You Don't Need 300 Design Tokens

Most teams need about 30-50 core values, not the 300+ I keep seeing in design systems.

Here's what happens. You start with colors, spacing, and typography. Sensible. Then someone asks "what color should error messages use?" and instead of reusing what you already have, you create a new one. Then another for hover states. Then one for dark mode. Then mobile variations.

Six months later, you've got 300 options and nobody knows which to use. Designers are paralyzed by choice. Engineers are guessing. Your perfectly organized system created more problems than it solved.

The issue isn't the tokens themselves but treating every scenario as unique instead of reusable. You don't need a separate value for every possible button state or error variation. You need a handful of core decisions that teams can apply to different situations.

It's like LEGO. You don't need a unique brick for every possible use. You need a good set of standard pieces that combine in different ways. The same red 2x4 brick works in a thousand different builds.

Stop creating entries for every edge case you can imagine. Start with the essentials - your key colors, spacing values, type sizes - and trust your team to apply them intelligently. Less decision fatigue, more shipping.