Design Tokens

The Blog CMS Kit uses oklch color tokens defined as CSS custom properties in app/globals.css. All components reference these tokens through Tailwind CSS v4 -- never hardcoded colors. The kit ships with an amber/orange theme (oklch hue 55).

oklch Color System

The kit uses oklch (Oklab Lightness Chroma Hue) instead of hex or hsl:

• Perceptually uniform -- equal steps in lightness look equal to the human eye, so your palette looks balanced without manual tweaking
• Wider gamut -- access to more vibrant colors on modern displays (P3, Rec. 2020)
• Easy palette generation -- change one hue angle to produce a cohesive brand palette across all semantic tokens

The format is oklch(lightness chroma hue) where lightness is 0-1, chroma is 0-0.4 (saturation intensity), and hue is 0-360 (color angle on the color wheel).

Color Tokens

Semantic color tokens that automatically adapt between light and dark mode:

:root {
  --background: oklch(0.99 0.002 55);
  --foreground: oklch(0.17 0.02 55);
  --card: oklch(1 0 0);
  --card-foreground: oklch(0.17 0.02 55);
  --popover: oklch(1 0 0);
  --popover-foreground: oklch(0.17 0.02 55);
  --primary: oklch(0.45 0.2 55);
  --primary-foreground: oklch(0.98 0.005 55);
  --secondary: oklch(0.78 0.14 226);
  --secondary-foreground: oklch(0.25 0.05 226);
  --muted: oklch(0.96 0.005 55);
  --muted-foreground: oklch(0.4 0.03 55);
  --accent: oklch(0.94 0.02 55);
  --accent-foreground: oklch(0.35 0.15 55);
  --destructive: oklch(0.58 0.22 27);
  --border: oklch(0.91 0.01 55);
  --input: oklch(0.91 0.01 55);
  --ring: oklch(0.55 0.18 55);
}

Sidebar Tokens

Dedicated tokens for the admin sidebar navigation:

--sidebar: oklch(0.97 0.008 55);
--sidebar-foreground: oklch(0.17 0.02 55);
--sidebar-primary: oklch(0.45 0.2 55);
--sidebar-primary-foreground: oklch(0.98 0.005 55);
--sidebar-accent: oklch(0.93 0.025 55);
--sidebar-accent-foreground: oklch(0.35 0.15 55);
--sidebar-border: oklch(0.91 0.01 55);
--sidebar-ring: oklch(0.55 0.18 55);

Chart Colors

Five chart-specific color tokens used by the Recharts analytics dashboard:

--chart-1: oklch(0.55 0.2 55);   /* Amber (primary) */
--chart-2: oklch(0.75 0.14 226); /* Blue */
--chart-3: oklch(0.65 0.2 301);  /* Purple */
--chart-4: oklch(0.6 0.18 121);  /* Green */
--chart-5: oklch(0.7 0.15 351);  /* Pink */

Usage in Tailwind

Tokens map directly to Tailwind utility classes. Use them like standard Tailwind colors:

<div className="bg-background text-foreground border-border">
  <button className="bg-primary text-primary-foreground">
    Publish Post
  </button>
  <span className="text-muted-foreground">Draft saved</span>
  <div className="bg-sidebar text-sidebar-foreground">
    Sidebar content
  </div>
</div>

Dark Mode

The kit uses next-themes with class-based dark mode. The ThemeToggle component handles the switch:

import { ThemeToggle } from "@/components/layout/theme-toggle"

<ThemeToggle />

Dark mode values are defined in the .dark selector within globals.css. All semantic tokens automatically switch when the theme changes. The ThemeToggle component includes proper aria-label text that updates to reflect the current action ("Switch to light mode" / "Switch to dark mode").

Typography

The kit uses three font families configured in app/layout.tsx:

Token	Font	Usage
--font-sans	Inter	Body text
--font-heading	DM Sans	Headings (h1-h6)
--font-mono	JetBrains Mono	Code blocks

Headings use tighter letter-spacing (-0.025em) and shorter line-height (1.2) for visual weight. Body text uses -0.011em letter-spacing with 1.6 line-height for readability.

Customizing for Your Brand

To rebrand the kit, change the hue value in app/globals.css. The default amber theme uses hue 55. Update it to your brand color and all 25 screens adapt automatically:

:root {
  /* Change hue from 55 (amber) to 250 (blue) */
  --primary: oklch(0.45 0.2 250);
  --primary-foreground: oklch(0.98 0 0);
  --ring: oklch(0.55 0.18 250);
  /* Update remaining tokens to match... */
}

.dark {
  --primary: oklch(0.7 0.18 250);
  --primary-foreground: oklch(0.15 0.02 250);
  /* ... */
}

All components automatically inherit the new palette -- buttons, badges, links, charts, sidebar accents, and focus rings all update at once.

For full customization details, see the Customization guide.