Figma Local Dev Loop

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Building Figma plugins
• Creating design-to-code pipelines
• Developing against the Figma API with hot reload
• With phrases like figma dev setup

Example prompts

• “figma dev setup”
• “figma plugin development”
• “figma local development”
• “/figma-local-dev-loop”

Requirements

• Node.js
• A credential in FIGMA_FILE_KEY
• Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Designed for Claude Code
• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Write, Edit, Bash(npm:*), Bash(npx:*), Bash(pnpm:*), Grep

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1REST API Project Structure
2. 2Figma Plugin Project Structure
3. 3Plugin Development with Watch Mode
4. 4REST API Dev Loop with Testing
5. 5Save API Fixtures for Offline Dev

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 23ea8d4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Bash(npm:*)
  • Bash(npx:*)
  • Bash(pnpm:*)
  • Grep

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • curl
  • npm

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

  • api.figma.com

  Also links to:

  • developers.figma.com
  • npmjs.com
  • vitest.dev

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

  • FIGMA_FILE_KEY

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

• Compatibility

  Designed for Claude Code

  From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Figma Local Dev Loop loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 85 tokens; SKILL.md has 210 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~85

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.4k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:49

  ├── .env.local                # FIGMA_PAT, FIGMA_FILE_KEY (git-ignored)

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace at commit 23ea8d4, republished under its MIT licence (© jeremylongshore). 210 words, ~1,418 tokens.

name

figma-local-dev-loop

description

Set up a local development workflow for Figma plugin and REST API projects. Use when building Figma plugins, creating design-to-code pipelines, or developing against the Figma API with hot reload. Trigger with phrases like "figma dev setup", "figma plugin development", "figma local development", "develop figma plugin".

allowed-tools

Read, Write, Edit, Bash(npm:*), Bash(npx:*), Bash(pnpm:*), Grep

compatibility

Designed for Claude Code

version

1.6.0

license

MIT

author

Jeremy Longshore <jeremy@intentsolutions.io>

tags

saas, figma

figma-integration/
├── src/
│   ├── figma-client.ts       # Shared fetch wrapper
│   ├── extract-tokens.ts     # Design token extraction
│   └── export-assets.ts      # Asset export pipeline
├── tests/
│   ├── figma-client.test.ts
│   └── fixtures/             # Saved API responses for offline testing
│       └── sample-file.json
├── .env.local                # FIGMA_PAT, FIGMA_FILE_KEY (git-ignored)
├── .env.example              # Template for team
├── tsconfig.json
└── package.json

my-figma-plugin/
├── manifest.json             # Plugin manifest (required by Figma)
├── code.ts                   # Plugin backend (runs in sandbox)
├── ui.html                   # Plugin UI (runs in iframe)
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

{
  "name": "My Plugin",
  "id": "1234567890",
  "api": "1.0.0",
  "main": "dist/code.js",
  "ui": "dist/ui.html",
  "editorType": ["figma"],
  "permissions": ["currentuser"]
}

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "esbuild code.ts --bundle --outfile=dist/code.js --target=es2020",
    "watch": "esbuild code.ts --bundle --outfile=dist/code.js --target=es2020 --watch",
    "dev": "concurrently \"npm run watch\" \"npm run watch:ui\"",
    "watch:ui": "esbuild ui.tsx --bundle --outfile=dist/ui.html --loader:.html=copy --watch"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@figma/plugin-typings": "^1.0.0",
    "esbuild": "^0.20.0",
    "typescript": "^5.0.0"
  }
}

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "tsx watch src/extract-tokens.ts",
    "test": "vitest",
    "test:watch": "vitest --watch"
  }
}

// tests/figma-client.test.ts
import { describe, it, expect, vi, beforeEach } from 'vitest';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

// Load a saved API response for offline testing
const sampleFile = JSON.parse(
  readFileSync('tests/fixtures/sample-file.json', 'utf-8')
);

describe('Figma token extraction', () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    // Mock fetch to return saved fixture
    vi.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockResolvedValue(
      new Response(JSON.stringify(sampleFile), { status: 200 })
    );
  });

  it('should extract color styles from file', async () => {
    const res = await fetch('https://api.figma.com/v1/files/test-key');
    const file = await res.json();
    const styles = Object.values(file.styles);
    expect(styles.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
  });
});

# Snapshot a Figma file for offline testing
curl -s -H "X-Figma-Token: ${FIGMA_PAT}" \
  "https://api.figma.com/v1/files/${FIGMA_FILE_KEY}" \
  > tests/fixtures/sample-file.json

# Snapshot specific nodes
curl -s -H "X-Figma-Token: ${FIGMA_PAT}" \
  "https://api.figma.com/v1/files/${FIGMA_FILE_KEY}/nodes?ids=0:1,0:2" \
  > tests/fixtures/sample-nodes.json

// code.ts -- minimal Figma plugin
figma.showUI(__html__, { width: 300, height: 200 });

figma.ui.onmessage = (msg: { type: string; count: number }) => {
  if (msg.type === 'create-rectangles') {
    for (let i = 0; i < msg.count; i++) {
      const rect = figma.createRectangle();
      rect.x = i * 150;
      rect.fills = [{ type: 'SOLID', color: { r: 1, g: 0.5, b: 0 } }];
      figma.currentPage.appendChild(rect);
    }
    figma.closePlugin();
  }
};

© jeremylongshore, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 7 other files (references) in skills/.curated/figma-local-dev-loop of jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace.

• SKILL.md
• references/errors.md
• references/examples.md
• references/figma-plugin-project-structure.md
• references/plugin-development-with-watch-mode.md
• references/rest-api-dev-loop-with-testing.md
• references/rest-api-project-structure.md
• references/save-api-fixtures-for-offline-dev.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 23ea8d4