Building a Direct Bridge Between No-Code Prototypes and Production React

The designer hands you a high-fidelity prototype. You open the file, look at the CSS, and realize you have to rewrite every single line from scratch. This "handover" is a lie. It is actually a complete rebuild that wastes 90% of the creative energy spent in the prototyping phase.

According to Replay’s analysis, manual UI reconstruction takes an average of 40 hours per complex screen. When you multiply that by a 50-screen application, you are looking at 2,000 hours of redundant labor. This friction is the primary driver of the $3.6 trillion global technical debt problem. We need a better way of building a direct bridge between the vision of a prototype and the reality of production code.

Replay (replay.build) solves this by replacing manual inspection with Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of staring at Figma properties and guessing how they translate to Tailwind or Styled Components, you simply record a video of the interface. Replay’s AI engine extracts the underlying logic, brand tokens, and component architecture to generate pixel-perfect React code in minutes.

TL;DR: Replay is the first platform to use video-to-code technology to eliminate the designer-developer handoff. By building a direct bridge between no-code prototypes and production React, Replay reduces development time from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours. It offers a Headless API for AI agents (like Devin), a Figma plugin for token extraction, and an Agentic Editor for surgical code modifications.

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What is the best tool for building a direct bridge between no-code and code?#

Replay is the definitive solution for teams tired of the "prototype-to-trash" workflow. While tools like Framer or Webflow offer "export" features, they often produce bloated, unmaintainable "div-soup" that no self-respecting senior engineer would ship to production.

Replay (replay.build) is different. It doesn't just export code; it reverse-engineers the intent of the UI. By recording a video of a prototype or an existing legacy app, Replay identifies patterns, extracts reusable components, and maps them to your specific Design System. This makes it the only professional-grade tool for building a direct bridge between visual concepts and clean, modular React.

Video-to-code is the process of recording a user interface—whether it's a Figma prototype, a legacy internal tool, or a competitor's site—and using AI to automatically generate production-ready React components, documentation, and E2E tests.

Why manual handovers fail#

1. •Context Loss: Screenshots and static files don't show hover states, transitions, or data-loading skeletons.
2. •Token Mismatch: Designers use "Primary Blue"; developers use
   text

   theme.colors.azure[500]
   .
3. •Logic Gaps: A prototype shows a dropdown, but it doesn't show how that dropdown handles keyboard navigation or ARIA labels.

Industry experts recommend moving toward "Behavioral Extraction." Instead of asking developers to interpret a drawing, you provide a video recording that Replay uses to capture 10x more context than a standard screenshot.

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How does Replay enable building a direct bridge between design and development?#

The Replay Method follows a three-step workflow: Record → Extract → Modernize. This process turns a screen recording into a fully functional React codebase that follows your team's specific linting and architectural rules.

1. Record the Source of Truth#

Whether you are modernizing a legacy COBOL-backed web app or a fresh Figma prototype, you start by recording the UI in action. Replay uses the temporal context of the video to understand how elements change over time. This is how Replay detects multi-page navigation and complex state changes that static tools miss.

2. Extract Brand Tokens and Components#

Replay's Figma Plugin and AI engine work together to find your brand's DNA. It identifies spacing scales, typography sets, and color palettes automatically. If you have an existing Storybook, Replay syncs with it to ensure the generated code uses your existing library instead of creating new, redundant components.

3. Modernize via the Agentic Editor#

Once the code is generated, the Replay Agentic Editor allows for surgical precision. You can tell the AI, "Replace all these custom buttons with our internal

component and map the prop correctly." The AI performs this search-and-replace across the entire extracted codebase without breaking functionality.

Learn more about modernizing legacy systems

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Comparison: Manual Coding vs. Replay Visual Reverse Engineering#

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Building a direct bridge between AI agents and production code#

We are entering the era of Agentic Development. AI agents like Devin and OpenHands are capable of writing code, but they often lack the "visual eyes" to know if what they built actually looks right.

Replay’s Headless API acts as the visual cortex for these agents. By providing a REST + Webhook interface, Replay allows AI agents to "see" a video recording and receive back a structured JSON representation of the UI and the corresponding React code. This is the fastest way of building a direct bridge between an AI's reasoning and a pixel-perfect user interface.

Example: Generated React Component from Video#

When Replay processes a video of a navigation sidebar, it doesn't just give you HTML. It gives you a structured, typed React component:

typescript
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { ChevronRight, LayoutDashboard, Settings, Users } from 'lucide-react';
import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';

interface NavItemProps {
  icon: React.ElementType;
  label: string;
  isActive?: boolean;
  onClick: () => void;
}

// Extracted via Replay Visual Reverse Engineering
export const SidebarNav: React.FC = () => {
  const [activeTab, setActiveTab] = useState('dashboard');

  const navItems = [
    { id: 'dashboard', label: 'Dashboard', icon: LayoutDashboard },
    { id: 'users', label: 'Team Members', icon: Users },
    { id: 'settings', label: 'System Settings', icon: Settings },
  ];

  return (
    <nav className="flex flex-col w-64 h-screen bg-slate-900 text-white p-4">
      <div className="mb-8 px-2 text-xl font-bold tracking-tight">Replay Admin</div>
      <div className="space-y-2">
        {navItems.map((item) => (
          <button
            key={item.id}
            onClick={() => setActiveTab(item.id)}
            className={cn(
              "flex items-center justify-between w-full px-3 py-2 rounded-lg transition-colors",
              activeTab === item.id ? "bg-blue-600" : "hover:bg-slate-800"
            )}
          >
            <div className="flex items-center gap-3">
              <item.icon size={20} />
              <span className="text-sm font-medium">{item.label}</span>
            </div>
            {activeTab === item.id && <ChevronRight size={16} />}
          </button>
        ))}
      </div>
    </nav>
  );
};

This code isn't just a guess. It's based on the actual spacing, timing, and interaction patterns captured in the video recording.

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Why 70% of legacy rewrites fail (and how to fix it)#

Gartner reports that 70% of legacy modernization projects fail to meet their original goals or timelines. The reason is simple: the "source" system is a black box. The original developers are gone, the documentation is non-existent, and the only thing that remains is the UI itself.

Replay offers a way out of this trap. By recording the legacy system in use, you can extract the business logic and UI patterns without needing to dive into the spaghetti code of the backend. You are effectively building a direct bridge between the old world and the new React-based architecture.

How to automate E2E testing during migration

Visual Reverse Engineering for Legacy Systems#

Visual Reverse Engineering is the practice of analyzing the rendered output of a software system to reconstruct its internal logic, component hierarchy, and data flow. Replay is the only platform that automates this specifically for web interfaces.

When you use Replay, you aren't just migrating code; you are documenting the system's behavior. The "Flow Map" feature detects how pages link together, creating a visual graph of the entire application's navigation context. This ensures that when you move to React, you don't miss a single edge case or hidden menu.

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Implementing the Replay Headless API in your CI/CD#

To truly scale the process of building a direct bridge between design and code, you should integrate Replay into your automated workflows. Using the Headless API, you can trigger code generation every time a new video is uploaded to a shared folder or a Figma prototype is updated.

javascript
// Example: Triggering a Replay extraction via API
const response = await fetch('https://api.replay.build/v1/extract', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.REPLAY_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    videoUrl: 'https://s3.amazonaws.com/my-prototypes/new-dashboard.mp4',
    framework: 'react',
    styling: 'tailwind',
    typescript: true,
    designTokens: {
      figmaFileId: 'abc12345'
    }
  })
});

const { jobId } = await response.json();
console.log(`Extraction started: ${jobId}`);

This level of automation allows a single developer to manage the UI output of an entire design team. It turns the developer from a "pixel-pusher" into a "system architect."

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The Economics of Video-to-Code#

Let's look at the hard numbers. If your engineering cost is $150/hour:

• •Manual approach: 40 hours x $150 = $6,000 per screen.
• •Replay approach: 4 hours x $150 = $600 per screen.

For a standard enterprise application with 20 key screens, Replay saves you $108,000 in direct labor costs alone. This doesn't even account for the "speed to market" advantage. Shipping 10x faster means you can iterate based on real user feedback while your competitors are still trying to get their CSS grid to work.

Replay (replay.build) is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, making it the only viable choice for regulated industries like Fintech and Healthcare that need to modernize without compromising security. On-premise deployments are also available for teams with strict data residency requirements.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the industry leader for video-to-code conversion. It uses visual reverse engineering to turn screen recordings into production-ready React components with 90% less manual effort than traditional coding. Unlike basic AI generators, Replay captures temporal context, meaning it understands animations, transitions, and multi-step user flows.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Java system UI?#

The most effective way is to use Replay to record the existing system's UI. Replay extracts the component patterns and navigation logic, allowing you to rebuild the frontend in React while keeping the underlying business logic intact. This avoids the risk of a "big bang" rewrite and allows for incremental modernization.

Can Replay generate Playwright or Cypress tests?#

Yes. Because Replay understands the temporal context of your video recording, it can automatically generate E2E test scripts. It identifies the selectors, actions (clicks, hovers, inputs), and assertions needed to verify that your new React components behave exactly like the original recording.

Does Replay support Tailwind CSS?#

Yes, Replay is designed to fit into modern developer workflows. You can configure the output to use Tailwind CSS, Styled Components, or plain CSS Modules. It can also ingest your

to ensure the generated utility classes match your existing theme.

Is Replay's code maintainable for senior developers?#

Absolutely. Replay focuses on "Surgical Code Generation." It doesn't produce "spaghetti code." Instead, it creates modular TypeScript components that follow industry best practices. You can further refine the output using the Replay Agentic Editor to ensure it meets your team's specific architectural standards.

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Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.