# Find every hard-coded value that should have been a token.

*For anyone who owns a token set.*

Source: https://saer.app/for/design-token-drift
Updated: 2026-10-22

**Short answer.** Saer reconstructs your declared tokens, following every `var()` chain to a real value in each theme, then compares every raw value in the code with them. A raw value identical to a token is exact drift: deterministic, with its files. A value perceptually close to one is a near-match, reported with its distance and kept apart, because close is not the same as equal. On the founder's app: 22 hard-coded colours equal to a token, written 436 times, and 78 near-matches.

## Evidence from Saer's scan of Lunary

- 22 / 436: hard-coded colours equal to a token, and their uses ([evidence](https://saer.app/case-studies/lunary#colour))
- 78: near-matches, each with its distance, never mixed with exact drift ([evidence](https://saer.app/case-studies/lunary#colour))
- 13: colour tokens declared and never used ([evidence](https://saer.app/case-studies/lunary#colour))

## What counts as drift

- Exact drift: `#8458d8` written 72 times in Lunary where `color-primary` already holds that exact value.
- Near-matches: a raw value within a small perceptual distance (OKLab) of a token. Saer shows the pair and the distance and leaves the decision to you.
- Dead tokens and conflicting definitions: declared and never used, or defined differently in two places with nothing in the code to say which wins.

Beyond colour, the same comparison runs for type sizes, spacing, radius and the other foundations: Lunary had 6 exact type-size drift findings and 23 in spacing. Explore every token in the [case study](https://saer.app/case-studies/lunary#colour).

## Works with how you declare tokens

Tailwind v3 configs, Tailwind v4 `@theme` blocks and CSS custom properties, including dark mode and other theme contexts, in pnpm, npm and yarn monorepos.

Scan for drift:

```
$ saer scan
# exact drift, near-matches and dead tokens in .saer/report.html
```

## What Saer does about this today

- Colour (in the beta): exact drift, near-matches, dead and conflicting declarations, across themes.
- Typography and the other foundations: exact drift and, labelled experimental, off-scale values with the nearest step.

## Not built yet

- A pull request check that fails when new drift is introduced: planned.