🎨 Vanilla CSS Design System

A lightweight, modular, and highly customizable design system built with vanilla CSS. Perfect for creating consistent and responsive web applications.

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🌟 Features

• ✅ Lightweight: No unnecessary dependencies, just pure CSS.
• 📦 Modular: Easily include only what you need.
• 🎨 Customizable: Designed with CSS variables for easy theming.
• 📐 Responsive: Built with mobile-first principles.
• ✨ Accessible: Follows accessibility standards and best practices.

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📚 Documentation

Explore the full documentation and examples here: ➡️ Design System Documentation

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/pattespatte/vanilla-css-design-system.git

2. Install dependencies (optional):

   npm install

3. Start the development server (recommended for development):

   npm run dev

   This will:

   • Automatically switch to development mode
   • Start a local server at http://localhost:3000
   • Watch for changes in CSS and token files
   • Automatically rebuild and refresh your browser

4. Include the generated CSS in your project:

   <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles/vanilla-combined.min.css">

Build CSS

Combine, purge, and minify CSS:

npm run build:css

Convert Between Formats

CSS ↔ Tokens:

npm run css2tokens
npm run tokens2css

Development Workflow

This design system supports two modes: development and production.

Development Mode

In development mode, the examples use the unbuilt CSS files (main.css) which imports all individual CSS files. This allows for faster development and debugging.

Production Mode

In production mode, the examples use the optimized and minified CSS file (vanilla-combined.min.css) which contains only the CSS that is actually used.

Development Server with Hot Reload

Start a development server with automatic hot reload:

npm run dev

This command will:

• Switch to development mode automatically
• Start a server at http://localhost:3000
• Watch for changes in CSS and token files
• Rebuild CSS when changes are detected
• Automatically refresh your browser

Watch for Changes (Manual)

If you prefer to watch files without the development server:

npm run watch

This will watch for changes in the styles/ and tokens/ directories and rebuild the CSS when changes are detected.

Lint CSS

Check and fix CSS styles:

npm run lint:css
npm run lint:css:fix

Scripts Overview

Script	Description
dev	Start development server with hot reload.
dev:build	Build CSS and start development server.
build:css	Combine, purge, and minify CSS.
css2tokens	Convert CSS to design tokens.
tokens2css	Convert design tokens to CSS.
watch	Watch for changes and rebuild/convert files.
lint:css	Lint CSS files.
lint:css:fix	Lint and fix CSS files.
switch:dev	Switch examples to use development CSS files.
switch:prod	Switch examples to use production CSS files.

CDN Link

Simple usage – skip the installation steps and just include the ready-to-use combined CSS file with a CDN link to you own site:

https://rawcdn.githack.com/pattespatte/vanilla-css-design-system/refs/tags/v1.0.2/styles/vanilla-combined.min.css

Example:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://rawcdn.githack.com/pattespatte/vanilla-css-design-system/refs/tags/v1.0.2/styles/vanilla-combined.min.css">

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📂 Folder Structure

vanilla-css-design-system/
├── styles/             # CSS files (variables, components, utilities, etc.)
├── scripts/            # Helper scripts for combining, purging, and converting CSS
├── examples/           # Demo examples showcasing the design system
├── tokens/             # Design tokens for easy customization
├── README.md           # Project documentation
└── package.json        # Project dependencies and scripts

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🛠️ Tools & Technologies

• CSS: Vanilla CSS with a modular architecture.
• Stylelint: Linting for consistent coding standards.
• PurgeCSS: Removes unused CSS for optimized builds.
• Lightning CSS: Minifies the CSS for production.
• Nodemon: Watches for changes and automates tasks.

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👀 Examples

Check out examples showcasing the design system in action: ➡️ View Examples

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📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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📬 Contact & Contributions

• 👤 Author: pattespatte
• 💬 Feedback: Found an issue or have a suggestion? Open an issue or submit a pull request.
• ➡️ Contribute

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❤️ Support

If you find this project helpful, please consider giving it a ⭐ on GitHub!