# Applying a design token-based theme to the LMS (\*NOT\* MFEs) **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Operations Help\ **Tags:** how-to\ **Created:** [December 4, 2025, 7:31am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744 "2025-12-04T07:31:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AntonOfTheWoods](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/antonofthewoods/32/301_2.png) [@AntonOfTheWoods](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/AntonOfTheWoods)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 7:31am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/1 "2025-12-04T07:31:29Z")
I’m going crazy here - this must be documented but I just can’t find it. Design tokens are “a new way of comprehensive theming” and “There will be no overlap between the old theming system and Design Tokens”. There are [several UIs](https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/COMM/pages/4262363137/MFE+Rewrite+Tracker) that haven’t been migrated to MFEs yet, so presumably a new, design token-based theme should be able to apply to those “legacy” pages too, right? None of the links or presentations or anything made any specific mention of that. The tutor plugin seems to only add `MFE_CONFIG["PARAGON_THEME_URLS"]` to the lms/cms configs, which don’t seem to apply to the legacy LMS theming… Everyone seems to know already exactly how it’s supposed to work but I (via Google) can’t find that info anywhere on the public internet. Help! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![sarina](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/sarina/32/2308_2.png) [@sarina](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/sarina)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/2 "2025-12-04T14:21:44Z")
Unfortunately design tokens are not implemented for legacy pages. We have a beta Catalog MFE debuting in Ulmo, and the Instructor Dashboard will be converted for Verawood. cc @brian.smith ---
**Author:** ![brian.smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/brian.smith/32/4259_2.png) [@brian.smith](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/brian.smith)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/3 "2025-12-04T16:44:34Z")
To add some more context here, pre-design-tokens brand packages (based on pre-design-tokens versions of [GitHub - openedx/brand-openedx](https://github.com/openedx/brand-openedx)) also _only_ work with MFEs. Any themes that modify non-MFE styles are doing so via _addional_ overrides beyond the scope of the `brand-openedx` package. `indigo` for example [has](https://github.com/overhangio/tutor-indigo/blob/f20e8ef67d48dfe55acec51a4cf9208ed4751a2e/tutorindigo/templates/indigo/cms/static/sass/partials/cms/theme/_variables.scss#L19-L20): > ```scss > // Initialize the Open edX Bootstrap theme > @import 'edx-bootstrap/sass/open-edx/theme'; > > ``` which is referencing the old [`edx-bootstrap`](https://github.com/openedx/edx-bootstrap) package. ---
**Author:** ![Felipe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/felipe/32/60_2.png) [@Felipe](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Felipe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/4 "2025-12-04T17:34:43Z")
We had this issues for installations that we maintain that where moving from comprehensive theming slowly into mfes. For that we wrote a comprehensive theme that had support for the paragon variables. YMMV but you can take a look at [ednx-saas-themes/edx-platform/bragi-children/css-runtime at master · eduNEXT/ednx-saas-themes · GitHub](https://github.com/eduNEXT/ednx-saas-themes/tree/master/edx-platform/bragi-children/css-runtime) ---
**Author:** ![AntonOfTheWoods](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/antonofthewoods/32/301_2.png) [@AntonOfTheWoods](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/AntonOfTheWoods)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 7:24am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/5 "2025-12-05T07:24:37Z")
Thanks for the replies! So the expected workflow for someone wanting to start with ulmo (which is the only officially supported release from Tuesday, right?) is to learn the deprecated/obsolete `edx-bootstrap` system to implement that for the couple of pages/features that haven’t been migrated to MFEs yet, implement one’s desired graphics and theming with the new design tokens system and then try and get something generated and somehow inject/convert back to be compatible with the `edx-bootstrap` system? ---
**Author:** ![arbrandes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/arbrandes/32/158_2.png) [@arbrandes](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/arbrandes)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/6 "2025-12-09T22:21:23Z")
Unfortunately, yes. For what its worth, the implied criticism is valid: the road to complete the migration from Django templates to MFEs has taken much longer than anyone foresaw. The good news is that we’re almost there: in just a few more months it looks like we might be rid of all legacy pages. (You’ll still need the legacy mechanism to style XBlocks - [see this post I just answered](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/how-to-override-the-xblock-loaded-in-a-iframe-in-learning-page/17647/5) - but that is a much bigger can of worms which we might - or might not - eventually solve with [XBlocks 2.0](https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FEDX/pages/4366663684/XBlock+Rendering+Summit+Part+1+2024-08-07#XBlocks-2.0).) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/openedx/original/2X/e/e0015f89e879bc75925b71fd11133ab15fe98297.png) [@system](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 10:22pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/applying-a-design-token-based-theme-to-the-lms-not-mfes/17744/7 "2026-03-09T22:22:12Z")
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