# CAnnot add design token alias

**URL:** https://community.penpot.app/t/cannot-add-design-token-alias/9698
**Category:** Ask the community
**Created:** [August 15, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://community.penpot.app/t/cannot-add-design-token-alias/9698 "2025-08-15T21:36:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![natacha](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/community.penpot.app/natacha/32/44_2.png) [@natacha](https://community.penpot.app/u/natacha)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://community.penpot.app/t/cannot-add-design-token-alias/9698/6 "2025-08-25T13:53:30Z")

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Hey, this is not a bug. I’ll try to explain it:

Design token names are built from token paths. Periods (.) are used to nest tokens groups. Then, the last segment of the token name corresponds to the token.

The thing is that **a token name cannot also be a token group**.

So in the example you are using:

`bs.color.blue` creates this nested structure:

```auto
bs /* group */
  color /* group */
	blue /* token */
      

```

But `bs.color.blue.500` creates this one:

```auto
bs /* group */
  color /* group */
	blue /* group */
      500 /* token */

```

Here’s the problem: in the first case, `blue` is already a **token**. In the second case, you’re trying to make `blue` a **group** , which causes a conflict.

This behavior is not from Penpot, but from tokens spec 🙂

I hope this helps!

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_[View the full topic](https://community.penpot.app/t/cannot-add-design-token-alias/9698)._