design(tokens): civiccore-ui/tokens/tokens.css — the suite token authority (AA-validated)

[scottconverse]

Establishes civiccore-ui/tokens/tokens.css as the suite's single token source of truth, dropping into the empty slot the repo already reserved (civiccore-ui/tokens/, components/, shell/ were .gitkeep-only). Produced by the design collaboration; extracted from the canonical prototype (docs/design/ui-ux-prototype/styles.css in the umbrella repo), which remains authoritative for the component layer.

What's here

• tokens.css — color neutrals + ink ramp, civic brand (navy/gold), status palette, type families, density metrics, radii, as documented CSS custom properties with contrast noted per token.
• tokens-reference.html — live palette/type/density/status reference with the contrast ledger rendered.

Values are verbatim from the prototype except three documented WCAG-AA corrections

Independently re-verified every contrast ratio in the file (own WCAG 2.x computation, not the designer's numbers):

pairing	ratio	verdict
white on --gold #b08a2e	3.22:1	FAILS AA normal text → --gold is now accent/border/large-text only
white on --gold-2 #8a6a1f	5.05:1	PASS — the text-bearing gold
--gold-strong #785b16 on --gold-soft (NEW)	5.43:1	PASS — gold text on pale gold (gold-2 there is only 4.32:1)
--ink-4 #9aa0ab on --paper	2.48:1	FAILS → encoded decorative-only in the token comment

All status pairs (ok/warn/err/info on their soft surfaces) verified AA on their own background.

Transparency notes (per the review guardrails)

• No shipped surface changes. The only AA-failing usage in the org is .btn.gold in the prototype stub — never instantiated on the live landing page. I'll strip the dead .btn.gold rule from the landing/prototype CSS in the umbrella design PR.
• Additive tokens beyond the three AA fixes: the file adds --err/--err-soft and --neutral-soft status tokens and the --row-h/--pad/--gap density metrics. These change no existing value (still "verbatim" for everything the prototype defined) and nothing consumes them yet — they round out the system for the component layer.
• Removed the Google Fonts CDN link from tokens-reference.html: CivicSuite makes no outbound calls, so a design reference that phones a CDN is off-posture. It now renders in the token stack's local/fallback faces. Revert if the exact webfaces must render in the reference.

Consumption (next, not in this PR)

Offline binaries can't @import at runtime, so consumers (desktop styles.css, the prototype) will vendor a generated copy pinned to a civiccore version, with a CI --check drift gate — same idiom as the source_commit pins and the generated topology block. The umbrella PR carries the design-control amendment naming this file the token authority and the patterns doc.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code