Figma Generate Design

Build / Update Screens and Views from Design System

Use this skill to create or update screens, views, and multi-section UI containers in Figma by reusing the published design system — components, variables, and styles — rather than drawing primitives with hardcoded values. This includes full pages, modals, dialogs, drawers, sidebars, panels, and any composed view with multiple sections. The key insight: the Figma file likely has a published design system with components, color/spacing variables, and text/effect styles that correspond to the codebase's UI components and tokens. Find and use those instead of drawing boxes with hex colors.

MANDATORY: You MUST also load figma-use before any use_figma call. That skill contains critical rules (color ranges, font loading, etc.) that apply to every script you write.

Always pass `skillNames: "figma-generate-design"` when calling `use_figma` as part of this skill. This is a logging parameter — it does not affect execution.

Skill Boundaries

• Use this skill when the deliverable is a composed Figma view (new or updated) — full-page screens, modals, dialogs, drawers, sidebars, panels, or any multi-section container — built from design system component instances.
• If the user wants to create new reusable components or variants, use figma-use directly.
• If the user wants to write Code Connect mappings, switch to figma-code-connect.

Prerequisites

• Figma MCP server must be connected
• The target Figma file must have a published design system with components (or access to a team library)
• User should provide either:
• A Figma file URL / file key to work in
• Or context about which file to target (the agent can discover pages)
• Source code or description of the screen/view to build/update

Parallel Workflow with generate_figma_design (Web Apps Only)

When building a screen from a web app that can be rendered in a browser, the best results come from running both approaches in parallel:

1. In parallel:

• Start building the screen using this skill's workflow (use_figma + design system components)
• Run generate_figma_design to capture a pixel-perfect screenshot of the running web app

1. Once both complete: Update the use_figma output to match the pixel-perfect layout from the generate_figma_design capture. The capture provides the exact spacing, sizing, and visual treatment to aim for, while your use_figma output has proper component instances linked to the design system. If the capture contains images, transfer them to your use_figma output by copying imageHash values from the capture's image fills (see Step 5 for details).
2. Once confirmed looking good: Delete the generate_figma_design output — it was only used as a visual reference.

This combines the best of both: generate_figma_design gives pixel-perfect layout accuracy, while use_figma gives proper design system component instances that stay linked and updatable.

This parallel workflow is MANDATORY when the source contains images. The use_figma Plugin API cannot fetch external image URLs — it can only set image fills by copying imageHash values from nodes already in the file. generate_figma_design rasterizes all visible images into Figma, providing the hashes you need. If you skip the capture when images are present, image frames will be left blank.

For non-web apps (iOS, Android, etc.) or when updating existing screens, use the standard workflow below.

Required Workflow

Follow these steps in order. Do not skip steps.

Hard gates — forbidden shortcuts: - Forbidden: search_design_system for component keys until 2a-i is complete and 2a-ii is attempted or logged N/A (e.g. "empty file, no existing screens"). - Forbidden: Any use_figma call that mutates the canvas (Step 3+) until all Step 2 rows in the checklist below are filled in.

Step 1: Understand the Deliverable

Before touching Figma, understand what you're building:

1. If building from code, read the relevant source files to understand the structure, sections, and which components are used.
2. Identify the major sections of the view (e.g., for a page: Header, Hero, Content Panels, Footer; for a modal: Title Bar, Form Sections, Action Bar; for a sidebar: Navigation, Content Area, Footer Actions).
3. For each section, list the UI components involved (buttons, inputs, cards, navigation pills, accordions, etc.).
4. Check whether the view contains any images (e.g., <img>, <Image>, background images, product photos, avatars, icons loaded from URLs). If it does and this is a web app, you must run the parallel generate_figma_design capture workflow — start it immediately alongside Step 2 so the capture runs while you discover components. See "Parallel Workflow with generate_figma_design" above.

Step 2: Collect Component Keys, Variables, and Styles

You need three things from the design system: components (buttons, cards, etc.), variables (colors, spacing, radii), and styles (text styles, effect styles like shadows). Don't hardcode hex colors or pixel values when design system tokens exist.

2a: Discover components

2a-i — REQUIRED: Check Code Connect for needed components. Starting from the component list you built in Step 1, check whether each component has a Code Connect file in the codebase. Code Connect files live next to the component source and are named by platform:

• TypeScript/JS: *.figma.ts, *.figma.js
• React (parser-based): *.figma.tsx
• Kotlin/Compose: .kt files containing @FigmaConnect
• Swift: .swift files containing FigmaConnect

For each component you need (e.g., Button, Card, Input), search for its Code Connect file — glob or grep by component name (e.g., **/Button.figma.tsx, **/Card.figma.ts). Only read files that match components you actually need.

From each matching Code Connect file, extract the Figma component URL. Parse fileKey and nodeId from the URL (convert hyphens to colons: 123-456 → 123:456). Then resolve component keys via use_figma:

Example: Code Connect file contains // url=https://figma.com/design/ABC123/File?node-id=609-35535. Parse fileKey = ABC123, nodeId = 609:35535. Run use_figma against the library file (fileKey ABC123, not the target file) to resolve the key:

const node = await figma.getNodeByIdAsync("609:35535");
const set = node?.parent?.type === "COMPONENT_SET" ? node.parent : node;
return { componentKey: set.key };

Batch multiple lookups in a single call. Use the returned keys with importComponentSetByKeyAsync() in Step 4.

Mark resolved components. If all components are resolved, skip 2a-ii and 2a-iii. If none of the needed components have Code Connect files, proceed to 2a-ii.

2a-ii — REQUIRED if unresolved components remain: Inspect existing screens. Check if the target file already contains screens using the same design system. A single use_figma call that walks an existing frame's instances gives you an exact, authoritative component map:

const frame = figma.currentPage.findOne(n => n.name === "Existing Screen");
const uniqueSets = new Map();
frame.findAll(n => n.type === "INSTANCE").forEach(inst => {
  const mc = inst.mainComponent;
  const cs = mc?.parent?.type === "COMPONENT_SET" ? mc.parent : null;
  const key = cs ? cs.key : mc?.key;
  const name = cs ? cs.name : mc?.name;
  if (key && !uniqueSets.has(key)) {
    uniqueSets.set(key, { name, key, isSet: !!cs, sampleVariant: mc.name });
  }
});
return [...uniqueSets.values()];

Match results against your unresolved components. Mark any newly resolved. If all components are resolved, skip 2a-iii.