Jessie A Ellis
Jan 16, 2026 14:33
Harvey AI rebuilt its design infrastructure from scratch to assist fast product growth throughout net, cell, and Microsoft Workplace platforms.
Harvey AI, the legal-focused AI firm valued at $1.5 billion following its June 2024 funding spherical, has accomplished a ground-up rebuild of its design system to handle what the corporate known as “chaotic” infrastructure that could not preserve tempo with product growth.
The overhaul tackles a typical scaling drawback in fast-growing startups: design and engineering groups talking completely different languages. Harvey’s earlier setup blended legacy parts, Shadcn parts, and customized one-off implementations throughout its Figma designs and React codebase, creating translation errors that slowed improvement.
What Really Modified
The corporate moved from appearance-based naming (“neutral-400”) to intent-based semantic tokens (“foreground-base”). This seems like inside baseball, however it issues for anybody watching Harvey’s growth trajectory. Semantic tokens imply the corporate can now ship new themes, accessibility modes, or product manufacturers with out rebuilding every little thing from scratch.
Harvey constructed a GitHub Motion that syncs Figma variables on to code. Designers replace tokens in Figma, set off a workflow, and a pull request opens mechanically. No extra guide handoffs or interpretation errors between design and engineering.
The migration technique reveals how severely Harvey is treating operational effectivity. Slightly than a tough cutoff, the corporate applied graduated enforcement: linter warnings for primitive token utilization now, warnings for legacy tokens at 80% adoption, and pre-commit errors at 95%.
Why This Issues for Harvey’s Roadmap
The timing aligns with Harvey’s push into new platforms. The corporate explicitly mentions cell and Microsoft Workplace add-ins as instant priorities, requiring parts that “really feel native to every platform, whereas nonetheless unmistakably Harvey.”
For a corporation serving elite regulation companies—the place belief and precision are non-negotiable—this infrastructure work is foundational. Harvey’s design philosophy emphasizes transparency and area consciousness, ideas that require constant execution throughout each floor.
The $100 million raised in June 2024 seems to be funding precisely this type of operational maturity. Harvey is hiring for design system roles throughout each Design and Engineering groups, signaling continued funding within the basis fairly than simply characteristic velocity.
Whether or not this positions Harvey to widen its lead in authorized AI relies on execution. However the firm now has infrastructure that may flex with out requiring one other main overhaul—a prerequisite for the multi-platform growth they’re telegraphing.
Picture supply: Shutterstock
