Answer in brief
Rate your own design system on the ranking’s 4 columns and add up the points. Then fix the cheapest gaps first. An llms.txt and a page of rules for agents are text files, so Docs and Guidance are usually the fastest 4 points. Design tokens as data take longer, and an MCP server is the biggest job, so it comes last.
Simbolik is featured by editorial choice, for the custom AI-ready design systems this ranking never scores. Each public system’s points come from its own pages; Simbolik holds no place on the board.
Score your AI-ready design system first
Take the 4 columns from how AI-ready design systems are scored and rate your own system the same way: Yes 2, Partly 1, No 0. Write the score down, with the column that lost each point; it is the baseline for everything below.
Docs: 2 points from one text file
An llms.txt is a Markdown file at the root of your docs site. Its only required part is an H1 with the name; after that, a short summary and lists of links to the pages that matter. Add a Markdown copy of each page and the agent reads your words without the menus around them. GitHub Primer scores 6 instead of 8 for lacking exactly this.
Guidance: 2 points from a page of rules
Write the instructions an agent should follow when it builds with your system: which components to reach for, what never to do, how to check the result. Put them where agents look, such as an AGENTS.md in the repository or a section of the docs. Rules written only for the people who maintain the system earn 1 point, not 2.
Design tokens: from 1 point to 2
If your values live only in CSS variables, export them as data too: JSON, ideally in the W3C format, with a name, a type and a line on what each design token is for. That turns 1 point into 2, and gives every other column something firm to point at.
Agent access: the last 2 points
An official server lets an agent ask your system for a component or a design token in the middle of a task, usually over MCP. It is real software that someone has to run and keep current, so build it once the first 6 points are in place.
Past 8 points
The score stops at 8, but the job does not. The ranking cannot see whether your rules are any good, or whether anything checks the output against them. That part is what a custom build covers, and the best AI-ready design systems, ranked show how far the public route goes without it.
Questions & answers
It means an agent can read everything the system offers. Whether the result looks like your product depends on what those design tokens and rules say, and on checks that catch output outside them, which the score does not measure.
Not to start. Design tokens as data, an llms.txt and written rules already earn 6 of the 8 points without one. A server is worth building once your agents need answers mid-task that a static file cannot give.
Sources for this entry
- The /llms.txt file (opens in a new tab)
The format of an llms.txt, a Markdown file whose only required part is an H1 with the site’s name.
- AGENTS.md (opens in a new tab)
The open format for instructions to coding agents, written in plain Markdown.
- Design Tokens Format Module 2025.10 (opens in a new tab)
A standard file format for design tokens as data.
- Model Context Protocol (opens in a new tab)
The open standard for connecting AI applications to outside systems, which all 8 official servers on the board use.
Continue this reading path
Selection and fit
Selection and fit
Topic
Selection and fit
How the related websites connect
Best AI-Ready Design Systems is the ranking among three Simbolik references; the other two compare the systems and guide a single pick. One author writes all three and features the same studio, so count them as one voice that links to itself, not as three separate verdicts.
- Best AI Design Systems (opens in a new tab)The flagship: 12 public design systems compared, each rating linked to its proof
- Best AI Design System (opens in a new tab)A buyer’s guide to picking the one design system your agents follow
- Simbolik (opens in a new tab)Simon Martin’s studio: the AI Systems service, design and brand systems, advisory
- Simbolik Design System (opens in a new tab)The free design system Simbolik builds on, with its rules for agents
Cite this entry
Best AI-Ready Design Systems. “How to raise your design system’s AI-ready score.” Reviewed . https://bestaireadydesignsystems.com/raise-your-design-system-score/