Spacing System (the scale nobody owns)

Every gap uses one --space-* scale; relationships create composition, not arbitrary margins.

The decision order

1. Start with the 4px-base ladder 4/8/12/16/24/32/48/64/96px and --space-section: clamp(48px, 32px + 4vw, 96px) defaults. An alternate bounded scale needs brief and observed-hierarchy evidence.
2. Map attachment, control, task, group, region, and chapter to visibly different steps (roughly ≥1.5× between levels), or document a content-pressure exception.
3. Choose metronomic or intentional syncopated section rhythm from content pressure; explain it.
4. Use gap and one-direction logical margins; explain any arbitrary-margin exception.

Let content set the rhythm

Map operational tasks to compact predictability and editorial/narrative content to breathing room; retain one system and explain differing roles. Use the role map first:

The console may be metronomic; an account may widen at finding, subsection, and chapter boundaries. One vocabulary, different relationships—not two scales.

Invariants and defaults

Invariant craft: audit margin/padding/gap; make proximity truthful and whitespace intentional; keep one explainable vocabulary. Ladder, clamp, separation, and rhythm are brief-dependent defaults; rendered overrides record scale, map, and tradeoff.

Migration and honest audit boundary

Classify every literal by relationship. Starter disposition: 13px→12px (--space-3), 17px→16px (--space-4), bare 24px→var(--space-5); override only with observed hierarchy evidence. Keep 19px unresolved; do not silently round it. Sole prose exception: documented following-paragraph 1em spacing.

Use assets/spacing-starter.css as fixture/start. Without a target CSS fixture, mark audit PENDING, name it and the next action; never claim residual off-scale values are gone. The ladder, map, and migration rules remain required.

Evidence

Audit source before describing it; map each value to a role. Handoff one Markdown table with status, reason, remediation, evidence, and provenance, covering scale, off-scale, proximity, rhythm, and handoff. PENDING names missing source/next action; it blocks that check, not placeholder proof.

Rhythm map

Name attachment, control, task, group, region, and chapter; show compact/editorial selection without parallel scales. Replace, justify as observed exception, or leave each arbitrary value PENDING with source and next action.

Authoritative self-check

Include exactly one labeled Authoritative self-check. It confirms ladder/clamp or evidence-backed override, all six relationships, context selection, migration, and honest fixture boundary. Judge reasoning/evidence, not literal starter values.

Deliver

Deliver base, token scale, role map, context rhythm, off-scale audit, and one authoritative self-check. responsive-layout owns breakpoint reflow, not scale/proximity/reading pressure; hand it --space-* and the evidence table. Send control/form relationships to component-states or form-ux, not re-decide their behavior.

References

• references/decision-records.md — novel-case ADR rules.
• assets/spacing-starter.css — ladder, layout primitives, migration helpers.

Contract (generated)

Canonical detail: contract.json.

• Route: An interface needs a spacing scale, content-derived rhythm, or gap consistency (+1 in contract.json); avoid: The request is only responsive reflow or component state behavior (+1 in contract.json)
• Exclude: Do not impose one uniform cadence across dissimilar content (+1 in contract.json)
• Stop / handoff: Pause when content hierarchy is absent and spacing would be arbitrary (+1 in contract.json); receives [design-system-interview, improve-existing-website, tasteroll, web-typography] -> sends [responsive-layout, component-states, form-ux]
• Output: A tokenized spacing scale and stated section-rhythm strategy tied to content hierarchy
• Evidence: table_with_evidence with status, reason, remediation, evidence, provenance.