Buoy

Catch design drift before it ships.

AI coding tools are fast—but they don't know your design system. They'll write #3b82f6 when you have --color-primary. They'll use padding: 17px when your spacing scale is multiples of 4.

Buoy watches for these issues and helps you fix them.

src/components/Button.tsx:24
  hardcoded-value: #3b82f6 → var(--color-primary) (92% match)

Quick Start

# Interactive setup wizard
npx ahoybuoy begin

# Or see your design system immediately (zero config!)
npx ahoybuoy show all

No config needed. Buoy auto-detects your framework and starts working immediately.

What It Catches

| Issue | Example | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | Hardcoded colors | #ff0000 instead of var(--color-primary) | | Arbitrary spacing | padding: 17px instead of design scale | | Tailwind escape hatches | p-[13px] instead of p-4 | | Naming inconsistencies | ButtonNew, ButtonV2, ButtonOld | | Unused components | Defined but never imported or rendered | | Semantic mismatches | Same prop typed string in one, number in another | | Repeated patterns | Same Tailwind classes copy-pasted 5+ times | | Framework sprawl | React + Vue + jQuery in same codebase | | Detached components | Instances without main component |

Commands

buoy
├── show                    # Read design system info (for AI agents)
│   ├── components          # Components in codebase
│   ├── tokens              # Design tokens found
│   ├── drift               # Design system violations
│   ├── health              # Health score
│   ├── history             # Scan history
│   ├── config              # Current .buoy.yaml configuration
│   ├── skills              # AI agent skill files
│   ├── agents              # Configured AI agents
│   ├── context             # Design system context in CLAUDE.md
│   ├── hooks               # Configured hooks
│   ├── commands            # Installed slash commands
│   ├── graph               # Knowledge graph stats
│   ├── plugins             # Available scanners
│   └── all                 # Everything combined
├── drift                   # Drift detection and fixing
│   ├── scan                # Scan codebase for components/tokens
│   ├── check               # Pre-commit drift check
│   ├── fix                 # Suggest/apply fixes
│   └── ignore              # Ignore existing drift
│       ├── all             # Ignore all current drift (requires --reason)
│       ├── show            # View ignored drift signals
│       ├── add             # Add new drift to ignore list (requires --reason)
│       └── clear           # Remove ignore list
├── begin                   # Interactive wizard
├── dock                    # Dock tools into your project
│   ├── config              # Create .buoy.yaml
│   ├── skills              # Create AI agent skills
│   ├── agents              # Set up AI agents
│   ├── context             # Generate CLAUDE.md context
│   ├── hooks               # Set up hooks (--claude for self-validating AI)
│   ├── commands            # Install Claude slash commands
│   ├── plugins             # Show available scanners
│   ├── tokens              # Generate/export design tokens
│   │   ├── compare         # Compare token sources
│   │   └── import          # Import tokens from Figma/CSS
│   └── graph               # Build design system knowledge graph
│       └── learn           # Learn patterns from codebase
└── ahoy                    # Cloud features
    ├── login               # Authenticate
    ├── logout              # Sign out
    ├── status              # Account + bot + sync status
    ├── github              # Set up GitHub PR bot
    ├── gitlab              # Set up GitLab PR bot (soon)
    ├── billing             # Manage subscription
    └── plans               # Compare pricing

For AI Agents

The show command outputs JSON for AI agents to consume:

# Get everything an AI agent needs
buoy show all --json

# Just drift signals
buoy show drift --json

# Components inventory
buoy show components --json

Example output:

{
  "components": [...],
  "tokens": [...],
  "drift": {
    "signals": [...],
    "summary": { "total": 12, "critical": 2, "warning": 7, "info": 3 }
  },
  "health": { "score": 78 }
}

Getting Started

Interactive Wizard

buoy begin

Walks you through:

• Framework detection — Confirms what Buoy found
• Token discovery — Shows your design tokens
• Quick scan — Immediate drift report
• CI setup — GitHub Actions configuration
• Figma connection — Link your design files

Configure Your Project

buoy dock

Smart walkthrough that sets up:

1. .buoy.yaml — Project configuration
2. AI agent skills — For Claude Code, Copilot, etc.
3. CLAUDE.md context — Design system documentation
4. Git hooks — Pre-commit drift checking

Configure severities per drift type

# .buoy.yaml
project:
  name: my-app

drift:
  severity:
    hardcoded-value: critical
    naming-inconsistency: warning

  # Ignore specific drift (filter by type, file, component, token, value, severity)
  ignore:
    - type: hardcoded-value
      file: "src/legacy/**"
    - severity: info

  # Promote matching drift to a higher severity
  promote:
    - type: hardcoded-value
      file: "src/components/**"
      to: critical
      reason: "Design system components must use tokens"

  # Enforce — always treat matching drift as critical
  enforce:
    - type: naming-inconsistency
      component: "^Button"
      reason: "Button naming is standardized"

health:
  # CI gate — exit code 1 if health score falls below threshold
  failBelow: 70

Drift Detection

Quick Check

buoy drift check

Fast pre-commit hook friendly. Exits with error code if drift found.

Detailed Analysis

buoy show drift

{
  "drifts": [
    {
      "type": "hardcoded-value",
      "severity": "warning",
      "file": "src/components/Button.tsx",
      "line": 24,
      "message": "#3b82f6 should use var(--color-primary)",
      "suggestion": "var(--color-primary)"
    }
  ]
}

Fix Issues

buoy drift fix                    # Interactive fix suggestions
buoy drift fix --dry-run          # Preview changes
buoy drift fix --auto             # Auto-apply safe fixes

Ignore Existing Drift

For brownfield projects, ignore existing issues and only flag new ones:

buoy drift ignore all -r "Legacy code before design system"     # Ignore all current drift with reason
buoy drift ignore add -r "Third-party components"               # Add new drift to ignore list
buoy drift ignore show                                          # View ignored drift with reasons
buoy drift check                                                # Only fails on new drift

A reason is required when ignoring drift to maintain accountability.

CI Integration

GitHub Actions

name: Design System Check
on: [pull_request]

jobs:
  buoy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: "20"
      - run: npx ahoybuoy drift check

PR Comments with Buoy Cloud

# Set up GitHub PR bot
buoy ahoy login
buoy ahoy github

The GitHub bot automatically comments on PRs with drift analysis.

AI Guardrails

Keep AI coding assistants (Copilot, Claude, Cursor) aligned with your design system:

# Set up AI agents with design system context
buoy dock agents

Creates:

• AI Skills — Design system knowledge for Claude Code
• Claude Hooks — Auto-inject context at session start
• CLAUDE.md — Project-specific AI instructions

Self-Validating Agents (Claude Code)

Turn Claude Code into a self-correcting agent. When Claude writes a component, Buoy checks it and feeds corrections back automatically:

buoy dock hooks --claude

This installs a PostToolUse hook that:

1. Claude writes/edits a component file
2. Hook runs buoy drift check on the modified file
3. If drift detected, feedback returns to Claude
4. Claude self-corrects without prompting

Example feedback Claude receives:

⚠️ Design drift detected in Button.tsx:

• hardcoded-value: Component "Button" has 3 hardcoded colors: #3b82f6, #ffffff, #1e40af

Run `buoy show drift` for full details.

Works with React, Vue, Svelte, and Angular components. Skips test files and configs.

Configuration

Works without config, but you can save settings:

buoy dock config

Creates .buoy.yaml:

project:
  name: my-app

sources:
  react:
    enabled: true
    include:
      - src/**/*.tsx
    exclude:
      - "**/*.test.*"
  tokens:
    enabled: true
    files:
      - design-tokens.css

Buoy Cloud

Ship your drift detection to the cloud:

buoy ahoy login             # Authenticate
buoy ahoy status            # View account, bot, sync status
buoy ahoy github            # Set up GitHub PR bot
buoy ahoy billing           # Manage subscription

Features:

• PR Bot — Automatic comments on pull requests
• Dashboard — View drift trends over time
• Team sync — Share results across team members

Supported Frameworks

Components: React, Vue, Svelte, Angular, Lit, Stencil, Alpine, HTMX

Templates: Blade, ERB, Twig, Razor, Jinja, Handlebars, EJS, Pug

Tokens: CSS variables, SCSS, Tailwind config, JSON, Style Dictionary

Design Tools: Figma (plugin + API integration)

Philosophy

Inform by default, block by choice.

Buoy shows you wh