Design System 18.7 Planning issue

Milestone overview 📋

In the 18.7 milestone we're shifting away from direct support for Project Studio. Any remaining work around project studio will move into a more design-system focused scope under the umbrella of Project studio post-launch refactoring and inte... (gitlab-org&19610) and Design guidance for Duo Agent Platform GA (gitlab-org&19505).

Quick Reference 🎗️

📆 This milestone runs from 2025-11-15 - 2025-12-12

Themes

Project studio GA launch support

• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/568908+s
• Dropdowns with positioning fixed are broken ins... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3027) • Unassigned • 18.7
• Add field configuration to be aware of GlTable... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3002) • Unassigned • 18.7

Modernized Brand Identity in Pajamas

We're expecting a larger brand realignment or redesign in Q1 2027. We're preparing for this by focusing on templates and patterns that will make it easier for us to implement changes across the product.

Page compositions (Page templates)

• Begin work on the two page composition templates identified in #3148
  • Exploration
  • Index/List template
  • Content template
• Develop a panel component
• Figma asset for Application chrome

We're also moving with forward with design refinements from Project Sneak Peek

• Neutralized components (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3164) • Jeremy Elder, Sascha Eggenberger • 18.7
• Button Refinements (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3165) • Jeremy Elder, Sascha Eggenberger • 18.7

Expanded tokenization

• Resolve deferred UX in design tokens / tailwind... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services&32)
• Add feedback border design tokens (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com!5305 - merged) • Jeremy Elder • 18.7
• Sync design tokens with Figma REST API (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#2904) - Scott to explore update to Figma and how this will all work
• Draft: Merge status into feedback design tokens (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3182) • Jeremy Elder

Expand design system coverage

In 18.6, we reviewed several new sources for design‑system contributions. During this cycle we’ll start integrating those findings into the system.

• Add a component to the design system to support... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3012) • Dan MH, Thomas Hutterer
• Rethink "messaging" components (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#1423) • Annabel Dunstone Gray, Jeremy Elder • 18.7
• Promo banners and popovers
• Follow-up from Review components in vue_shared...
  • JS utilities
  • Multi-step forms
  • Items relating to the user_avatar components

Improve component maturity

•  Alerts: @annabeldunstone
  • Engineering needs:
    • Alert > Add ability in Storybook to test alert ... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#2788) • Unassigned
    • Follow-up from "Use Pajamas alert component for Rails flash"
• Pagination: @clavimoniere
• Buttons: @seggenberger @jeldergl
• Badge: @danmh

Reduce friction and cognitive load of using the design system

• Improve JSDoc coverage in gitlab-ui component code (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3173) • Thomas Hutterer • 18.7
• Generate and package Vetur component data (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#3174) • Thomas Hutterer

Accessibility

• Checkbox form elements must have labels
• Verify updated GlCollapsibleListbox components announce themselves as comboboxes
• Form > Use aria-describedby with validation text
• Complete an accessibility support issue template
• Complete larger accessibility fixes document
• Finish the accessibility testing by stages handbook update
• GlModal: Fix accessibility violations by avoiding use of header and footer tags
• GlFormFields - add support for fieldset

Other

• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/579547+s
• Charts: chart custom tooltip does not update wh... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#2396 - closed) • Unassigned • Backlog
• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com/-/issues/3151+s - Trevor to triage
• Merge in GitLab SVGs (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#2936 - closed) • Mark Florian
• Draft: Add design system philosophy guidance page (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com!5294) • Jeremy Elder, Dan MH+ • 18.7

Support and outside contributions to the design system

• Disclosures: Explore patterns for handling nest... (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#2942) • Jeremy Elder, Nick Leonard
• Add the Hotspot component (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#535)
• Component/pattern proposal: FieldGrid (gitlab-org/gitlab-services/design.gitlab.com#2955)
• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/brand-product-marketing/brand-product-marketing/brand-design/-/issues/979+s

Planned Time Off 🌴

Hey team! 👋 Please add your planned time off below for this release period.

*Note, you do not need to update this table if you take unplanned time off, this is meant to be a quick snapshot of capacity for those who don't have access to capacity planning.

Team Member	Time Off
@chrismicek	2025-11-26 – 2025-11-28
@paintedbicycle-gitlab
@danmh
@jeldergl	2025-11-25 – 2025-11-28 🦃 2025-12-03 – 2025-12-05
@sdejonge
@markrian	2025-11-24 – 2025-11-26
@clavimoniere	2025-11-27, 2025-11-28 (US Thanksgiving) 2025-12-12
@annabeldunstone	2025-11-17 – 2025-11-28
@jmiocene	2025-11-17 – 2025-11-28
@thutterer	2025-11-28 – 2025-12-01