The handoff spec every engineer should expect

The single most common reason a design takes longer to build than estimated is not engineering complexity. It is missing engineering context inside the design file. A mockup that looks good in Figma but doesn't specify how it behaves at 320px, what its error state is, or which interaction is keyboard-accessible is a half-finished spec, not a handoff.

What we ship with every screen

• Three breakpoints, not one. The mobile (320–640) and the awkward middle (641–1023) are part of the spec, not an afterthought engineers figure out alone.
• Every interactive state: default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, error. Each state shipped as a frame, not as a verbal note.
• Empty states for every list, search, and table. The empty state copy lives in the design, not in a separate doc.
• Tokens, not pixels. The spec references the existing design-system color, spacing, and type tokens by name. New values are flagged for review before the build starts.
• Motion specs as words: 250ms ease-out-quart on hover, layoutId-shared transitions between routes. Engineers don't guess at duration or easing curves.

What we cut

Annotated PDFs of the spec, screenshot decks for stakeholder review, redlines on every padding value. These are make-work artifacts that exist because the original handoff was insufficient. Fix the handoff, and the rituals dissolve.

The design file is the spec. If the spec needs explaining over Loom, the spec needs revision, not a Loom.