit rather than inventing silently.
Migrate an existing system or third-party kit
Keep useful foundations, establish the B&Co semantic layer, tag component origin, and migrate deliberately rather than rebuilding by reflex.
Two six-stage tracks. Do not merge them.
From Prototype
Design-system completeness: Import, Catalog, Names, Cleanup, Rules, Wire.
Open the track →Engineering Foundation
Production-readiness foundation: Reproduce, Contract, Prove, Harden, Contain, Open.
Open the track →The source playbook treats it as a different room and a different tracker.
Shared procedure rules
- Start from evidence about the product, not from the stage name you hope it has reached.
- Define what “done” means before doing the work.
- Do not let progress labels get ahead of files, behavior, or product truth.
- Keep design-system completeness and engineering readiness as separate clocks.
- Use the Gap Protocol for genuine system holes instead of improvising hidden local standards.