Engineer Replaces Stale Migration Guide with 49 JSON Files to Eliminate Drift
Design engineer James Coombs found that a migration guide he wrote for a 962-file Material UI to custom design system overhaul became outdated within 10 days, with incorrect file counts and references to deleted files. The core problem was that a static prose document could not keep pace with active, parallel migration work across 12 packages. Coombs replaced the guide with 48 structured JSON data files covering component mappings, validation rules, and status tracking, totalling around 6,900 lines. All human-readable output, such as file counts and migration status, is computed live from these data files via a CLI tool, eliminating manual updates. Engineers across four other teams were able to migrate components independently using this system, with zero legacy imports remaining in the migrated codebase.
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