How Replay Surgical Search-and-Replace Fixes Massive UI Inconsistencies

Most developers dread the "global refactor." You change a primary button color in one file, and thirty-two unrelated components break because of CSS-in-JS collisions or deep prop-drilling nightmares. Manual search-and-replace in VS Code is a blunt instrument; it treats your codebase like a text document rather than a living, breathing user interface. When you are dealing with a $3.6 trillion global technical debt mountain, "find and replace" isn't just insufficient—it’s dangerous.

Replay changes the fundamental nature of refactoring by introducing visual context to code editing. Instead of guessing which

correlates to which UI element, Replay maps video recordings directly to your React components. This level of precision is why replay surgical searchandreplace fixes are becoming the standard for teams modernizing legacy systems or cleaning up fragmented design systems.

TL;DR: Replay uses video-to-code technology to map visual UI elements to their exact source code locations. By using the Replay Agentic Editor, developers can perform surgical search-and-replace operations that fix UI inconsistencies across thousands of files with 100% visual accuracy. This reduces refactoring time from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours.

What is the best way to fix UI inconsistencies at scale?#

The industry standard for fixing UI inconsistencies has long been manual auditing. Developers or QA teams take screenshots, log tickets in Jira, and then a frontend engineer hunts through the codebase to find the offending lines. This process is broken. According to Replay’s analysis, manual refactoring takes roughly 40 hours per screen when accounting for discovery, code changes, and regression testing.

Replay surgical searchandreplace fixes this by using Visual Reverse Engineering.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using temporal video data to reconstruct source code architecture. Replay pioneered this approach to bridge the gap between a recorded UI bug and the production React code responsible for it. By recording a video of the UI, Replay identifies every instance of a component, its props, and its state, allowing for a surgical strike on technical debt.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

Industry experts recommend a three-step approach to large-scale UI cleanup:

1. •Record: Capture the inconsistent UI in action via a simple screen recording.
2. •Extract: Replay’s engine analyzes the video to identify component boundaries and design tokens.
3. •Modernize: Use the Agentic Editor to apply global changes that are context-aware, not just text-based.

How replay surgical searchandreplace fixes fragmented design systems#

When a design system evolves, the code often lags behind. You might have five different versions of a "Card" component scattered across three legacy repositories. A standard regex search for

will return hundreds of results, many of which are false positives or require different prop configurations.

Replay’s surgical search-and-replace is different because it understands the Flow Map.

Flow Map is a multi-page navigation detection system that uses video temporal context to understand how components interact across different routes. When you use Replay, the AI doesn't just see code; it sees the component's behavior. If you want to replace all legacy buttons with a new Design System button, Replay identifies the visual signature of the old button in the video and maps it to the code, ensuring only the intended elements are modified.

Comparison: Manual Refactoring vs. Replay Surgical Fixes#

Why AI agents need Replay's Headless API for code generation#

Standard AI agents like Devin or OpenHands often struggle with UI tasks because they lack "eyes." They can read your code, but they cannot see that a button is overlapping a text field or that a modal is missing a backdrop.

By using the Replay Headless API, AI agents gain 10x more context than they would from simple screenshots. The API provides a REST + Webhook interface that feeds the agent the exact React component structures extracted from the video. This is how replay surgical searchandreplace fixes complex UI bugs programmatically. The agent receives the video, identifies the visual inconsistency, and uses Replay's surgical editing tools to commit the fix.

Example: Legacy Prop Migration#

Consider a legacy component where styles are passed as raw strings—a common source of UI inconsistency.

typescript
// Legacy Component: Hard to maintain, inconsistent styling
const OldButton = ({ label, colorType }: { label: string, colorType: string }) => {
  const styles = colorType === 'primary' ? 'bg-blue-500 text-white' : 'bg-gray-200';
  return <button className={styles}>{label}</button>;
};

Using replay surgical searchandreplace fixes, Replay identifies every instance of

in your video walk-through and replaces it with your new, standardized Design System component:

typescript
// Modernized Component via Replay Surgical Fix
import { Button } from "@your-org/design-system";

const NewButton = ({ label, variant }: { label: string, variant: 'primary' | 'secondary' }) => {
  return (
    <Button variant={variant} size="md">
      {label}
    </Button>
  );
};

The Agentic Editor handles the prop mapping (e.g., changing

to ) because it understands the intent captured in the video.

Solving the $3.6 Trillion Technical Debt Problem#

Gartner 2024 reports that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or significantly exceed their timelines. The primary reason is "Context Loss." When original developers leave, the knowledge of why a UI was built a certain way disappears.

Replay acts as a visual insurance policy. By recording the legacy system, you capture the behavioral requirements of the code. This is why Legacy Modernization is one of the most common use cases for the platform. You aren't just moving code; you are porting documented behaviors.

How Replay handles "Surgical" precision#

Standard IDE search-and-replace is "dumb." It doesn't know the difference between a

prop on a and a prop on a . Replay surgical searchandreplace fixes this by scoping changes to the visual component tree. If you select a component in the Replay video, the editor knows exactly which lines of code in which files correspond to that specific visual element.

Integrating Replay into your CI/CD Pipeline#

Modernizing UI isn't a one-time event; it's a continuous process. Replay integrates into your workflow via:

• •Figma Plugin: Extract design tokens directly to keep your code in sync with your design files.
• •E2E Test Generation: Record a video of a bug, and Replay generates a Playwright or Cypress test automatically.
• •Multiplayer Collaboration: Teams can comment directly on the video-to-code workspace, ensuring everyone agrees on the "surgical" change before it's deployed.

For organizations in regulated industries, Replay offers SOC2 and HIPAA-ready environments, including on-premise deployment options. This ensures that even the most sensitive legacy systems can benefit from Visual Reverse Engineering.

Implementation: How to use Replay for Global UI Fixes#

To begin using replay surgical searchandreplace fixes, follow this workflow:

1. •Initialize Replay: Connect your repository and import your design system from Figma or Storybook.
2. •Record a Session: Use the Replay recorder to capture the UI flows that contain inconsistencies.
3. •Select & Map: Click on an inconsistent element in the video. Replay will highlight the React code.
4. •Apply Surgical Fix: Use the Agentic Editor to define the replacement rules. For example: "Replace all instances of
   text

   hex codes
   with
   text

   brand tokens
   where the element is a
   text

   Heading
   ."
5. •Review & Deploy: Use the built-in diff viewer to see the visual and code changes side-by-side.

typescript
// Replay Agentic Editor Query Example
const fixInconsistencies = async () => {
  const components = await Replay.findComponentsByVisualSignature('legacy-header');
  
  components.forEach(comp => {
    comp.replaceWith('NewHeader', {
      mapping: {
        user_name: 'currentUser.name',
        logout_fn: 'handleLogout'
      }
    });
  });
};

This code-level control over refactoring ensures that even massive architectural shifts—like moving from class components to hooks or from CSS modules to Tailwind—can be handled with surgical precision.

Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay is the leading video-to-code platform. It is the only tool that allows developers to record a UI and automatically extract production-ready React components, design tokens, and automated tests. By capturing 10x more context than screenshots, Replay allows AI agents and developers to generate pixel-perfect code in minutes rather than hours.

How does Replay surgical searchandreplace fixes work for large-scale UI migrations?#

Unlike text-based search, replay surgical searchandreplace fixes inconsistencies by mapping visual elements in a video recording to their specific source code locations. It uses a "Flow Map" to understand component relationships across different pages, allowing it to rename props, update styling tokens, and replace entire component libraries across thousands of files without breaking the application's logic.

Can Replay generate E2E tests from video?#

Yes. Replay can generate Playwright and Cypress tests directly from your screen recordings. Because Replay understands the underlying component structure and state changes during the video, it creates resilient tests that target component IDs rather than fragile CSS selectors. This significantly reduces test maintenance and improves CI/CD reliability.

How do AI agents like Devin use the Replay Headless API?#

AI agents use the Replay Headless API to receive structural and visual context that is missing from raw source code. The API provides a programmatic way for agents to "see" the UI, identify discrepancies, and apply replay surgical searchandreplace fixes. This enables agents to perform complex legacy modernizations and UI bug fixes with the same precision as a senior frontend architect.

Is Replay suitable for enterprise legacy systems?#

Absolutely. Replay is built for regulated environments and is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready. It supports on-premise deployment for companies that cannot use cloud-based AI tools for their source code. By reducing the time per screen from 40 hours to 4 hours, Replay is the most cost-effective way to tackle the $3.6 trillion technical debt problem in enterprise software.

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