@sorb/tap

Give your AI agent read access to your design system. @sorb/tap is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for design tokens: point it at a DTCG token file, a Sorb™ project, or a running Sorb bridge, and your agent can answer questions like "where does this button color come from?" — with the actual alias chain and the components that use it. Read-only by design.

Quickstart

# Claude Code — try it against the bundled example set:
claude mcp add sorb-tap -- npx -y @sorb/tap --tokens node_modules/@sorb/tap/examples/acme-tokens.json

# …or your own DTCG file(s):
claude mcp add sorb-tap -- npx -y @sorb/tap --tokens tokens.json

Then ask: "What's the button background token, and where does it come from?"

Other MCP clients (Cursor, LangChain, anything that speaks MCP over stdio): register the same command — npx -y @sorb/tap --tokens tokens.json — as a stdio server, using your client's own config format.

Related MCP server: ds-mcp

What the agent sees

Real output against examples/acme-tokens.json:

▸ resolve_token { "id": "component.button.bg" }
{
  "id": "component.button.bg",
  "cssVar": "--component-button-bg",
  "value": "#3b82f6",
  "chain": ["semantic.brand.primary", "primitive.blue.500"]
}

▸ list_tokens { "tier": "semantic" }
{
  "count": 4,
  "tokens": [
    { "id": "semantic.brand.primary", "cssVar": "--semantic-brand-primary",
      "value": "#3b82f6", "tier": "semantic", "type": "color" },
    …
  ]
}

Tools

Six tools, all read-only. Token ids are dot paths (component.button.bg); everywhere an id is accepted, the CSS variable form (--component-button-bg) works too.

Plus one resource, sorb-tap://tokens — the full resolved token map as JSON.

The three component tools need Sorb capture artifacts (sorb-seed capture) or a bridge; in bare-DTCG mode they say so instead of returning silent emptiness, so the agent knows what would unlock them.

Sources

No flags: auto-detects .sorb/ in the cwd, else tokens/*.json. Env: SORB_TAP_BRIDGE (bridge URL), SORB_TAP_PK (read-only key).

LangChain

A runnable example agent lives in examples/langchain-client — the same six tools loaded through @langchain/mcp-adapters into a LangChain (LangGraph) agent.

Limitations

• Read-only. No tool writes, proposes, or applies changes — by design.

• The DTCG reader resolves $value/$type/{alias} references only: no Style Dictionary transforms, no math expressions, no modes/theming. For those, run the file through your build and point tap at the output — or at a Sorb project, where .sorb/resolved.json is the built map.

• Bridge mode snapshots at startup; restart (or call refresh() when embedding) to pick up new captures.

• Component bindings come from Sorb captures — bare DTCG files have none.

Programmatic use

import { loadDtcgFiles, runTool } from '@sorb/tap'
const source = loadDtcgFiles(['tokens.json'])
runTool(source, 'resolve_token', { id: 'component.button.bg' })
// → { id, cssVar, value: '#3b82f6', chain: ['semantic.brand.primary', …] }

Development

npm install && npm test    # node:test, 17 cases, incl. a stub bridge
npm run build              # esbuild → dist/ (JS only — no TypeScript, ever)

Roadmap: authenticated write tools (propose/apply) may arrive later via Sorb Cloud; the read surface here stays free and open.

Part of the Sorb tree — Seed captures · Juice bridges · Leaf renders · Canopy designs · Tap is how agents draw from it.

Apache-2.0 © Metatoy LLC · Sorb™ is a trademark of Metatoy LLC (the license grants no trademark rights, Apache-2.0 §6). Works with Figma. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Figma. Figma is a trademark of Figma, Inc.