Design System Theme

This theme provides a structured, accessible foundation for government websites built on the full-site editing system. It is designed for developers and content editors who need to maintain visual consistency across multiple sites without custom coding each page.

• Full-site editing support: Edit headers, footers, and templates directly through the block editor interface. No need to touch template files for common layout changes.
• Design system integration: Pre-built patterns and styles align with the BC Government design system. This reduces design drift and ensures compliance with accessibility standards.
• Visual regression testing: Built-in Playwright tests catch unintended visual changes before deployment. This protects against regressions when updating patterns or styles.
• Child theme ready: Extend or override the parent theme without modifying core files. This simplifies updates and maintenance across multiple projects.
• Composer and npm workflow: Standardized build process using Composer for PHP dependencies and npm for asset compilation. This fits into existing development pipelines.

The theme includes a development setup with npm run start for local testing and npm run build:production for deployment. Visual regression tests run automatically on pull requests, updating screenshots as needed. This makes it suitable for teams that need to maintain a consistent, accessible user interface across a portfolio of government websites.