Migrate a Powerhouse op-hub editor (packages/op-hub/editors/*) to the Achra design system. Swap @powerhousedao/document-engineering primitives for @achra/ui, replace hardcoded Tailwind palette colors (gray-*, slate-*, stone-*, emerald-*, raw hex) with semantic tokens, and fix light/dark theming for the third-party components an editor renders inside Connect (document-engineering ObjectSetTable & Sidebar, @uiw/react-md-editor, design-system widgets). Use when updating design tokens in an op-hub editor, fixing dark-mode contrast (dark-on-dark text, white hover/selection flashes, light borders, near-black widget surfaces), or porting an editor's colors to semantic tokens. Proven on builder-profile, builder-team-admin (incl. the subscriptions dashboard and charts), and service-offering-app.
Installation
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Migrate a Powerhouse op-hub editor (packages/op-hub/editors/*) to the Achra design system. Swap @powerhousedao/document-engineering primitives for @achra/ui, replace hardcoded Tailwind palette colors (gray-*, slate-*, stone-*, emerald-*, raw hex) with semantic tokens, and fix light/dark theming for the third-party components an editor renders inside Connect (document-engineering ObjectSetTable & Sidebar, @uiw/react-md-editor, design-system widgets). Use when updating design tokens in an op-hub editor, fixing dark-mode contrast (dark-on-dark text, white hover/selection flashes, light borders, near-black widget surfaces), or porting an editor's colors to semantic tokens. Proven on builder-profile, builder-team-admin (incl. the subscriptions dashboard and charts), and service-offering-app.
Migrate an op-hub editor to the Achra design system
Playbook distilled from migrating builder-profile, builder-team-admin (17 components incl. a chart-heavy dashboard), and service-offering-app. The reference implementations are those editors plus packages/op-hub/style.css — read style.css alongside this skill; it is heavily commented and is the living source of truth.
The mental model (why this is harder than a normal Tailwind app)
An op-hub editor is not a standalone app. It renders inside Connect, which changes the rules:
Two design systems are present at once. Connect ships @powerhousedao/design-system (slate-based; dark mode = .dark on <html>). The migration layers @achra/design-system + @achra/ui on top. Both define tokens. Load order is NOT guaranteed on deployed Connect — value overrides must use :root.dark (see Recipe F).
Tailwind v4 does not scan node_modules. Utility classes that only appear in a dependency's source are never generated — and those deps hardcode light-mode palette classes (text-gray-900, hover:bg-gray-100, bg-blue-50) usually with no dark: variant, producing dark-on-dark text and white hover flashes in dark mode.
You only own some of the markup. Your markup → semantic tokens (Recipe A). Dependency markup → CSS overrides (C/D) or a CSS-var bridge (E).
⚠️ Already solved globally — do NOT redo per editor
packages/op-hub/style.css already contains global rules. New editors get these for free — just use the right tokens and don't fight them:
DE Select triggers/panels/options, DatePicker inputs + full calendar (days, today, selected=violet, year/month picker views, footer toggles), text Inputs, sidebar tooltips — all themed. Calendar nav arrows get z-index so they're clickable (see traps below)
The date-picker year/month views' layout utilities exist only in node_modules — without the safelist the year grid collapses
@source for ./editors/** and ../ui/src/**; @source inline(...) safelists
Utility generation for editor + @achra/ui source
The resulting dark hierarchy every editor should follow: cards = bg-card (lifts to accent) › inputs / markdown editors / data tables = --background (recessed) › bg-muted for in-between grouping boxes. Don't invent per-editor --card overrides — the global rule owns it.
⚠️ The editor ROOT paints NO page background. Leave the root transparent (builder-profile's min-h-screen root has no bg-*) so the editor inherits Connect's drive-app canvas and matches it exactly. Painting bg-background / var(--background) on the root renders visibly DARKER than the host surface (proven mistake on resource-instance-editor). If the editor had a page-tint root (bg-slate-50/50), delete it or make it transparent — --background is for recessed elements (inputs, tables, inset wells), never the page.
Exception — DRIVE editors sit on a darker host than DOCUMENT editors. Document editors inherit Connect's document-host surface (slate-800 → #252a34); drive editors (whole-drive apps like builder-team-admin) sit directly on the app canvas (slate-900 → #1b1e24), so a transparent root reads darker than the document editors. If that mismatch matters, paint the drive shell dark-only with the host surface: .dark .<editor>-drive-shell { background-color: var(--color-slate-800) } keyed on a unique class you add to the shell (see bta-drive-shell, cb-drive-shell — both contributor-billing and builder-team-admin are whole-drive editors needing this). Scope per editor — don't blanket ph-drive-explorer-shell.
Native <input type="date|time|..."> pickers: the BROWSER renders the popup and only themes it dark when the input has color-scheme: dark — no page CSS can paint it. Solved globally (.dark input[type="date"] … { color-scheme: dark } in style.css).
Cards must stand out in light mode too: every card surface = bg-card + border-border + the Achra elevation scale — shadow-sm (Tailwind) or box-shadow: var(--shadow-sm) (plain CSS) for resting cards, --shadow-md popovers, --shadow-lg modals. These tokens are theme-aware (card-lift in light, heavier separation drops in dark) — bridge any editor-local shadow vars to them instead of keeping custom rgba shadows.
Per-editor workflow
Inventory.grep -rhoE "bg-white|(bg|text|border|ring|from|to|via|divide|fill|stroke|hover:bg|hover:text|outline)-(gray|slate|stone|zinc|neutral|emerald|sky|amber|blue|red|green|indigo|violet|purple|yellow|orange|teal|rose)-[0-9]+(/[0-9]+)?|#[0-9a-fA-F]{3,8}" <dir> --include=*.tsx | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn — plus check for @powerhousedao/document-engineering primitive imports and <svg>/recharts usage.
Scale the approach. A handful of files → edit directly (replace_all per color class works well when a file maps consistently). A big directory (10+ files, 100+ instances) → fan out a Workflow: one agent per file with the mapping below, then independently grep-verify (agents self-report 0 leftovers; check anyway) and audit SVG attributes (see the trap below — agents reliably get this wrong).
Apply the mapping (Recipe A) and the structural recipes (B–F) as needed.
Verify: the inventory grep returns zero; toggle Connect light ↔ dark on every changed view.
Checks: bun run tsc and bun run lint:fix in packages/op-hub (bun, not npm). Expect prettier wrap errors after class-length changes — --fix handles them.
Recipe A — markup you author: semantic tokens + @achra/ui
Component swaps:TextInput→Input (@achra/ui/input), Textarea→Textarea, native <select>+chevron hacks→Select/SelectTrigger/SelectValue/SelectContent/SelectItem, Icon name="X"→lucide-react. Import cn from @achra/ui/lib/utils. @achra/ui is a bundled devDep (pnpm add -D @achra/ui@workspace:*).
Neutrals (the bulk — stone/gray/slate all map the same way):
Status & intent (preserve meaning; tinted bgs at /20, destructive at /15):
emerald/green (active, paid, positive, up) → status-success
amber + orange (pending, paused, warning) → status-warning
red + rose (error, overdue, cancelled, down)→ destructive
blue (info, provisioning, in-progress) → status-progress
violet/indigo (brand fills, CTAs, hovers) → primary (bg-primary/10 tints, ring-primary/30)
teal on clickable links/actions → text-primary (it marks interactivity, not success)
categorical tints (avatars, tags) → chart-1..5 (+ text-primary-foreground on saturated fills)
chart data series (local constants) → chart-1..8 by appearance order; neutral/inactive series → chart-7/8
chart axes/gridlines → border ; axis/legend labels → muted-foreground
Tinted surfaces — ladder the opacity, and borders track the status. When a status banner/chip has a resting tint (bg-status-warning/15) AND a hover, the hover must be a step darker (hover:bg-status-warning/25) — reusing the same /15 makes the hover invisible against the resting fill. A status-colored border with no explicit mapping → border-<status>/30 (keeps the status identity at a visible-but-subtle weight). And readable body text inside a tinted warning/error banner stays text-foreground — only the heading/icon/chevron carry text-status-*; flattening every shade to the status color kills the hierarchy and gives low-contrast body copy in light mode.
Gradients: replace decorative light gradients (from-violet-50 to-indigo-50) with bg-card, or brand-tint via from-primary/15 to-primary/5 if a gradient must stay. Pair every bg-X with its text-X-foreground.
Hand-rolled dark: pairs (e.g. expense-report): some editors already pair light+dark classes (bg-white dark:bg-gray-800). Collapse each pair into ONE semantic token and delete the dark: counterpart — leaving it re-breaks dark mode. bg-white dark:bg-gray-800→bg-card, bg-gray-50 dark:bg-gray-900→bg-background, text-gray-900 dark:text-white→text-foreground, border-gray-200 dark:border-gray-700→border-border, divide-* pairs→divide-border, status pairs likewise (text-red-600 dark:text-red-400→text-destructive).
⚠️ Native form elements don't inherit color — set it explicitly. Raw <button>, <input>, <select>, <textarea> in the editor's OWN markup reset color to the browser default (black) instead of inheriting the page's --foreground — so a button with bg-card/bg-popover/bg-muted but no text-*, or a raw <input> with only border-input, renders black text on a dark surface even after the rest of the migration is clean. This is invisible to the inventory grep (no palette class is present — the bug is an absent token). The global pins only cover @achra/ui ([data-slot="input"]) and document-engineering controls, NOT your raw elements. Fix per-instance: every raw <button> carrying a bg → add text-foreground (or text-primary-foreground on bg-primary, text-destructive-foreground on bg-destructive); every raw <input>/<textarea> → add bg-background text-foreground placeholder:text-muted-foreground. A button whose text is entirely inside explicitly-colored children (<span class="text-foreground">) is fine — the trap only bites bare text nodes directly inside the control (e.g. <button>{label}</button>). Audit: find native form tags, parse the full (often multi-line) opening tag, flag any with a resting bg- (ignore hover:bg-) and no text-, plus any <input> without text-.
⚠️ Exclude PDF / print templates.@react-pdf/renderer documents (e.g. ExpenseReportPDF.tsx) and print stylesheets render to a white-paper artifact, NOT the themed UI — their hex colors are intentional. Don't tokenize them; var() doesn't exist in react-pdf's StyleSheet anyway. Also skip background: white checks there. (Greps for : white; matter elsewhere — white literals don't show up in hex-only inventories; DebtLedgerPanel hid 3 this way.)
CSS var() does not resolve in SVG presentation attributes.fill="var(--muted-foreground)" or stroke={seg.color} (where the constant is now "var(--chart-1)") renders black/invisible. Workflow agents reliably make this mistake — audit after any sweep:
grep -rnoE '(fill|stroke|stopColor)="var\(' <dir> --include=*.tsx # static — must be zero
grep -nE 'fill=\{|stroke=\{' <chart files> # dynamic — check the constants they reference
Fix: move to inline style, where var() resolves — style={{ fill: "var(--muted-foreground)" }}, style={{ stroke: seg.color }}. style={{ backgroundColor: item.color }} on HTML legend swatches is already fine. Note: series colors that arrive via data props from another module are not literals in the chart file — trace and tokenize them at the source.
Recipe A⅝ — inline <style> blocks with raw hex (no var palette)
Some editors (subscription-invoice) put a CSS string in <style>{...}</style> with hex values directly in rules — no --var palette to bridge. Map each hex to its token by Tailwind-palette identity (#475569=slate-600→var(--foreground), #e2e8f0=slate-200→var(--border), #b91c1c=red-700→var(--destructive), pale tints→color-mix(...)) with plain string replacement; swap custom box-shadow values for var(--shadow-*). "Paper-document" views (invoices) ARE themed like everything else — they're live editors, not print artifacts; only actual @react-pdf/print templates keep their colors.
Recipe A¾ — editor-private CSS palette: bridge the definitions
Some editors (e.g. resource-instance-editor) use no Tailwind color classes at all — a big <style> block defines a private hex palette (--ri-slate-50: #f8fafc; …) consumed by ~90 plain-CSS rules. Don't touch the usage sites — remap the definitions to Achra tokens by ROLE in one block: lightest step → --background (inset wells), light fills → --muted, 200/300 steps → --border, 400/500 → --muted-foreground, 600+ → --foreground; status scales → --status-*/--destructive with pale *-50/*-100 steps as color-mix(in oklab, var(--token) 12–22%, transparent) (the plain-CSS /20); local shadow vars → var(--shadow-sm/md/lg). Then sweep the literal white backgrounds (cards → --card, dropdowns → --popover, inputs → --background, text-on-saturated-fills → --primary-foreground). Watch for a blue scale doing double duty: semantic info (dots, pills) stays --status-progress, but accent roles (primary button, focus borders, active selection, links) move to --primary/--ring.
React style-object trap: never mix background shorthand with backgroundImage longhand in one style={{...}} (e.g. image-or-gradient conditionals). React assigns keys in order and an undefined shorthand still CLEARS the longhands — the image silently vanishes. Restructure: paint the placeholder with classes (bg-background border border-border), keep style only for the image branch (style={url ? { backgroundImage } : undefined}).
Sticky table cells need OPAQUE fills. Translucent tints (bg-primary/15) look right statically but scrolled content ghosts through position: sticky cells/bands. Mix the tint over an opaque base instead: bg-[color-mix(in_oklab,var(--primary)_15%,var(--background))] — and put readable values in text-foreground, keeping only labels on the accent color.
Recipe B — build config (@source)
Already set up in style.css (editors + @achra/ui source scans; safelists). Only touch it if a class you wrote isn't generating and it's not a specificity issue. Directory @source into node_modules is unreliable under Vite — point at real monorepo paths; safelist dark: classes with @source inline(...).
Recipe C — @source inline(...) safelist
For dependency markup whose dark: classes exist but aren't emitted (node_modules isn't scanned). Only works for classes that literally exist in the dep's source — otherwise Recipe D.
Also for LAYOUT, not just color. A node_modules component using arbitrary-value utilities (w-[68px], gap-x-[14px], text-[12px]) gets NO sizing at all → collapsed/squished UI that looks like a functional bug (the date-picker's year grid). Safelist the exact strings: @source inline("{h-[28px],w-[68px],rounded-[4px],…}"). When a dependency view renders "too small"/jammed, grep its dist for \[\d+px\] classes before debugging anything else.
CSS-stacking bugs masquerade as broken functionality. The calendar's ‹ › arrows are position: absolute with no z-index; the caption row (positioned, later in DOM) painted over them — they LOOKED fine but clicks hit the caption's box in every view. Fix: z-index on the buttons ONLY. Do NOT add position: relative to their parent to "help" — that re-anchors absolute children to the wrong box and they render misplaced. If a dep's button ignores clicks, elementFromPoint(rect center) in the browser tells you who's actually on top.
Recipe D — global scoped CSS override on stable selectors
For deps hardcoding plain light classes with no dark variant (ObjectSetTable, Sidebar — both already done; see style.css). Pattern: find a stable hook (BEM class, data-slot/data-selected attribute, semantic element under a stable container), restyle under .dark with plain CSS. Conventions: white overlays (rgba(255,255,255,0.06) hover / 0.1 selected/borders) for surfaces, var(--foreground)/var(--muted-foreground) for text; scope precisely (:not([data-selected="true"])) so you don't clobber sibling states; change only colors, never widths/layout. These selectors are global on purpose — they theme every instance, including Connect's own.
Escalation: if a two-class descendant selector doesn't visibly win (utilities ride in from multiple compiled stylesheets), use !important scoped tightly to the element — that ended the sidebar-caret cascade fight for good. Verify there's no competing !important first (grep '!important' <dep dist css>).
Recipe E — themeable widget: color-mode sync + CSS-var bridge
For widgets with their own theming (@uiw/react-md-editor): (1) drive data-color-mode from Connect's .dark class via a MutationObserver on document.documentElement; (2) remap the widget's own vars to tokens, scoped to a wrapper class, !important, targeting the editor root AND preview pane. Map the widget canvas to --background (it's an input, not a card): --color-canvas-default: var(--background), canvas-subtle → muted, fg → foreground/muted-foreground, border → border, accent → primary. Reference: builder-profile/components/markdown-editor.tsx + MarkdownPreview.tsx.
Recipe F — specificity & load order
Beating a Tailwind utility: any two-class descendant selector wins (utilities are :where()-wrapped, ≤(0,1,0)); keep overrides unlayered.
Redefining a token value (--card, --color-slate-*) must survive deployed Connect: use :root.dark (0,2,0), never plain .dark (ties at 0,1,0 → load-order lottery).
Setting properties on elements avoids the token-cascade trap entirely.
Sidebar group headers (porting the team-admin look)
The document-engineering Sidebar has no native groups. Pattern (see both FolderTrees): inject label SidebarNodes with a className (<editor>-sidebar-group-header), style via a <style> block (uppercase, 0.6875rem/600/0.06em, color #94a3b8, pointer-events: none, hide .sidebar__item-caret), and short-circuit their ids in onActiveNodeChange.
Verification checklist
Inventory grep (step 1) returns zero on the migrated directory.
SVG attribute audit (Recipe A½) returns zero; chart arcs/labels visible in both modes.
Toggle Connect light ↔ dark on every changed view. Hunt: dark-on-dark text, white hover/selection flashes, light borders, invisible placeholders, cards blending into the canvas, inputs blending into cards.
bun run tsc and bun run lint:fix clean in packages/op-hub.
⚠️ FIRST USE of any new utility class needs a build too. TSX hot-reloads instantly, but a class never used before (from-primary, to-purple, dark:[color-scheme:dark]) doesn't EXIST in the built CSS until bun run build — the element renders unstyled (e.g. a "white avatar with white text" where a gradient should be). If a just-added class has no visible effect, build before debugging.
⚠️ style.css changes do NOT hot-reload — the browser loads the BUILT dist/style.css. Editor TSX changes hot-reload from source, which makes it LOOK like CSS should too — it doesn't. After editing style.css: (1) bun run build in packages/op-hub to regenerate dist/style.css, (2) hard-refresh the browser; if the change still doesn't show, restart the studio (ph vetra) — it sometimes serves a startup-cached compile. If a global override "mysteriously doesn't apply" while older ones do, check ls -la dist/style.css vs style.css mtimes and grep dist for the new rule FIRST — hours were lost to cascade-theory debugging when the rule simply never reached the browser.
To verify what the browser actually has: the page's /style.css route is CONNECT's stylesheet (not op-hub's — op-hub's is injected as an inline <style>); probe with playwright (localStorage.setItem('theme','dark') + reload, then check computed styles on a replica element) rather than trusting /@fs/ fetches, which serve any file on disk whether or not the page uses it.
Don'ts
Don't fix a dependency widget per-instance in editor TSX (one table column, one cell) — fix it once globally (Recipe D).
Don't re-add per-editor --card overrides or input-bg classNames — the globals own those.
Don't put var() in SVG presentation attributes (Recipe A½).
Don't use @source inline(...) for classes that don't exist in the dep's markup (C vs D).
Don't redefine token values with plain .dark (use :root.dark), don't introduce raw hex or a second brand color, don't trust workflow agents' self-reported "0 leftovers" without the grep.
