How Collider works

Collider is Isotop's AI system for generating design tokens. You give it a brand colour and a short brief. It builds a set of primitives, then a semantic layer that aliases them, and applies the whole system to your Figma file as real variables.

Collider produces exactly two layers, and the order matters.

Foundations are the primitives: the raw values your system is made of, such as colour ramps, a type scale, spacing and sizing steps, radii and borders, effects. A primitive holds a value. It does not know what the value is for.

Semantics are the roles: color/text/default, color/surface/raised, space/inline/md. A role does not hold a value. It points at a primitive. That single rule is what makes the system maintainable: change a primitive and everything built on it follows; change a role and you have re-aimed one decision without touching the ramp.

This is why Collider never writes a raw colour into a semantic role. A role with a literal value is a decision you can no longer trace.

Generation is guided. Collider works through the layer group by group, colours first, then typography, then spacing and sizing, and stops after each one for you to look at it. Nothing is written to your Figma file until you accept it, and nothing moves to the next group until you are done with this one.

You can edit a group, regenerate it, or skip it. An accepted group can be edited or regenerated later without disturbing the rest of the layer.

Collider runs on credits. One credit is roughly a thousand AI tokens. A generation, an edit and a regeneration each consume credits in proportion to the work.

The effort level changes the trade. High effort runs stronger models and adds a deeper review pass, and uses 1.5x the credits of a normal run. Use it when a layer needs to be right the first time, and the normal level while you are still exploring.

Your allowance refills at the start of each billing period and resets monthly. Unused credits do not roll over.

Everything above happens inside the plugin. Your Figma variables change only when you press Apply to Figma, and Collider only ever writes into the collections it owns. Collections you created yourself are left alone.