How to get a good CCAC score

The CCAC model explains what the score measures. This is the companion piece: what to actually change in a file to move each number, assuming a file has already cleared the Valid + Intact gate (a file that fails either isn’t scored at all).

Clean — remove waste

• Delete nodes with no layout or visual purpose — the classic case is an empty spacer element; see Spacing and gaps.
• Flatten unnecessary nesting: a row wrapped in a col wrapped in a frame, where one container would do.
• Remove declared tokens or styles that nothing in the file actually references.

Consistent — agree with yourself

• Replace repeated literal values (a color, a spacing number used five times) with a single declared token, referenced everywhere.
• Pick one system and stay in it — don’t mix ad hoc pixel values with token references for the same kind of value across the file.

Accessible — stay legible

• Check text-to-background contrast against WCAG 2.2 visual criteria, particularly on colored fills and overlays.
• Keep tap targets (buttons, interactive rows) at a real minimum size — a role="button" that’s visually tiny still fails this even though it validates.
• Don’t drop text size below what the criteria allow for body copy.

Comprehensible — be readable by a machine

• Add role= to every structural node it applies to, from the closed 53-role vocabulary — a button without role="button" scores as if it isn’t one.
• Prefer the most specific correct role over a generic one when the vocabulary has it.
• Understand the score is reach-coverage, not a flat tag-everything ratio: each declared role documents its own subtree as far as its catalog-defined reach allows. A self-contained widget’s reach covers everything inside it; a card’s reach covers one chrome level before its contents need their own roles. A few roles placed on the right nodes can legitimately cover a large share of the tree.

None of this is a gate — a low score is still a valid, packable file. The score is a diagnostic, not a blocker; treat a low number as a punch list, not a rejection. The scoring model (RFC-0040) and the role vocabulary it reads (RFC-0041) both document the exact mechanics if you want the full reasoning.