What are design tokens? Is this a JWT tool?

Design tokens are named CSS variables that define your UI system — colors, fonts, spacing, border radius. They have nothing to do with JWT (JSON Web Tokens) or authentication. Tokven generates CSS design tokens for building consistent user interfaces, not security tokens for login systems.

Do I need design experience?

No. Pick a template or describe your brand. Tokven handles typography, color, spacing, and contrast — the full system.

Is the output WCAG compliant?

Yes. Tokven uses OKLCH math to guarantee contrast ratios before export, not as an afterthought.

Both. Export either version, or both at once. shadcn naming convention included.

Can I customize after export?

Everything is plain CSS or JS config. Edit it directly, or come back and regenerate.

What's included in the free plan?

CSS Custom Properties export, free, no account needed. Tailwind and DTCG formats require a free account.

Tokven — AI Brand Brief to Design Token System

Describe your brand in plain English. Tokven's AI reads your brand brief — personality, audience, mood, values — and generates a complete, production-ready design token system: CSS custom properties, Tailwind v4/v3 themes, shadcn tokens, and dark mode. No color theory knowledge required. No designer needed.

You can also start from a single hex color or choose from 30+ curated palettes. But the brand brief is where Tokven goes beyond any color picker: write a sentence about your product and get a coherent visual system back.

Note: Tokven generates CSS design tokens for UI systems — color palettes, typography, and spacing scales. It is not a JWT debugger, authentication token tool, or Web3 cryptocurrency platform.

Generate your design tokens free →

What is a brand brief? How does Tokven use AI to read it?

A brand brief is a plain-language description of your product's identity. In Tokven, that means writing 1–3 sentences like:

"We're a B2B SaaS for logistics teams. Trustworthy, precise, slightly industrial. Our users are operations managers who value clarity over flash."

Tokven's AI reads the brief, extracts signals about mood, energy, warmth, contrast preference, and industry conventions, and maps those signals to concrete token decisions — primary color hue and saturation, heading font weight and style, border radius (sharp vs rounded), shadow intensity, and the semantic color palette (success greens, warning ambers, etc.).

The result isn't a random palette — it's a coherent system where every token decision traces back to something in your brand brief. A "trustworthy logistics tool" gets different defaults than a "playful consumer app" or a "luxury editorial brand."

You can then fine-tune any individual token before exporting. The AI gives you an excellent starting point; you stay in control.

What are design tokens?

Design tokens are named CSS variables — like --color-primary, --font-heading, or --radius-md — that define your UI system. They are the single source of truth for color, typography, spacing, and shape across your entire product. Design tokens have nothing to do with JWTs, authentication, or blockchain tokens.

Tokven generates a complete token system from a brand brief, a hex color, or a curated mood preset — all validated for WCAG AA contrast in both light and dark mode.

How to generate a design token system in 3 steps

Write a brand brief, paste a hex, or pick a vibe

Describe your product in plain English — industry, personality, audience, tone. Or drop in a hex color and Tokven builds around it. Or choose from 30+ hand-curated palettes in the Explore gallery. All three paths produce a full AI-generated token system within seconds.

Example brand briefs that work: "Dark, minimal developer tool. Serious but approachable." / "Warm, feminine wellness brand — think natural ingredients and calm mornings." / "High-contrast B2B dashboard for finance teams."
Review the AI-generated system and adjust

Tokven presents the full token system — primary scale, neutrals, semantics, typography pairing, border radius, shadows — all pre-validated for WCAG AA contrast in OKLCH color space. Tweak any individual token. The AI gives you an excellent starting point; you stay in control of every decision.
Export to CSS, Tailwind, or JSON

One-click export to CSS Custom Properties, Tailwind v4 theme, Tailwind v3 config, shadcn/ui theme, or W3C DTCG JSON. Paste directly into your codebase. Dark mode variables are included automatically. No build step needed.

Export formats

CSS Custom Properties — plain :root variables, works in any framework. Free, no account needed.
Tailwind v4 theme — @theme block with all token references, ready to drop into your CSS entry point.
Tailwind v3 config — tailwind.config.js extend block with color scales and typography.
shadcn/ui theme — uses shadcn's exact CSS variable naming convention; paste into globals.css.
W3C DTCG JSON — Design Token Community Group standard format, compatible with Style Dictionary, Token Transformer, and Figma Variables.

What's included in a generated token system

Primary, secondary, and tertiary color scales (light & dark)
Neutral and surface color ramps
Semantic roles: success, warning, error, info
Text colors: default, muted, subtle, on-primary
Background and surface layers
31+ WCAG AA contrast pair validations
Border radius scale (none, sm, md, lg, full)
Shadow presets: none, soft, hard
Typography: heading font + body font pairing
Light and dark mode — always generated together

Free website audit tool — performance, accessibility & design review

Tokven includes a free website audit tool at tokven.dev/tools/audit. Enter any URL and get:

Google Lighthouse scores — performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO (0–100)
WCAG accessibility violations — powered by axe-core running inside Lighthouse, grouped by severity (critical/warning)
AI design critique — based on Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics; each finding includes an element-specific fix
CSS color palette — all hex colors extracted from the site's stylesheets
Font stack detection — which fonts the site declares
Full-page screenshot — captured by Google PageSpeed in Chrome

No account needed. 3 free audits per hour. Each report gets a shareable URL.

After the audit, you can use Tokven to build a design system from the extracted colors — paste any hex from the palette and get a complete CSS token system with WCAG-validated contrast, Tailwind theme, and dark mode.

Run a free website audit →

Explore — 30+ curated design systems

Browse tokven.dev/explore for hand-crafted design token collections organized by mood and aesthetic. Each theme is a complete, exportable system.

Available themes: Minimalist, Desert, Modern Office, Deep Red, Life Editorial, Chill Evening, White Marble, Nature Macro, Fine Art, Metal Industrial, Lush Tropic, Dark Slate, Street Documentary, Frozen Lake, Ember Void, Deep Space, Sand, Tokyo Lights, Print Art, Iridescent Glow, Wabi-Sabi, Green Acid, Aerospace, Prussian Ocean, Deep Crimson, Red Rule.

Each theme exports to all supported formats and is WCAG-validated in both light and dark mode.

MCP server — design tokens inside your AI coding agent

Tokven has a published MCP (Model Context Protocol) server on npm. This lets AI coding agents — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop — generate design tokens directly inside the IDE without leaving your editor.

Install:

npx tokven-mcp

Claude Code / Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tokven": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["tokven-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

No API key required. Available MCP tools: generate_tokens, get_token_preview, validate_contrast, list_moods, derive_color.

Tokven vs other design token tools

The core difference: Tokven starts with your brand, not a color wheel. Other tools take a hex code and generate a palette. Tokven takes a brand brief in plain English and generates an opinionated, cohesive token system — where every decision (palette, typography, radius, shadow) reflects the brand personality you described.

vs Realtime Colors / Huemint — those generate color palettes only. Tokven generates a full token system: colors, typography, spacing, shadows, semantics, dark mode, all in sync.
vs Style Dictionary — Style Dictionary transforms tokens you already have. Tokven generates the tokens from a brand brief or hex — then you can export to DTCG JSON and feed that into Style Dictionary.
vs Figma plugins — Tokven works in your browser and terminal, with no Figma dependency. It also integrates into AI coding agents via MCP.
AI brand brief input — describe your brand in plain language; no color theory knowledge required
Full token system — not just a palette; includes typography, radius, shadows, semantics
Free CSS export — no account needed
WCAG AA validated — OKLCH color math guarantees contrast before export
Light + dark mode — always generated together
MCP server — AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor) can call Tokven directly
Tailwind v3 and v4 — both supported; shadcn/ui naming convention built in

Frequently asked questions

What are design tokens? Is this a JWT tool?: Design tokens are named CSS variables that define your UI system — colors, fonts, spacing, border radius. They have nothing to do with JWT (JSON Web Tokens) or authentication. Tokven generates CSS design tokens for building consistent user interfaces, not security tokens for login systems.
Is Tokven related to jwt.io or token.dev?: No. Tokven is a design system tool for UI developers. It generates CSS variables and Tailwind themes. It has nothing to do with JSON Web Tokens, OAuth, or any authentication system.
What is the brand brief feature?: The brand brief is Tokven's AI input mode. Instead of picking a hex color, you write 1–3 sentences describing your product — its industry, personality, audience, and tone. Tokven's AI reads the brief and generates a token system that reflects those qualities: color mood, typography style, border radius, shadow intensity, and semantic palette. You stay in control and can tweak any token before exporting.
How does the AI interpret a brand brief?: The AI extracts signals from your description — words like "trustworthy," "playful," "minimal," "bold," or "luxurious" map to concrete design decisions. Industry context matters too: a fintech tool gets different contrast and typography defaults than a wellness brand. The AI also applies design system best practices (accessible contrast, typographic scale, spacing rhythm) so the output is immediately usable, not just aesthetically coherent.
Do I need design experience?: No. Write a sentence about your product, or just paste a hex color. Tokven handles the rest — typography pairing, color theory, WCAG contrast, dark mode, spacing rhythm. The brand brief mode is specifically designed for developers who know what their product is about but don't have a designer on hand.
Is the output WCAG compliant?: Yes. Tokven uses OKLCH math to calculate and guarantee contrast ratios before export, not as an afterthought. Both light and dark mode meet WCAG AA by default.
Tailwind 3 or 4?: Both. Export either version, or both at once. shadcn/ui naming convention is included in the CSS export.
How do I use Tokven with shadcn/ui?: Tokven exports using shadcn's exact CSS variable naming convention. Generate a token system, export as CSS, and paste into your globals.css. Variables like --primary, --background, and --muted match shadcn expectations directly.
Can I use Tokven in Cursor or Claude Code?: Yes. Install the Tokven MCP server with npx tokven-mcp and configure it in your IDE. Your AI agent can then call generate_tokens with your brand color and get a complete design token system in return.
Can I customize after export?: Everything is plain CSS or JS config. Edit it directly in your project, or come back to Tokven and regenerate with adjusted inputs.
What's included in the free plan?: CSS Custom Properties export is free with no account required. Tailwind v4, Tailwind v3, shadcn, and DTCG JSON formats require a free account.
Does Tokven support dark mode?: Yes. Every generated system includes both a light and dark palette, with WCAG-validated contrast for both. Dark mode is never an afterthought — it's generated at the same time as light mode.
Is the MCP server open source?: The MCP server package (tokven-mcp) is published on npm. The Tokven web app is a closed-source SaaS.

Glossary — design token terms explained

What are CSS design tokens?: CSS design tokens are named CSS custom properties — like --color-primary, --font-heading, or --radius-md — that store all visual decisions for a UI system in one place. They are the single source of truth for color, typography, spacing, and shape, and are completely unrelated to JWT (JSON Web Tokens) or authentication tokens.
What is OKLCH color space?: OKLCH (Oklch Lightness Chroma Hue) is a perceptually uniform CSS color space where equal numeric changes in lightness produce equal perceived changes in brightness. Unlike HSL or hex, OKLCH generates color scales that look visually even across the full lightness range — making it the best choice for building accessible UI palettes. Tokven uses OKLCH for all color scale derivation and WCAG contrast validation.
What is W3C DTCG JSON?: W3C DTCG (Design Token Community Group) JSON is the emerging open standard for storing and exchanging design tokens. A DTCG JSON file uses $value and $type keys and is compatible with tools like Style Dictionary, Token Transformer, and Figma Variables. Tokven exports fully conformant DTCG JSON.
What is a Tailwind v4 @theme block?: Tailwind CSS v4 uses a CSS-native @theme block in your entry stylesheet to define design tokens as CSS custom properties. Tokven generates a ready-to-paste @theme block with all color, typography, radius, and shadow tokens mapped to Tailwind utility classes.
What is shadcn/ui and how do design tokens work with it?: shadcn/ui is a React component library that relies on specific CSS custom property names (like --primary, --background, --muted) defined in your globals.css. Tokven exports tokens using shadcn's exact naming convention, so you can paste the output directly into your project without renaming anything.
What is a brand brief in design?: A brand brief is a plain-language description of a product's visual identity — its industry, personality, target audience, and tone. In Tokven, a brand brief is the AI input: write 1–3 sentences about your product and the AI generates a complete UI design token system (colors, typography, spacing, dark mode) that reflects the described brand characteristics.
What is WCAG AA contrast?: WCAG AA is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines level AA standard for color contrast. It requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text between foreground and background colors. Tokven validates all generated token pairs against WCAG AA in both light and dark mode before export.

Open Tokven — free CSS design token generator

Browse 30+ curated UI design systems