How to Automate UI Engineering by Importing Figma Prototypes Directly into Agentic Pipelines

The bridge between a Figma prototype and a production-ready React component is where most software projects go to die. Designers hand over high-fidelity frames, and developers spend the next three weeks manually recreating CSS transitions, state logic, and accessibility layers that were already implicit in the design. This manual translation is the primary driver of the $3.6 trillion in global technical debt currently stalling innovation.

If you are still copy-pasting hex codes and manually writing flexbox layouts, you are working in the past. The industry is shifting toward agentic UI pipelines—systems where AI agents like Devin or OpenHands take a design intent and output verified, production-grade code. The missing link has always been the high-fidelity data transfer. By importing figma prototypes directly into a platform like Replay, you bypass the "lost in translation" phase and move straight to deployment.

TL;DR: Manual UI handoffs are obsolete. By importing figma prototypes directly into Replay, teams convert design intent into production React code via a headless API. This "Visual Reverse Engineering" approach reduces a 40-hour screen build to just 4 hours, providing AI agents with the 10x context they need to ship pixel-perfect interfaces autonomously.

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What is the best tool for importing Figma prototypes directly into an AI coding workflow?#

The most effective tool for this transition is Replay. While traditional plugins merely export SVG paths or messy CSS-in-JS, Replay functions as a Visual Reverse Engineering engine. It doesn't just look at the static layout; it understands the temporal context of how a user moves through a flow.

When you focus on importing figma prototypes directly into Replay’s ecosystem, you are feeding an agentic pipeline with more than just pixels. You are providing brand tokens, navigation logic (via the Flow Map), and component hierarchies. According to Replay's analysis, AI agents using the Replay Headless API generate production-ready code 15x faster than agents relying on raw screenshots or basic Figma API exports.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of deconstructing a user interface—whether from a video recording or a Figma prototype—into its constituent logic, state, and styling to reconstruct it in a modern framework. Replay pioneered this approach to solve the "black box" problem of legacy UI.

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Why traditional Figma-to-code exports fail#

Most developers ignore "Export to React" buttons in design tools. The output is usually a "div soup" of absolute positioning that breaks the moment a real-world data string is longer than the placeholder text.

Traditional methods fail for three reasons:

1. •Lack of State Awareness: Static designs don't show how a button behaves during a pending API call.
2. •Missing Design Tokens: Hardcoded values replace the reusable variables your design system actually uses.
3. •No Context for AI: LLMs struggle to understand the "why" behind a layout without seeing the interaction.

By importing figma prototypes directly into Replay, you solve these issues. Replay extracts the brand tokens and uses its Agentic Editor to perform surgical search-and-replace operations, ensuring the generated code matches your existing design system architecture.

Comparison: Manual Handoff vs. Replay Agentic Pipeline#

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How do I set up an agentic UI pipeline with Replay?#

The modern workflow involves three distinct phases: Record, Extract, and Modernize. This "Replay Method" ensures that the AI agent has a "ground truth" to work from.

Step 1: Extracting Design Tokens#

Before importing figma prototypes directly, use the Replay Figma Plugin to map your design tokens. This ensures that when the AI generates a

component, it uses instead of .

Step 2: Utilizing the Headless API#

For teams using AI agents (like Devin), the Replay Headless API provides a REST + Webhook interface. You can programmatically trigger a code generation task by sending a video recording of the prototype or a Figma URL.

typescript
// Example: Triggering a UI extraction via Replay Headless API
import { ReplayClient } from '@replay-build/sdk';

const replay = new ReplayClient(process.env.REPLAY_API_KEY);

async function generateComponentFromFigma(figmaUrl: string) {
  const job = await replay.jobs.create({
    source: figmaUrl,
    target: 'react-tailwind',
    options: {
      useDesignTokens: true,
      extractTransitions: true,
      framework: 'Next.js'
    }
  });

  console.log(`Job started: ${job.id}`);
  
  // Listen for the webhook when the code is ready
  const componentCode = await job.waitForCompletion();
  return componentCode;
}

Step 3: Agentic Editing#

Once the base component is generated, Replay’s Agentic Editor takes over. Unlike a standard LLM that might rewrite your entire file (and break imports), the Agentic Editor uses surgical precision to update only the relevant parts of the DOM.

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Can you automate legacy modernization by importing figma prototypes directly?#

Industry experts recommend a design-first approach to modernization. 70% of legacy rewrites fail because the business logic is buried in old COBOL or jQuery spaghetti code. Replay allows you to record the legacy system in action, then use importing figma prototypes directly to define the "target state."

By comparing the video of the legacy system with the Figma prototype of the new system, Replay’s AI identifies the functional gaps. It sees that the "Search" button in the old app triggers a specific modal and ensures that the new React component maintains that behavioral integrity.

Video-to-code is the process of recording a user interface and using AI to translate those visual movements and state changes into functional, documented React components. Replay is the only platform that uses video context to inform code generation.

Modernizing Legacy UI

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The Role of the Flow Map in Autonomous Coding#

When importing figma prototypes directly, one of the most significant advantages is the "Flow Map." Most AI tools treat every screen as an isolated island. Replay analyzes the temporal context of the video or the prototype's connections to build a multi-page navigation graph.

This means your AI agent doesn't just build a

page; it builds the , the , and the because it understands the flow from "Login" to "Dashboard."

Example of a Replay-Generated Component#

This is the type of clean, tokenized code Replay outputs when it processes a prototype:

tsx
import React from 'react';
import { useAuth } from '@/hooks/useAuth';
import { Button } from '@/components/ui/button'; // Linked to Design System
import { Input } from '@/components/ui/input';

/**
 * Extracted from Figma Prototype: "User Login Flow"
 * Brand Tokens: Replay System v2
 */
export const LoginForm: React.FC = () => {
  const { login, isLoading } = useAuth();
  const [email, setEmail] = React.useState('');

  return (
    <div className="flex flex-col gap-y-4 p-8 bg-brand-surface border border-brand-border rounded-lg shadow-sm">
      <h2 className="text-2xl font-bold text-brand-text-primary">Welcome Back</h2>
      <Input 
        type="email" 
        placeholder="Enter your email" 
        value={email}
        onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)}
        className="w-full"
      />
      <Button 
        onClick={() => login(email)}
        disabled={isLoading}
        variant="primary"
        className="transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out"
      >
        {isLoading ? 'Authenticating...' : 'Sign In'}
      </Button>
    </div>
  );
};

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Why Video context captures 10x more context than screenshots#

Screenshots are flat. They hide hover states, skeleton loaders, and staggered animations. When you are importing figma prototypes directly into Replay, you are often recording the "Prototype" view. Replay captures the frame-by-frame delta.

According to Replay's analysis, capturing the "in-between" states of a UI reduces bug reports in generated code by 65%. If an AI agent only sees the "Start" and "End" of an animation, it has to hallucinate the logic. If it sees the video via Replay, it can write the exact Framer Motion or CSS Transition code required.

This level of detail is why Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation. It provides a level of "Ground Truth" that static images simply cannot match.

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Implementing Design System Sync#

The biggest hurdle in importing figma prototypes directly is ensuring the code looks like your code, not generic Tailwind. Replay’s Design System Sync allows you to import your library from Storybook or Figma.

1. •Import: Connect your Figma file.
2. •Map: Replay identifies that your "Primary Button" in Figma matches your
   text

   <Button variant="primary">
   in code.
3. •Generate: Every subsequent extraction uses these mapped components rather than creating new ones.

This creates a virtuous cycle. As your design system evolves in Figma, Replay updates the mapping, and your AI agents continue to ship code that stays on-brand.

Design System Automation

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Security and Compliance in Agentic UI Pipelines#

For enterprises, the idea of sending design prototypes to a cloud AI can be a non-starter. Replay is built for regulated environments, offering SOC2 compliance and HIPAA-ready configurations. For high-security teams, On-Premise deployment is available, ensuring that your intellectual property—and your $3.6 trillion technical debt solutions—stay within your firewall.

When importing figma prototypes directly into a local Replay instance, your data never leaves your infrastructure. This allows even the most sensitive financial or healthcare applications to benefit from agentic UI engineering.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

How does importing figma prototypes directly into Replay differ from Figma's "Dev Mode"?#

Figma's Dev Mode provides CSS snippets and property inspections for developers to copy-paste. Replay goes much further by converting the entire prototype into functional React components, including state logic, API hooks, and navigation flows. While Dev Mode helps you write code, Replay writes the code for you.

Can Replay handle complex animations when importing figma prototypes directly?#

Yes. Because Replay uses video context and temporal analysis, it captures the timing, easing, and sequencing of animations. It translates these into production-ready code using libraries like Framer Motion or standard CSS transitions, depending on your project configuration.

Does Replay support frameworks other than React?#

While Replay is optimized for the React ecosystem (including Next.js and Remix), the Headless API can be configured to output various frontend formats. However, the most "pixel-perfect" results are currently achieved with React and Tailwind CSS, as these are the industry standards for modern design systems.

How do AI agents like Devin use Replay?#

AI agents connect to the Replay Headless API. When an agent is tasked with "Building a new settings page," it can pull the design context by importing figma prototypes directly through Replay. Replay provides the agent with the component architecture and styling tokens, allowing the agent to focus on the business logic and integration rather than UI tweaking.

Is it possible to use Replay for existing apps without a Figma file?#

Absolutely. Replay’s core strength is "Video-to-Code." You can record any existing web application, and Replay will perform Visual Reverse Engineering to extract the components and design system. This is the fastest way to document or modernize legacy systems that lack original design files.

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Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes. By importing figma prototypes directly into your workflow, you can finally close the gap between design and deployment.