Run a design system audit and consolidation
A design system that's grown organically for years usually has three ways to do the same thing and no one's sure which is current.
- Outcome
- A real inventory of what's actually in use versus abandoned, a consolidated set of components with a clear canonical version of each, and a migration plan that doesn't require a disruptive big-bang rewrite.
- Time
- Several days of audit work, plus an ongoing migration period
This workflow is part of PromptKit Pro
A handful of prompts and workflows stay free for everyone — Pro unlocks the full library, including this one, plus the guided runner.
A design system that's grown organically for years without deliberate maintenance tends to accumulate duplicate components solving the same problem slightly differently, each added under time pressure without anyone auditing what already existed. The result is a system nobody fully trusts, where using it well requires already knowing its undocumented history. This playbook audits what's actually in use, consolidates around one canonical version of each component, and migrates gradually instead of demanding a disruptive rewrite.
When not to use this
For a new or small design system with no real duplication problem yet, this consolidation effort is unnecessary — just maintain good habits as it grows.
Did this work?
You have one canonical version of each component with a real migration plan, replacing a state where multiple versions coexist and nobody's sure which is current.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.