🎨 Tokens & Palette Unification

Superseded — 2026-07-24

The five active-namespace diagnosis below is superseded by Program Masterplan as of 2026-08-02: qwizz-tokens.css is now the single --qw-* definition layer for active admin and public roots, Fine-tune no longer defines --qe-*, and explicit player mood palettes remain intentional presentation overrides rather than defects. The original inventory and collision counts were not fully recomputed. Preserved as observed.

TL;DR

Five parallel namespaces (--qw-, --qe-, --qw-admin-, --qw-starter-, --qwizz-) and up to 10 distinct values for the same token name. Player themes legitimately need mood overrides; everything else is accidental drift. Proposal: one base palette + sparse theme scopes + admin alias layer.

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📊 Inventory (plugin CSS)

Namespace	Defs	Home
--qw-*	120	builder, player, some admin
--qe-*	9	finetune editor only
--qw-admin-*	7	admin-shell
--qw-starter-*	7	admin-starter
--qwizz-*	3	embeds/catalog

Collision counts (distinct values per name)

Token	# values	Notes
--qw-soft	10	mostly player themes + admin drift
--qw-muted	10	same
--qw-line	10	builder #e8e4f0 vs player #e8e4f1 = 1-digit fork
--qw-ink	9	builder #201b31 vs player #211d31 vs admin #182230
--qw-v / --qw-v2	6 / 6	= the 6 presentation themes (intentional)
--qw-card	6	player themes

Brand violet forks (should be ONE)

Token	Value	File
--qw-v (default)	#6d28d9	builder, player
--qe-violet	#6546d7	finetune
--qw-admin-brand	#6546d7	admin-shell
--qw-brand	#6546d7 / #6d4aff	dashboard / subjects
--qw-starter-violet	#5b35d5	starter

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✅ Keep: presentation themes as sparse overrides

Player moods are the art-direction asset. Refactor to:

.qwizz-player {
  /* BASE palette — only place full stacks live */
  --qw-v:#6d28d9; --qw-v2:#5b21b6;
  --qw-ink:#211d31; --qw-muted:#6e6981; --qw-line:#e8e4f1;
  --qw-soft:#f5f1ff; --qw-card:#fff; --qw-bg:#faf9fd;
  --qw-good:#12672f; --qw-bad:#922d2d; --qw-ring:rgba(109,40,217,.18);
}
.qwizz-player[data-theme="dark"]  { --qw-v:#a78bfa; --qw-v2:#7c3aed; --qw-ink:#f1eff8; /* only deltas */ }
.qwizz-player[data-theme="retro"] { --qw-v:#b83d2b; --qw-v2:#8e2f21; /* … */ }
/* cyber / love / aqua likewise */

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🎯 Proposed single base palette (product)

Role	Token	Value
Brand	--qw-v	#6d28d9
Brand deep	--qw-v2	#5b21b6
Ink	--qw-ink	#211d31
Muted	--qw-muted	#6e6981
Line	--qw-line	#e8e4f1
Soft	--qw-soft	#f5f1ff
Paper/card	--qw-card	#ffffff
Canvas	--qw-bg	#faf9fd
Focus	--qw-focus	#3858e9
Good / Bad	--qw-good / --qw-bad	#12672f / #922d2d

Admin alias layer (no new hues):

.qwizz-admin, .qwizz-dashboard, .qwizz-starter-page, .qwizz-settings {
  --qw-admin-brand: var(--qw-v);
  --qw-admin-ink: var(--qw-ink);
  --qw-admin-muted: var(--qw-muted);
  --qw-admin-line: var(--qw-line);
  --qw-admin-soft: var(--qw-soft);
  --qw-starter-violet: var(--qw-v);
  /* etc — aliases only */
}

Retire: --qe-* (map to --qw-* under .qwizz-editor), --qwizz-* (embeds → --qw-*).

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🪜 Migration order (release-owner)

1. Land base palette + aliases (behavior-neutral if values converge to nearest current)
2. Delete accidental 1-digit forks (builder line/ink)
3. Sparse-ify player theme blocks
4. Tokenize qwizz-admin-settings-visual.css (currently 0 tokens)
5. Remove dead namespace declarations

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🔗 Related

• studio-builder · finetune-editor · player-library · admin-dashboard · settings
• FE-1 root cause was exactly the --qe-violet / --qw-v split — patch-spec

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• synthesist: cross-surface CSS inventory 2026-07-24

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