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Mastering Figma Dev Mode MCP Server: Seamless Design-to-Code Workflow

高效码农

Bringing Figma Designs into Your Codebase: A Plain-English Guide to the Dev Mode MCP Server

Table of Contents

  1. What Is the Dev Mode MCP Server?
  2. Who Can Use It and What You Need
  3. Three Simple Steps to Get Started
  4. How to Generate Your First Line of Code
  5. Five Built-In Tools Explained
  6. Real-World Walkthrough: From Figma Frame to Running Web Page
  7. Frequently Asked Questions
  8. Next Steps: Teaching the AI Your Design System

1. What Is the Dev Mode MCP Server?

Think of the Dev Mode MCP Server as a 「bridge」 between Figma and your code editor.
Instead of copying hex codes or guessing spacing by eye, you 「select a frame in Figma」 and, within seconds, receive 「ready-to-use code」 in your editor.

Traditional Workflow With Dev Mode MCP Server
Measure pixels manually Receive exact CSS values
Export static images Get live screenshots + structured data
Re-build components by hand Re-use linked components automatically

2. Who Can Use It and What You Need

Role Benefit
Front-end developers Up to 50 % less CSS typing
Solo makers Turn designs into working prototypes in minutes
Design-system teams Keep tokens and components in sync

「Prerequisites」

  • Figma 「desktop」 app (web version will not work)
  • Editor that supports the MCP protocol: VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or Claude Code
  • Local network access (everything runs on 127.0.0.1; no VPN required)

3. Three Simple Steps to Get Started

Step 1: Enable the Server in Figma

  1. Open any .fig file.
  2. Menu → 「Preferences」 → 「Enable Dev Mode MCP Server」.
  3. A green banner appears: 
    Dev Mode MCP Server is running on http://127.0.0.1:3845/mcp

Step 2: Connect Your Editor

These steps use VS Code; other editors follow the same pattern.

  1. Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P → type 「MCP:Add Server」.
  2. Choose 「HTTP」 and paste the URL above.
  3. When prompted for a 「Server ID」, enter Figma Dev Mode MCP.
  4. VS Code adds the following block to mcp.json: 
    {
  "servers": {
    "Figma Dev Mode MCP": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:3845/mcp"
    }
  }
}
  5. Open the chat panel (Option + Cmd + B or Ctrl + Cmd + I), switch to 「Agent」 mode, and type #get_code.
    • If you see a list of tools, the connection is live.
    • If the list is empty, restart Figma and your editor once.

Step 3: Quick Sanity Check

In Figma, select any frame.
Back in the chat, type:

Generate React code for the current selection

You should immediately receive Tailwind-flavored code.

4. How to Generate Your First Line of Code

There are two ways to feed design context to the AI.

Method When to Use Steps
「Selection-based」 Iterating on a single component 1. Click the frame in Figma
2. Ask the AI in your editor
「Link-based」 Sharing full pages 1. Figma → Share → Copy link to frame
2. Paste the link into your prompt

❝

The AI does 「not」 open the link in a browser; it extracts the node ID and fetches structured data from the local server.

❞

5. Five Built-In Tools Explained

Tool Purpose Example Prompt
get_code Produce React + Tailwind scaffolding “Rewrite this frame in plain HTML and CSS”
get_variable_defs Extract colors, spacing, and typography tokens “List all tokens used in this selection”
get_image Capture a high-fidelity screenshot “Show me the current layout”
get_code_connect_map Map Figma nodes to your actual components “Which file contains the Button component for this node?”
create_design_system_rules Generate a rule file so the AI follows your conventions “Create a rules file for our Tailwind setup”

6. Real-World Walkthrough: From Figma Frame to Running Web Page

The following case study uses the open-source repo vibe-coding-web.
Everything you see below was created by following the three-step setup above.

6.1 Project Layout

vibe-coding-web/
├─ src/               # AI-generated React pages
├─ .prompt/           # Prompt templates and logs
└─ docs/images/       # Side-by-side screenshots

6.2 End-to-End Flow

  1. 「Design delivery」: three mobile screens—Welcome, Login, Dashboard.
  2. 「Enable the server」 as shown in Section 3.
  3. 「Run the prompt」: 
    Execute the "Generate Page" task from .prompt/prompt.md
  4. 「What the AI does」
    • Calls get_image to capture the visual layout.
    • Calls get_code to fetch the underlying CSS values.
    • Calls get_variable_defs to import color and spacing tokens.
    • Writes the final code into src/pages/
  5. 「Human review」
    • npm start to preview locally.
    • Minor tweaks with VS Code IntelliSense.
    • Final result:
Design File Generated Page

Layout accuracy is within 2 px; colors match the design tokens exactly.

7. Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: The generated code uses absolute positioning everywhere. Is that normal?

Yes—Figma’s default export relies on absolute coordinates.
Add a line to your prompt:

Please use flex or grid instead of absolute positioning.

Q2: The AI does not recognize my component library.

Run once:

npx figma-cli connect

Then enable get_code_connect_map.
The AI will now import <Button /> from your actual file instead of creating a new one.

Q3: How do I handle responsive breakpoints?

Use 「Auto-layout」 in Figma and resize the frame to verify behavior before generating code.
If the frame is fixed-width, the AI will mirror that.

Q4: My prompt is too long and gets truncated.

Move common rules into rules/design-system.md.
The AI reads this file once, reducing prompt length.

8. Next Steps: Teaching the AI Your Design System

Task Tool Sample Command
Sync design tokens get_variable_defs “Write Tailwind config from these tokens”
Sync component map get_code_connect_map “Update Button mapping to src/ui/Button.tsx”
Generate service layer Custom prompt “Create API call for the login form”

Once these steps are scripted, you can wire them into CI:
Design merge → AI generates code → Human review → Auto-deploy.

Closing Thoughts

Dev Mode MCP Server is still in open beta, yet the 「core idea is already solid」:
「Let the design file be the single source of truth」, and let AI do the mechanical work.

Open Figma now, navigate to 「Preferences → Enable Dev Mode MCP Server」, and give your next frame to the AI.

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