Every time I create a new variable mode, I have to duplicate the full set of variables that already exist in something like light mode or a base brand. This makes it very difficult to maintain and to visualize which variables are actually different for dark mode or across different brands. I’m not updating all the dimension tokens (variables), corner radii, fonts, borders, etc across every single mode.
On the engineering side, I like to merge my tokens into the foundation/base token set so that only the overrides apply while original unchanged tokens remain constant across themes and brands. I’m able with more work to modify Figma’s token exports to fit my engineering needs at least. But Figma makes token management very difficult on the design side, which should be the source of truth!
Proposal
- When creating a new Variable Mode, let me choose to leave all variables blank and which other mode to merge(share) with. This will give me visibility into what variables(tokens) are actually different across modes
- When I export modes I want the json to only display the variables that are applied in that mode, not every single variable from my base set