| name | extract |
| description | Identify reusable UI patterns, components, and design tokens, then extract and consolidate them into a design system for systematic reuse. Use when the user wants to extract, consolidate, or dedupe repeated components, hard-coded values (colors, spacing, typography, shadows), or composition patterns into shared design-system components or tokens — or mentions "extract", "reusable components", "design tokens", "consolidate UI", "pull into the design system", or "stop duplicating this component". |
Extract Flow
Identify reusable patterns, components, and design tokens, then extract and consolidate them into the design system for systematic reuse.
In this repo
Storefront UI lives in apps/storefront/src/components/ (e.g. product-card, product-options, typography, layout). Shared, cross-app code lives in packages/. There is no single central token file — confirm the target design-system location in Step 1 before extracting.
Step 1: Discover the Design System
Find the design system, component library, or shared UI directory. Understand its structure: component organization, naming conventions, design token structure, import/export conventions.
CRITICAL: If no design system exists, ask the user (use the AskUserQuestion tool) before creating one. Understand the preferred location and structure first.
Step 2: Identify Patterns
Look for extraction opportunities in the target area:
- Repeated components: Similar UI patterns used 3+ times (buttons, cards, inputs)
- Hard-coded values: Colors, spacing, typography, shadows that should be tokens
- Inconsistent variations: Multiple implementations of the same concept
- Composition patterns: Layout or interaction patterns that repeat (form rows, toolbar groups, empty states)
- Type styles: Repeated font-size + weight + line-height combinations
- Animation patterns: Repeated easing, duration, or keyframe combinations
Assess value: only extract things used 3+ times with the same intent. Premature abstraction is worse than duplication.
Step 3: Plan Extraction
Create a systematic plan:
- Components to extract: Which UI elements become reusable components?
- Tokens to create: Which hard-coded values become design tokens?
- Variants to support: What variations does each component need?
- Naming conventions: Component names, token names, prop names that match existing patterns
- Migration path: How to refactor existing uses to consume the new shared versions
IMPORTANT: Design systems grow incrementally. Extract what is clearly reusable now, not everything that might someday be reusable.
Step 4: Extract & Enrich
Build improved, reusable versions:
- Components: Clear props API with sensible defaults, proper variants for different use cases, accessibility built in (ARIA, keyboard navigation, focus management), documentation and usage examples
- Design tokens: Clear naming (primitive vs semantic), proper hierarchy and organization, documentation of when to use each token
- Patterns: When to use this pattern, code examples, variations and combinations
Step 5: Migrate
Replace existing uses with the new shared versions:
- Find all instances: Search for the patterns you extracted
- Replace systematically: Update each use to consume the shared version
- Test thoroughly: Ensure visual and functional parity
- Delete dead code: Remove the old implementations
Step 6: Document
Update design system documentation:
- Add new components to the component library
- Document token usage and values
- Add examples and guidelines
- Update any Storybook or component catalog
NEVER:
- Extract one-off, context-specific implementations without generalization
- Create components so generic they are useless
- Extract without considering existing design system conventions
- Skip proper TypeScript types or prop documentation
- Create tokens for every single value (tokens should have semantic meaning)
- Extract things that differ in intent (two buttons that look similar but serve different purposes should stay separate)
Adapted from the impeccable skill's extract command (Apache 2.0; based on Anthropic's frontend-design skill).
