Releases

This page records what each release and milestone delivered, newest first. The current release is 0.5.1. tessera diff --changelog generates a section from any two versions.

v0.1 (in progress)

• Published: @pixelscriptio/tessera and @pixelscriptio/create-tessera 0.1.0 are on npm; 0.2.0 adds Milestones 13 to 15, and 0.2.1 adds Milestone 16, 0.2.2 ships the Prettier plugin and tessera format, 0.3.0 adds the system manager, 0.4.0 adds the tessera preset, 0.4.1 restyles the docs and the preset page after the site design, and 0.5.0 adds the items below.

• 0.5.1: the landing page and what it needed. The public landing page is a Tessera app (landing/ in the repository), the first real one. For it, templates gained SVG (<svg> and its tree are created as SVG) and ref="name", which holds an element in a state(); and there is a tabs behavior with a conformance suite (Behaviors).

• 0.5.0: lint, elements, prerendering and the accessibility suite for users. tessera lint checks the CSS of any project against your tokens (Linting any project); tessera elements builds the design system as custom elements with React wrappers (Custom elements); tessera build --prerender writes static HTML for pages; tessera a11y and @pixelscriptio/tessera/a11y ship the generated accessibility tests to your project (Accessibility); new components (Checkbox, Switch, Accordion, TextField, Dialog, Combobox, Select) and behaviors (toggle, disclosure, dialog, combobox) come with the tessera and tailwind presets (Behaviors); the command line has a new look.

• Milestone 20: the tessera preset, and docs styled by your tokens. tessera init has a third starting point, tessera (a small design system of our own, now the default), next to tailwind and none. The generated docs are styled from the project's semantic tokens, so the app and its docs share one set of token files; a project without tokens gets a built-in look. The docs also look different: warm paper neutrals, one green accent, soft rounded corners. See Starter presets.

• Milestone 19: token import and export in the docs. The docs app has an Export page (DTCG or Tokens Studio files, as a zip or one by one), and tessera docs --edit adds Bring in tokens, for people who do not write code. An import is validated by the compiler on a copy of the project first and previewed as a diff with its breaking/additive classification; one-step undo; a branch and commit to propose the change. Tokens stay edited in your design tool; components are not edited from the docs. See Tokens in the design system docs.

• Formatting. The Prettier plugin now ships in the package (@pixelscriptio/tessera/prettier); tessera init writes its configuration; tessera format formats .tess files without any editor, with --check for CI and --stdin-filepath for editors that call an external formatter.

• Milestone 16: versioning and codemods. tessera diff <ref> classifies changes as breaking, additive or cosmetic (a contrast flip or a token moving past its neighbour in a scale is breaking) and can print a changelog section; contracts and tokens can say what was deprecated or renamed, and the compiler warns or says what it became; tessera codemod rewrites the uses of a rename; tessera report lists remaining uses of deprecated and renamed things. See Versioning and deprecation.

• Milestone 15: the design system docs. tessera docs runs a documentation app generated from your contracts and tokens: a page per component with a live preview and a control for each variant, token pages with every theme's value, a contrast table, theme and density switchers, and the coverage report with JSON export. Name.docs.md adds prose and tess live examples. tessera docs --static exports files any file server can host. See The design system docs.

• Milestone 14: token interchange. tessera tokens export writes strict DTCG 2025.10 with a Resolver document, or Tokens Studio sets; tessera tokens import reads those, plain DTCG files and Penpot exports, converts the string values older tools write, keeps aliases, reports (T1016) and keeps what Tessera cannot represent, and writes nothing if the result does not build. See Importing and exporting tokens.

• Milestone 13: agent-readable exports. .tessera/manifest.json (components, tokens in every theme, routes, rules), tessera mcp (a read-only MCP server that lists and searches components, returns contracts, resolves a raw value to a token and validates a snippet with the compiler), tessera agent-files (AGENTS.md and llms.txt) and a custom-elements.json export. See AI coding tools.

• Milestone 12b: one package and starter presets. The framework is one package, @pixelscriptio/tessera (plus @pixelscriptio/create-tessera for npm create). tessera dev, build and preview need no config files. tessera init works beside an existing package.json, asks for a preset, and never overwrites a file: tailwind writes a full design system built from Tailwind's default theme with a styled index page, none writes no tokens and commented examples. Tested by installing the packed tarball into a clean folder and running both presets in a browser.

• Milestone 12: documentation site. This site: error reference with one page per code and tessera explain, generated references (API, CLI, config, contract, tokens), docs checked in CI (samples compiled, links resolved), tokens-driven theme, accessibility checks.

• Milestone 11: CLI. tessera init, check (with --fix), baseline, report, tokens build, new, eject, and create-tessera. tessera.config.ts is read by the plugin and the CLI.

• Milestone 10: layouts. app/layouts/default.tess, per-page layout and false, layouts that are kept between pages.

• Milestone 9: pages and routing. File-based routes, <Link>, navigate(), useRoute(), lazy pages, title, announcement, focus and scroll.

• Milestone 8: auto-imports. Components and script APIs resolved at compile time, .tessera/components.d.ts, hot updates.

• Milestone 7: behaviors and accessibility tests. The press behavior, a conformance suite, generated axe-core suites.

• Milestone 6: styles and enforcement. Tokens in styles, contrast in every theme, raw() with receipts, severity, the baseline and autofix.

• Milestone 5: editor support. TextMate grammar, language service, VS Code extension, Prettier plugin.

• Milestone 4: the compiler. .tess to a module, the Vite plugin, hot updates.

• Milestone 3: contracts. Parsing, validation, JSON Schema and derived types.

• Milestone 2: tokens. DTCG in, CSS out, themes and density.

• Milestone 1: the runtime. Signals, the renderer and the adapter interface.

• Milestone 0: the repository. Workspace, tests, lint, format and CI.

Deprecations and upgrades

There are none yet. When there are, they are listed here with the version that deprecated each item, what replaces it, and an upgrade guide.

Next steps

The roadmap.