VA Design System Monitor

Overview

The VA Design System Monitor is an MCP‑ready service that gives developers instant, authoritative insight into the status and usage of VA Design System components. By pulling live data from VA’s official Storybook, it eliminates the guesswork that often accompanies component selection and implementation. For teams building on vets-website or va‑application-template, the monitor ensures that every UI element is up to date, fully documented, and ready for production.

At its core, the monitor offers a two‑fold value proposition. First, it retrieves real HTML examples directly from the source of truth—VA’s Storybook repository—so developers can copy‑paste working markup without hunting through documentation. Second, it tracks component maturity and usage recommendations, flagging deprecated patterns or recommending best‑practice alternatives. When official examples are missing, the tool’s smart fallback engine generates plausible code snippets based on component metadata, keeping projects moving even when upstream resources lag.

Key capabilities include:

• Real‑time example fetching – Pull the latest stories for any component, ensuring consistency with VA’s design guidelines.
• Component status monitoring – View maturity levels (e.g., “Mature,” “Experimental”) and recommended usage scenarios.
• Smart fallback generation – Automatically create example markup when official stories are absent, reducing manual effort.
• Multi‑interface support – Use the CLI for quick commands, a programmatic API for integration into build pipelines, or an MCP service that lets AI assistants query the monitor on demand.
• Cross‑environment compatibility – Works from Node 14 up to Node 22, and is pre‑configured for major AI workflows like Cursor and Claude Desktop.

In real-world scenarios, a front‑end team can ask an AI assistant to “Show me how to implement a responsive VA button” and receive a complete, up‑to‑date code snippet instantly. QA engineers can automate checks against component maturity before merging, while designers can verify that the latest styling guidelines are being followed. The monitor’s integration with MCP means these checks become part of an AI‑driven development loop, accelerating delivery while maintaining strict adherence to VA’s design standards.