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xtyle

Vision

xtyle is a platform specification for giving any entity — a company, division, team, product, project, or hobby — a portable, structured identity. It is to brand identity what xript is to software extensibility: an open, independent spec that standardizes the format, the cascading model, and the compiler interface so that tools built on it can interoperate.

The Analogy

Section titled “The Analogy”

xtyle is the USB of brand identity. USB doesn’t just carry power — it carries data, video, audio, whatever the protocol supports. xtyle doesn’t just carry colors — it carries voice, verbiage, values, and everything else that makes an identity coherent across consumers.

One definition, many consumers. A single xtyle definition compiles to CSS custom properties for a web app, a brand guidelines PDF for a print shop, a system prompt for an LLM writing copy, a Figma token set for a designer, XAML resources for a desktop app. The definition is the source of truth; compilers are the integration surface.

Guiding Principles

Section titled “Guiding Principles”

  1. The definition is the product. Everything derives from the xtyle definition. Types, documentation, compiler output, validation — all of it traces back to a single structured source of truth.

  2. Identity is more than color. Verbal identity and voice guidance are first-class citizens alongside visual tokens.

  3. Compilers are the integration surface. The spec defines the input contract. Compilers translate definitions into platform-specific output.

  4. Incremental adoption, always. A valid xtyle definition can contain a single color, or just a tagline, or just a voice spec.

  5. Cascades are user-defined. The spec doesn’t prescribe what nodes in a hierarchy represent.

  6. Bottom-up derivation is first-class. Start with the leaves, discover commonalities, extract the parent.

  7. Standards outlive implementations. The spec is independent of any tool, platform, or ecosystem.

What xtyle Is Not

Section titled “What xtyle Is Not”
  • Not a design tool. The spec defines the format for storing the results of design decisions, not the tooling for making them.
  • Not a component library. It defines the tokens components consume, not the components themselves.
  • Not a layout system. Grid definitions and breakpoints are part of visual identity, but xtyle doesn’t dictate page structure.
  • Not a CMS. The copy library stores approved fragments, not dynamic content.
  • Not a runtime. Definitions don’t execute. They declare.