Installing via CLI

The CLI installs library entries straight into your repo. No copy-paste, no zip downloads.

The basic install

designdrop add stripe

This writes DESIGN.md to your current working directory (typically the project root), prints the absolute path, and exits 0. If a DESIGN.md already exists, the command refuses to overwrite by default — you'll get an error message and exit code 1.

Common flags

| Flag | Purpose | |------|---------| | --out PATH | Write to a custom path. Useful for monorepos where you want apps/web/DESIGN.md instead of root. | | --force | Overwrite an existing file. Use sparingly — you'll lose any local edits. | | --all | Write the full bundle (DESIGN.md + tokens.css + theme.css + tokens.dtcg.json + tokens.json + README.md). |

# Write to a sub-app
designdrop add stripe --out apps/web/DESIGN.md
 
# Replace whatever's there
designdrop add vercel --force
 
# Get the whole bundle
designdrop add airbnb --all --out design/

What gets written

A standard install produces a single file. --all produces a directory:

DESIGN.md            # source of truth, the canonical brand spec
tokens.css           # CSS custom properties (light + dark when available)
theme.css            # @theme block for Tailwind v4
tokens.dtcg.json     # W3C Design Tokens Community Group format
tokens.json          # flat key:value JSON for general tooling
README.md            # one-page summary of the design system

Verify the install

designdrop validate DESIGN.md

The validator parses the file, runs schema checks (required color roles, font family present, valid radii and spacing), and reports any issues with line numbers. A green run means the file is ready to ship to your AI agent.