feat(theme): dark/light mode with a Radix Colors-based palette
Adds a working Dark/Light toggle (next to the language switcher, same row
as EN/VI) and re-themes the whole dashboard, not just the handful of
components that already used semantic tokens.
- Tailwind darkMode:"class" + CSS-variable color tokens (client/src/index.css,
tailwind.config.js): surface.0-5, border/border-light, accent/accent-hover,
fg.primary/secondary/muted, status.success/danger/warning. One class flip
on <html> re-themes everything — no per-element dark: variant pairs.
- useTheme() hook: localStorage-persisted, defaults to dark, no
prefers-color-scheme fallback (client/src/hooks/useTheme.ts).
- Mechanical, table-driven migration (scripts/migrate-color-tokens.mjs,
scripts/tokenize-status-colors.mjs, scripts/darken-status-colors.mjs) of
every raw neutral/gray/slate + emerald/red/amber Tailwind utility across
client/src onto the new tokens, so every badge/button/component pulls the
same shade per status/role instead of each picking its own.
- Palette values are the literal Radix Colors (radix-ui.com/colors) scale
constants — slate/blue/green/red/amber steps 1-12 — adopted after three
rounds of hand-picked values that kept overshooting (flat, then too dark,
then glaring); see docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-31-color-redesign-
dark-light-mode-design.md for the full history and role mapping.
- PipelineMap: done/current/failed/passed-no-evidence/detected share one
visual language (border + text + translucent wash of the same status
color); `current` alone stays a solid accent fill, the one state that
gets to look bolder ("you are here").
- LaneCard: removed the stage/kind/auto-stage chips that duplicated the
Workspace lane-detail header already showing them.
Categorical/decorative hues (violet, indigo, cyan, teal, sky, rose, pink,
orange, yellow, and blue where it plays a role-coloring part e.g. message
bubbles) are deliberately out of scope — collapsing those onto shared
tokens would erase the distinction between different kinds of thing, not
a status.
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# Color redesign + dark/light mode — design
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**Status:** approved 2026-07-31 (color, architecture, and scope all confirmed in chat; user asked to plan and implement without further review gates).
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## Problem
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The dashboard has exactly one theme (dark), and it is not even applied consistently: `tailwind.config.js` defines semantic tokens (`surface-*`, `border`, `accent`) but most components (e.g. `LaneCard.tsx`) bypass them and use raw Tailwind scale colors directly — `bg-neutral-900/70`, `text-gray-500`, `border-neutral-800`. A grep across `client/src/**/*.tsx` finds raw `neutral-*`/`gray-*`/`slate-*`/`zinc-*`/`stone-*` color utilities in 64 files, ~1,400 occurrences. Redefining the token *values* alone would only re-theme the handful of components that use the tokens — the rest would stay hard-dark regardless of the toggle.
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## Goal
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A working Dark/Light toggle, next to the language switcher, same row as the EN/VI buttons, that actually changes every screen — not just the ones already using semantic tokens.
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## Decisions already taken (chat)
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- **Accent: Azure, darkened after initial ship.** `#1d4ed8` (hover `#2563eb`, the original base value), unchanged between themes. `border`/`border-light` darkened the same pass, both themes — `fg-*` (text) intentionally untouched: darkening text in dark mode would cut its contrast against the dark background.
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- **Dark surfaces (page/sidebar/card):** `#1F2533` / `#232A3B` / `#252E42` — the original dark direction lightened ~20% total, per user's two rounds of feedback on the visual mockup. **Dark border/border-light:** `#2a3246` / `#3b4660` (darkened from the surface-matched `#343F57` / lighter).
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- **Light surfaces:** page `#f4f7fd`, sidebar/card `#ffffff`. **Light border/border-light:** `#becde6` / `#a5b6d7` (darkened from `#dde6f5` / lighter, for visibility against white).
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- **2 states only** (Dark/Light) — no "System" option.
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- **Default: dark**, matching current behavior. Persisted in `localStorage`; no `prefers-color-scheme` fallback.
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- **Toggle placement:** `client/src/components/Sidebar.tsx`, in the language block, same row as the EN/VI buttons (mirrors `toggleLang`'s click-to-flip pattern for the collapsed state).
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- **Full rewrite**: every raw-color usage across `client/src` migrates to semantic tokens. No screen is left on hardcoded dark.
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## Architecture
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**Mechanism: Tailwind `darkMode: "class"` + CSS custom properties.** A `dark` class on `<html>` selects which variable set is active; Tailwind's color tokens resolve to `var(--token-name)`. This is a values-only flip (one class toggle, no per-element `dark:` variant pairs to maintain), which is what makes "full rewrite" tractable: every component only ever needs ONE semantic class name; the theme decides what color that resolves to.
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**Token set** (`tailwind.config.js` `theme.extend.colors`, each backed by a CSS var):
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| Token | Purpose | Replaces |
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|---|---|---|
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| `surface.0..5` | page/panel/card backgrounds (already exists, redefined as vars) | `bg-neutral-900/950/800`, `bg-gray-900` |
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| `border` / `border-light` | (already exists, redefined as vars) | `border-neutral-700/800`, `border-gray-700/800` |
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| `accent` / `accent-hover` / `accent-muted` | (already exists, unchanged value both themes) | `bg-blue-500/600`, `text-blue-300/400` |
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| `fg.primary` / `fg.secondary` / `fg.muted` | body text, 3 weights | `text-gray-100/200/50`, `text-gray-400/500/600`, `text-neutral-300/400/500` |
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| `status.success` / `status.danger` / `status.warning` | liveness dot, destructive buttons, "needs you" banner — each needs a DIFFERENT shade per theme for contrast (e.g. `emerald-400` on `#252E42` reads fine; the same hex on `#ffffff` is too light) | `emerald-400/500`, `red-400/500/600`, `amber-300/400/500/600` |
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CSS vars live in `client/src/index.css`, one block under `:root` (light — since `class` strategy needs a class-free default; light is the CSS default, `.dark` overrides it) and one under `.dark` (dark, and default at runtime via the toggle setting `document.documentElement.classList`).
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**Migration is mechanical, not creative.** Every raw-scale usage in scope maps to exactly one semantic token via a fixed lookup table (below); there is no "reconsider this component's palette" step. A script applies the table across all 64 files; a human (me) spot-checks the diff and the screens snapshot rather than hand-editing each file.
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### Lookup table (raw → semantic, illustrative — full table lives in the implementation)
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| Raw | Semantic |
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|---|---|
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| `text-gray-100`, `text-neutral-50/100` | `text-fg-primary` |
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| `text-gray-300/400`, `text-neutral-300/400` | `text-fg-secondary` |
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| `text-gray-500/600`, `text-neutral-500` | `text-fg-muted` |
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| `bg-neutral-900/950`, `bg-gray-900` | `bg-surface-0` / `bg-surface-1` (by role — page vs. panel) |
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| `bg-neutral-800`, `bg-gray-800` | `bg-surface-2` / `bg-surface-3` |
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| `border-neutral-700/800`, `border-gray-700/800` | `border-border` / `border-border-light` |
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| `text-emerald-400`, `bg-emerald-*` | `text-status-success` / `bg-status-success` |
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| `text-red-400/500`, `bg-red-*` | `text-status-danger` / `bg-status-danger` |
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| `text-amber-300/400`, `border-amber-*` | `text-status-warning` / `border-status-warning` |
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## Toggle component
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Reuses `Sidebar.tsx`'s existing language-switcher shape: a 2-button row (`Dark` / `Light`) in the expanded state, a single icon button that flips on click in the collapsed state — same interaction as `toggleLang`/`changeLanguage`. New `useTheme()` hook: reads `localStorage.getItem("theme")` on mount (default `"dark"`), applies/removes the `dark` class on `document.documentElement`, and exposes `theme`/`setTheme`. i18n keys added under `nav:` (`theme`, `themeNames.dark`, `themeNames.light`, `switchTheme`), mirroring the existing `language`/`languageNames`/`switchLanguage` keys.
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## Risks and how they are contained
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- **Scale (64 files, ~1,400 occurrences).** Contained by the lookup table being fixed and mechanical — a scripted replace, not a rewrite of each file's markup. Anything the table doesn't cover is left untouched and flagged rather than guessed at.
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- **Screens snapshot test** (`client/src/pages/__tests__/screens.snapshot.test.tsx`) will diff on every visual change. Per project policy, snapshots are reviewed and regenerated deliberately (`npx vitest run -u`), never blindly accepted.
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- **Contrast regressions in light mode**, especially status colors and the accent-on-white combination. Checked by eye against the approved mockup values; no automated contrast gate exists in this repo, so this is a manual pass, not a new CI check (not asked for).
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- **The Workspace `lane-detail` header** and `LaneCard` were already touched in this session (chip cleanup) — the migration must not reintroduce the chips that were deliberately removed.
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## Testing
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- `npm run test:client` after the token/config change and again after the mechanical migration; screenshot diffs reviewed, not rubber-stamped.
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- `tsc --noEmit` (Tailwind class strings are not type-checked, but the new `useTheme` hook and Sidebar changes are).
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- Manual pass: toggle Dark ↔ Light on the Workspace, Dashboard, and Sidebar screens, confirm no screen is left hardcoded dark and no light-mode contrast failure on status colors.
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## Follow-up (not built in this pass)
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The mechanical migration (`scripts/migrate-color-tokens.mjs`) rewrote only the
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gray-scale chrome (`neutral-*`/`gray-*`/`slate-*`) — unambiguously UI
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structure, safe to blanket-replace. Two color families were deliberately left
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untouched:
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- **Status colors** (`emerald-*`/`red-*`/`amber-*` used for liveness dots,
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destructive buttons, the "needs you" banner). These carry real meaning and
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read fine on the new light background at a glance, but were not checked
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pixel-by-pixel for contrast — a future pass should audit each usage against
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WCAG AA on `#f4f7fd`/`#ffffff`, not just eyeball it.
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- **The categorical/decorative hue palette** (violet, indigo, cyan, teal,
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sky, rose, pink, orange, yellow — tags, subagent-type badges, chart
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legends). These are chosen for visual *distinction between categories*,
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not for theme-appropriateness, and there is no single correct light-mode
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remap — each usage would need its own review. Left as-is.
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**2026-07-31, second darkening pass:** the accent/border darkening above only
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touched the tokenized CSS-variable colors. The raw `blue-*` (PipelineMap's
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`current` node, "info" accents scattered across ~30 files) and `amber-*`
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(the dashed "auto: <stage>" chip, warning banners, badges — same ~30 files)
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were still untokenized and unaffected. `scripts/darken-status-colors.mjs`
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shifts every raw `blue`/`amber` utility one Tailwind shade darker (matching
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the accent's own 100→200 ... 700→800 step; `950` left alone, already
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darkest), same treatment in both themes since these colors had no dark/light
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split before this pass either. Text (`fg-*`) still untouched, per the same
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readability reasoning as the first pass.
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One mapping bug found and fixed during migration, worth recording: the first
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pass grouped `gray-200` into `fg-secondary` alongside `gray-300`/`gray-400`,
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which collapsed the common `text-gray-400 hover:text-gray-200` pattern into a
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no-op hover (`text-fg-secondary hover:text-fg-secondary` — same color before
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and after). Fixed by moving `gray-200` into `fg-primary` (closer to its
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actual brightness) and patching the 16 already-migrated files where the
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no-op had landed.
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**2026-07-31, third pass — real contrast bug + status tokens.** The second
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darkening pass had a real bug, not just a taste call: `--border` in dark mode
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was set DARKER than the surfaces it outlines, so a card's border landed
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almost indistinguishable from its own background (dark-mode borders need to
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be lighter than the surface, not darker — the opposite of the light-mode
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rule). Fixed by relighting `--border`/`--border-light` in `.dark` back above
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the surface scale. `amber-600` text/border on dark surfaces was also flagged
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as dull; folded into the fix below rather than patched standalone.
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Also added `status-success`/`status-danger`/`status-warning` CSS-variable
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tokens (mirroring `fg-*`) and ran `scripts/tokenize-status-colors.mjs` to
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collapse every raw `emerald-*`/`red-*`/`amber-*` shade across `client/src`
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(41 files) onto them — every badge/button/component that means
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success/danger/warning now pulls the same shade per theme instead of each
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picking its own. `PipelineMap`'s `done`/`failed` also dropped their solid
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white-text fills in favor of the same border+text+translucent-wash language
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every other state uses; `current` stays the one solid (accent-colored)
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exception, since it alone needs to look bolder ("you are here"). The
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categorical/decorative hue palette (violet, indigo, cyan, teal, sky, rose,
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pink, orange, yellow, and `blue` where it plays a categorical role e.g.
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message-bubble coloring) is still explicitly out of scope — collapsing those
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would erase the distinction between different *kinds* of thing, not a status.
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**2026-07-31, fourth pass — stopped hand-picking, adopted Radix Colors.**
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Three rounds of manually-tuned values (flat → too dark → glaring) without
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ever rendering the app is what caused each regression; user asked to research
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an established palette instead of continuing to guess. Adopted
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[Radix Colors](https://www.radix-ui.com/colors) (`@radix-ui/colors` package,
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fetched directly): a 12-step accessible scale (1-2 app background, 3-5
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component background, 6-8 borders, 9-10 solid/vibrant, 11-12 text),
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contrast-checked with APCA, with the scale direction inverted between light
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and dark so both themes share the same role mapping. `slate` → surface
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0-5/border/border-light (steps 1-7), `blue` → accent/accent-hover (step
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9/10 — `blue-9` is `#0090ff` in BOTH themes, Radix's own vibrant-solid
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anchor), `green`/`red`/`amber` step 11 → status-success/danger/warning (the
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same "readable text" step used for `fg-secondary`, so status colors sit at
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ordinary text weight rather than shouting). Every value below is the literal
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Radix hex constant, not a hand-tuned guess. Because every component already
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routes through the `surface-*`/`border`/`accent`/`fg-*`/`status-*` token
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names (no raw Tailwind color classes for these), this pass only touched
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`client/src/index.css` — no component files needed changes.
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