Design system overview
Canadian Digital Service — The Canadian Digital Service's open-source web-component design system for Government of Canada services — distinct from, and newer than, the Canada.ca design system.
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Exactly what ships in canada-gc-design-system-design.md. This entry doesn’t have a full editorial breakdown yet, so the spec covers the verified facts — profile, official source, and an AI-ready prompt.
Restated from design-system.canada.ca and cds-snc/gcds-components, links last checked 2026-09-03. The file lists its sources and method in a provenance block at the top.
# GC Design System — Design Style Reference ```yaml # How this file was made. Sources are first-party; nothing here is # read from a rendered page. Full breakdown at source_page below. method: partial confidence: low verified_at: 2026-09-03 source_page: https://www.designsystems.one/design-systems/canada-gc-design-system sources: - https://design-system.canada.ca/ - https://github.com/cds-snc/gcds-components ``` > **Unofficial, community-authored reference.** Compiled by [designsystems.one](https://www.designsystems.one). Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Canadian Digital Service. "GC Design System" and related marks belong to their respective owners. This document describes publicly observable style attributes in original words — it contains no copied documentation, logos, icon artwork, or original token files. Always defer to the official source for canonical, current values. **System:** GC Design System **Owner:** Canadian Digital Service **Official documentation:** https://design-system.canada.ca/ --- ## Summary The Canadian Digital Service's open-source web-component design system for Government of Canada services — distinct from, and newer than, the Canada.ca design system. ## Engineering profile - **Ships for:** Web Components - **Source model:** Open source ## Apply this style with an AI tool Paste this into your AI coding assistant as a direction, then iterate: > Design in the spirit of GC Design System by Canadian Digital Service — The Canadian Digital Service's open-source web-component design system for Government of Canada services — distinct from, and newer than, the Canada.ca design system. Match the intent, not the pixels; adapt it to my product rather than cloning it. ## Official reference - [GC Design System documentation](https://design-system.canada.ca/) --- _Generated by [designsystems.one](https://www.designsystems.one/design-systems/canada-gc-design-system) — a catalogue of public design systems. Style facts are reported for reference and education; adapt them to your own product. Report issues or takedown requests via the site._
GC Design System doesn’t have a full editorial breakdown yet — those cover origin, governance, token decisions, and the components worth studying. 49 anchor systems do.
