Design Systems Are Overkill Until Your Third Internal App

Published 2026-01-22 by Faraz Rahimi

One internal app needs consistent buttons, not a token platform. Build the system when you copy-paste the same mistakes into app three.

Tags: Design Systems, React, Internal Tools, unlisted

I start with a handful of components: Page, Button, Table, Dialog, Toast that does not vanish too fast. Shared spacing and one accent color. That is a system.

I do not start with theme generators and package versioning. That is how a count tool takes a quarter.

When app three arrives

Then I extract. By then I know which mistakes repeated: tiny tap targets, hover-only actions, tables that do not scroll on a phone.

Tokens are not culture

A design system will not make people document tools. It will just make the undocumented tools match.

Original post: https://farazrahimi.com/posts/design-systems-are-overkill-until-your-third-internal-app