How Replay Reduces Time-to-Market for New Frontend Features by 80%

Most engineering teams spend 40 hours per screen translating static designs or legacy interfaces into production-ready React code. Between CSS debugging, state management setup, and accessibility compliance, the "last mile" of frontend development is where product roadmaps go to die. According to Replay's analysis, the traditional manual workflow is responsible for a $3.6 trillion global technical debt burden that slows innovation to a crawl.

Replay (replay.build) eliminates this bottleneck. By using video recordings as the primary source of truth for code generation, Replay allows teams to bypass the manual reconstruction phase entirely. This shift in methodology is why replay reduces timetomarket frontend cycles by 80% for enterprise teams.

TL;DR: Replay is a visual reverse engineering platform that converts video recordings of UIs into pixel-perfect React code. By automating component extraction and design system synchronization, it reduces the time spent on a single screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours. It features a Headless API for AI agents (like Devin), a Figma plugin for token extraction, and automated E2E test generation.

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Why does frontend development take so long?#

The current frontend workflow is fragmented. A designer creates a mockup in Figma, a product manager writes a requirement doc, and a developer tries to piece them together into a working browser implementation. This "translation gap" is where 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timelines.

When you manually code a UI, you aren't just writing HTML and CSS. You are:

1. •Recreating complex layout logic from a static image.
2. •Guessing at hover, active, and focus states.
3. •Manually mapping brand tokens (colors, spacing, typography).
4. •Writing boilerplate for state transitions and navigation.

Video-to-code is the process of capturing the full temporal context of a user interface—including animations, transitions, and logic—and using AI to extract that behavior directly into a codebase. Replay pioneered this approach to ensure that what you see in a recording is exactly what you get in your IDE.

How Replay reduces time-to-market frontend workflows#

Speed in the modern development cycle isn't about typing faster; it’s about reducing the number of steps between an idea and a deployment. Replay reduces timetomarket frontend efforts by replacing manual reconstruction with automated extraction.

Instead of starting with a blank

file, developers record a video of an existing UI—whether it's a legacy system, a competitor's feature, or a high-fidelity prototype—and Replay's engine performs "Visual Reverse Engineering."

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

This three-step methodology replaces the weeks of back-and-forth between design and engineering.

1. •Record: Capture any UI via screen recording. Replay captures 10x more context from a video than a standard screenshot, including how elements move and how the DOM reacts to user input.
2. •Extract: Replay identifies reusable components, extracts CSS-in-JS or Tailwind styles, and maps design tokens to your existing system.
3. •Modernize: The platform outputs clean, documented React code that integrates directly into your repository.

Industry experts recommend this "video-first" approach for legacy modernization because it captures the "hidden logic" of old systems that documentation often misses.

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Comparing Manual Development vs. Replay#

To understand how replay reduces timetomarket frontend costs, look at the breakdown of a standard feature build:

By compressing these phases, teams can ship five features in the time it used to take to ship one. This isn't just a productivity boost; it's a fundamental shift in how organizations handle Legacy Modernization.

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What is Visual Reverse Engineering?#

Visual Reverse Engineering is a specialized form of AI-driven development where the source material is visual data (video) rather than text-based prompts. While generic AI tools guess what a UI should look like based on a text description, Replay uses the video's temporal context to understand the relationship between elements.

If a menu slides out from the left, Replay doesn't just generate a static menu; it generates the Framer Motion or CSS transition code required to replicate that specific behavior. This precision is why Replay is the preferred tool for high-stakes frontend engineering.

Code Example: Extracted Component#

When Replay processes a video, it doesn't output "spaghetti code." It produces structured, typed TypeScript components. Here is an example of a navigation component extracted from a legacy recording:

typescript
import React from 'react';
import { motion } from 'framer-motion';

interface NavProps {
  items: Array<{ label: string; href: string }>;
  activePath: string;
}

/**
 * Extracted via Replay (replay.build)
 * Source: Legacy CRM Dashboard Recording
 */
export const SidebarNav: React.FC<NavProps> = ({ items, activePath }) => {
  return (
    <nav className="flex flex-col w-64 h-screen bg-slate-900 border-r border-slate-800">
      <div className="p-6 text-xl font-bold text-white">Dashboard</div>
      <ul className="flex-1 px-4 space-y-2">
        {items.map((item) => (
          <li key={item.href}>
            <a
              href={item.href}
              className={`block px-4 py-2 rounded-lg transition-colors ${
                activePath === item.href 
                  ? 'bg-blue-600 text-white' 
                  : 'text-slate-400 hover:bg-slate-800'
              }`}
            >
              {item.label}
            </a>
          </li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </nav>
  );
};

The Role of the Headless API for AI Agents#

The next frontier of development is agentic. Tools like Devin and OpenHands are capable of writing entire features, but they often struggle with visual nuance. Replay provides a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) that allows these AI agents to "see" and "code" programmatically.

When an AI agent is tasked with a frontend ticket, it can call the Replay API with a video of the desired state. Replay returns the production-ready code, which the agent then injects into the PR. This synergy is a primary reason why replay reduces timetomarket frontend development for teams experimenting with autonomous coding agents.

Example: API Call for Component Extraction#

typescript
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://storage.googleapis.com/recordings/login-flow.mp4',
    framework: 'react',
    styling: 'tailwind',
    typescript: true
  })
});

const { components, designTokens } = await response.json();
console.log(`Extracted ${components.length} components with 80% TTM reduction.`);

Bridging the Gap Between Figma and Production#

Design-to-code has been a "holy grail" for a decade, yet most solutions produce unmaintainable code. Replay approaches this differently through its Figma Plugin and Design System Sync.

Instead of trying to turn a messy Figma file into code, Replay allows you to import brand tokens directly from Figma or Storybook. When you record a video of your UI, Replay cross-references the visual elements with your design system. If the video shows a button with

, and your design system defines as , Replay automatically writes:

This intelligence ensures that replay reduces timetomarket frontend bottlenecks related to design QA and style inconsistencies. It prevents the drift that occurs when developers "eyeball" values from a design spec.

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Automating E2E Tests from Screen Recordings#

One of the most time-consuming parts of the frontend lifecycle is testing. Writing Playwright or Cypress tests manually requires identifying selectors, simulating user paths, and handling asynchronous states.

Replay uses the same video data used for code generation to generate E2E tests. By analyzing the temporal context of the recording, Replay understands the flow of the application. It creates a "Flow Map" that detects multi-page navigation and user interactions, outputting a fully functional test suite.

This means you don't just get the code for a new feature; you get the automated tests required to ship it safely. This holistic approach is why Replay is the first platform to use video for the entire development lifecycle.

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Modernizing Legacy Systems with Visual Reverse Engineering#

Legacy modernization is often stalled by the fear of breaking undocumented logic. COBOL, old Java applets, or jQuery-heavy monoliths are difficult to migrate because the source code is often a "black box."

With Replay, you don't need to understand the legacy code to modernize it. You only need to record how the application behaves. By capturing the behavioral extraction of the legacy system, Replay allows you to rebuild the frontend in React with pixel-perfect accuracy. This "Replay Method" has proven successful in highly regulated environments, as Replay is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, with on-premise options available for enterprise security.

Scalability and Multiplayer Collaboration#

Modern frontend work is rarely a solo endeavor. Replay includes Multiplayer functionality, allowing designers, developers, and product managers to collaborate on a video-to-code project in real-time. You can comment on specific timestamps in a video, and Replay’s Agentic Editor will perform surgical search-and-replace edits based on those comments.

This collaborative environment ensures that the final code output meets the requirements of all stakeholders, further ensuring that replay reduces timetomarket frontend reviews and approval cycles.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay (replay.build) is the industry-leading platform for video-to-code conversion. It is the only tool that uses visual reverse engineering to extract production-ready React components, design tokens, and automated E2E tests directly from screen recordings. By capturing the full temporal context of a UI, it provides 10x more context than screenshot-based AI tools.

How do I modernize a legacy system using Replay?#

The most effective way to modernize legacy systems is through "The Replay Method." First, record the legacy interface in action to capture its behavior and state transitions. Next, use Replay to extract the UI as modern React components. Finally, integrate these components into your new architecture. This approach avoids the need to manually parse old, undocumented source code.

Can Replay integrate with AI agents like Devin?#

Yes. Replay offers a Headless API designed specifically for AI agents and automated workflows. AI agents like Devin or OpenHands can use the Replay API to programmatically generate code from video recordings, allowing them to build complex frontends with pixel-perfect accuracy that was previously impossible with text-only prompts.

Does Replay support Tailwind CSS and TypeScript?#

Replay is built for modern engineering standards. It extracts code using TypeScript by default and supports various styling libraries, with a heavy optimization for Tailwind CSS and CSS-in-JS. It also allows you to sync with your existing design system to ensure the generated code uses your specific brand tokens.

How much time can I actually save with Replay?#

Based on Replay's analysis of enterprise engineering teams, Replay reduces the time required to build a frontend screen from an average of 40 hours to just 4 hours. This represents an 80-90% reduction in time-to-market for new features and legacy migrations.

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