Sketch is the canvas. Dock is the workspace around the canvas. Mac-first design teams keep frames, symbols, shared styles, and prototype flows in the Sketch document, then run the brief, the variation rationale, the review thread, and the approval inside a Dock table that points back at the Sketch file path or Cloud document id. The agent reads briefs and writes rows. The reviewer approves rows. The Sketch file stays untouched until a designer chooses to merge an agent variation, and every step carries a name and a timestamp.
That split is deliberate. Sketch, Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, Webflow, and Framer remain the system of record for the canvas itself: the artboards, the layers, the components, the design source. Dock is the system of record for what the agent and the team interpret around the canvas: the brief, the review thread, the variation rationale, the approval status, the production-asset queue. Each Dock row carries a pointer to the platform record (sketch_file_path, sketch_cloud_doc_id, sketch_symbol_id, sketch_artboard_uuid), agent identity, decision, reviewer, and timestamp. The agent re-fetches Sketch state via fresh reads through the JavaScript API or by unpacking the Sketch file format when it needs current geometry. Dock holds the persistent interpretive layer that survives across sessions and handoffs, which is the same architecture we use for Figma design ops.
The Variations table
| variation_id | sketch_cloud_doc_id | artboard | agent | rationale | reviewer | status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-318 | doc_8a2f | Pricing/Hero/A | argus | Tighter Fraunces lockup, reduces vertical rhythm break at 1440 | mei | approved |
| V-319 | doc_8a2f | Pricing/Hero/B | argus | Replaces stock photo with corner-glow card, matches marketing system | mei | needs-revision |
| V-320 | doc_4c91 | Checkout/Step2 | dustin | Adds inline validation copy, mirrors Stripe Elements pattern | vega | pending |
Each row is the unit of attribution. The Sketch document still holds the pixels. The Dock row holds the why, the who, and the what-happens-next.
A worked workflow
Argus picks up a marketing-page brief written as a Dock doc. It reads the doc, opens the linked Sketch Cloud document by id, fetches the current Pricing/Hero artboard via the API, and generates two variations as new artboards in a proposed/ page. For each variation it writes a row to the Variations table: pointer to the Cloud doc, artboard UUID, the rationale in plain text, and a render of the artboard as an HTML preview the way an agent renders HTML for review. Mei reviews V-318 and V-319 in the table. She approves V-318, which fires a webhook that promotes the artboard out of proposed/ into the canonical Pricing page in the Sketch file. She marks V-319 as needs-revision with a one-line comment, and Argus reads it on its next run. The merge to the Sketch canvas is the consent gate. Nothing irreversible happens until a reviewer flips a status cell.
Why this matters
Attribution is the part Sketch was never designed to carry. The Sketch document tracks who saved a file and the last edit, but the artboard does not know which agent proposed the lockup change, which brief it came from, or which reviewer approved it. Putting that record in a Dock row makes agent edits auditable at the variation level, not the file level.
Handoff survives the session. When Argus is replaced by a newer model, or when a second agent picks up the same brief on Monday, the Variations table is the memory. The Sketch file is current state, the Dock row is the trail of decisions that produced it, which is the same pattern that holds across an agent's identity lifecycle.
The daily-driver experience stays Mac-native. Designers keep working in Sketch, keep using shared libraries, keep their component library workflow intact. The Dock surface is where they triage agent work, not where they draw. The canvas tool does not change. The interpretive layer is new.
This pattern is the Sketch instance of the broader Dock-for-Design architecture, and it ships today with the standard Dock workspace.
FAQ
Q: Does Dock open or edit the Sketch file directly? A: No. The agent reads the Sketch file via the JavaScript API or by unpacking the ZIP-encoded JSON, and writes variations as new artboards inside Sketch. Dock holds the row that points at those artboards. The merge into a canonical page is a designer action.
Q: What if the team is on Sketch local files, not Sketch Cloud?
A: The pointer column changes from sketch_cloud_doc_id to sketch_file_path plus a content hash. The agent re-reads the file from the shared drive on each run. Dock rows still hold rationale, reviewer, and status.
Q: How does this differ from leaving comments inside Sketch? A: Sketch comments live next to a layer and disappear from the workflow once resolved. A Dock row persists, carries a status column the agent can read, and links to the brief and the approval. Comments are conversation, rows are state.
Q: Can the same Variations table work across Sketch and Figma files in the same project?
A: Yes. The platform pointer columns are nullable, so a row can carry either a sketch_cloud_doc_id or a figma_file_key. Teams migrating between tools keep one review surface.