DTCG
Acronymdesign-tokens-community-group, design-tokens-format-module, dtcg-format, dtcg-resolver, design tokens specificationDefinition
The Design Tokens Community Group — the W3C community group whose Design Tokens specification (2025.10) is three modules: the Format Module, a JSON file format for tokens so that one written once can be read by every tool in the chain; the Color Module, the object a color token's value is; and the Resolver Module, how one set of tokens yields different values in different contexts — light and dark, a brand, a density
All three are Final Community Group Reports of 2025-10-28, the first stable versions after years of drafts. Format: a token is a $value with a $type, optional $description, $extensions and $deprecated; references between tokens are {group.token} in curly braces; groups nest and may $extends. Color: a $value is an object — colorSpace, components, optional alpha, optional hex fallback — rather than a hex string, which is what makes OKLCH and Display P3 expressible. Resolver: a separate JSON file that names sets of tokens and the modifiers (mode, brand, platform) that select among them, so a theme is not a second copy of every token. Style Dictionary 4, Tokens Studio and Figma's variable export read the format. A Community Group report is not a W3C Recommendation; the group's reach is the tools that adopted it.
The reason a token pipeline can be assembled from parts rather than bought whole. Before the format, every tool had its own JSON and every hand-off was a converter; after it, the file is the contract — and with the resolver, so is the way a brand or a mode picks its values, which is the mechanism a treatment and a theme both need.
The three modules, 2025.10
| Module | What it specifies | Report |
|---|---|---|
| Format | The file: $value, $type, $description, $extensions, $deprecated; {references}; groups with $extends and $root. Types: color, dimension, font family, font weight, duration, cubic Bézier, number, and the composites — stroke style, border, transition, shadow, gradient, typography | Design Tokens Format Module 2025.10 |
| Color | A color's $value as { colorSpace, components, alpha?, hex? } — sRGB, HSL, OKLCH, Display P3 and the rest named, none allowed as a component, the hex a fallback for tools that cannot do better | Design Tokens Color Module 2025.10 |
| Resolver | A resolver file that lists token sets and the modifiers — mode, brand, platform — whose inputs choose among them, so one token tree serves light and dark, or fifty brands, without duplication | Design Tokens Resolver Module 2025.10 |
The umbrella page is designtokens.org/tr/2025.10; the group's home is designtokens.org. The W3C mirror of the Color Module is CG-FINAL-color-20251028.