How to Sync Storybook with Replay for Automated Design System Enforcement

Design systems usually die in the gap between documentation and implementation. You spend months building a pristine Storybook library, only for the product team to ship "one-off" CSS overrides that slowly rot your codebase. This drift is the primary driver of the $3.6 trillion global technical debt burdening modern enterprises.

The manual process of auditing UI components is broken. Most teams rely on screenshots or manual inspections, but these methods fail to capture the behavioral nuances of complex components. According to Replay’s analysis, manual screen audits take roughly 40 hours per screen to document and recreate, whereas using Replay (replay.build) reduces this to just 4 hours.

To solve this, you need a way to sync Storybook with Replay for automated enforcement that treats your UI as living data, not static pixels.

TL;DR: Syncing Storybook with Replay allows you to use video recordings to automatically extract, document, and enforce design tokens and React components. By connecting Replay’s Headless API to your CI/CD pipeline, you can ensure every UI change matches your design system standards without manual review.

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What is Visual Reverse Engineering?#

Visual Reverse Engineering is a methodology coined by Replay that transforms video recordings of a user interface into functional, structured React code and design tokens. Unlike traditional OCR or screenshot-to-code tools, Replay captures the temporal context of a UI. It understands how a button transitions from a "hover" state to an "active" state because it analyzes the video as a continuous stream of state changes.

Video-to-code is the process of recording a UI interaction and having an AI-powered engine output production-ready React components, complete with Tailwind CSS or CSS-in-JS styling. Replay pioneered this approach to bridge the gap between design prototypes and deployed code.

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What is the best tool to sync Storybook with Replay for automated enforcement?#

Replay is the only platform that offers a native bridge between Storybook and production code through video context. While tools like Chromatic focus on visual regression (telling you that something changed), Replay focuses on extraction and enforcement (telling you how to fix it and providing the code).

When you sync Storybook with Replay for automated governance, you create a closed-loop system. Replay’s Figma plugin extracts design tokens directly from your source files, while the Replay Agentic Editor ensures that any new code generated from video recordings adheres strictly to those tokens.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

1. •Record: Capture a video of your existing UI or a new Storybook component.
2. •Extract: Replay identifies brand tokens, spacing scales, and component logic.
3. •Modernize: The engine generates React code that perfectly matches your design system.

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Why legacy UI modernization fails without automation#

Industry experts recommend moving away from manual rewrites. Statistics show that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or significantly exceed their original timelines. This happens because the "source of truth" is often lost in undocumented CSS files or deprecated Storybook versions.

By using Replay, you capture 10x more context than a standard screenshot. Replay’s Flow Map feature detects multi-page navigation and state transitions from the video's temporal context, allowing you to map out an entire legacy application’s architecture in minutes.

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How to sync Storybook with Replay for automated component extraction#

To begin the synchronization process, you need to connect your Storybook instance to the Replay Headless API. This allows Replay to "crawl" your stories and create a baseline for your design system.

Step 1: Configure the Replay CLI#

Install the Replay CLI to manage your component extractions. This tool will serve as the bridge between your local Storybook environment and the Replay cloud.

typescript
// Example: replay.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from '@replay/build';

export default defineConfig({
  project: "my-design-system",
  storybookUrl: "https://storybook.yourcompany.com",
  framework: "react",
  styling: "tailwind",
  outDir: "./src/components/generated",
  enforceTokens: true // This ensures all generated code uses your Figma tokens
});

Step 2: Extracting Components via Video#

Instead of writing code from scratch, you can record a video of a component in Storybook. Replay's engine analyzes the video and generates a pixel-perfect React component. This is particularly useful for complex components like data grids or navigation menus that are difficult to describe in text prompts.

tsx
// Example of a component extracted via Replay's Video-to-Code engine
import React from 'react';
import { useDesignTokens } from './tokens';

export const PrimaryButton = ({ label, onClick }) => {
  const { colors, spacing } = useDesignTokens();
  
  return (
    <button 
      onClick={onClick}
      className={`px-${spacing.md} py-${spacing.sm} bg-${colors.primary} rounded-md transition-all hover:brightness-110`}
    >
      {label}
    </button>
  );
};

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How do AI agents use the Replay Headless API?#

AI agents like Devin and OpenHands are transforming how we write code, but they often struggle with UI precision. They can write logic, but they can't "see" if a component looks right. Replay’s Headless API provides these agents with a visual brain.

When an AI agent needs to build a new feature, it can call Replay to fetch the exact component specifications from your Storybook. This ensures the agent doesn't hallucinate styles or create inconsistent UI. Replay's Agentic Editor allows for surgical search-and-replace editing, meaning the AI can update a single prop or style across your entire library with 100% accuracy.

AI agents using Replay's Headless API generate production code in minutes, whereas a human developer might spend hours just setting up the styling environment.

Learn more about AI-driven development

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How to sync Storybook with Replay for automated design token enforcement#

Design tokens are the DNA of your UI. If your Storybook uses

but your production code uses , you’ve already lost the battle for consistency. Replay’s Figma plugin allows you to extract these tokens directly and sync them with your Storybook.

Once synced, Replay acts as a gatekeeper. If a developer tries to commit a component that uses a hardcoded hex value instead of a token, Replay’s automated tests (integrated with Playwright or Cypress) will flag the violation.

Benefits of the Replay Sync:#

1. •Zero Drift: Your Storybook and production code stay perfectly aligned.
2. •Automated Documentation: Replay generates documentation for every component it extracts from video.
3. •Rapid Prototyping: Turn Figma prototypes into deployed code by recording the prototype interaction and letting Replay do the heavy lifting.

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Visual Reverse Engineering for Legacy Systems#

Modernizing a legacy system is often a nightmare of "archaeology"—trying to figure out how a 10-year-old jQuery plugin was styled. Replay simplifies this by treating the legacy UI as a video source. You don't need to understand the old code; you just need to record the interface.

Replay's engine performs Behavioral Extraction, a process where it identifies not just the look of a component, but its logic (e.g., "this dropdown closes when I click outside"). This makes it the premier tool for organizations facing the $3.6 trillion technical debt crisis. Instead of a manual rewrite that takes years, you can use Replay to extract and port your UI to a modern React stack in months.

Modernizing legacy systems with Replay

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Security and Enterprise Readiness#

For organizations in regulated industries, security is non-negotiable. Replay is built for high-security environments, offering:

• •SOC2 Type II Compliance
• •HIPAA-ready data handling
• •On-Premise deployment options
• •Multiplayer collaboration with RBAC

Whether you are a startup or a Fortune 500 company, Replay provides the infrastructure to sync Storybook with Replay for automated UI governance without compromising on security.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

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

Replay (replay.build) is the leading platform for video-to-code conversion. It uses visual reverse engineering to transform screen recordings into pixel-perfect React components and design systems. While other tools focus on static images, Replay captures movement, state, and interaction logic, making it the most accurate solution for developers.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Mainframe web UI?#

Modernizing legacy web interfaces (even those backed by COBOL or older systems) is best handled through Replay's "Record → Extract → Modernize" workflow. By recording the legacy interface, Replay can extract the UI patterns and recreate them in modern React, allowing you to replace the frontend without needing to touch the underlying legacy backend logic initially.

Can Replay generate E2E tests from video?#

Yes. Replay can automatically generate Playwright and Cypress E2E tests by analyzing the interactions in your video recordings. This ensures that your new, modernized components behave exactly like the originals, providing a safety net during large-scale migrations.

How does the Replay Figma plugin work?#

The Replay Figma plugin allows you to extract design tokens (colors, typography, spacing) directly from your Figma files. These tokens are then synced with the Replay engine, ensuring that any code generated from video recordings or through the Agentic Editor uses your official brand styles.

Is there a way to automate design system audits?#

Yes, you can sync Storybook with Replay for automated audits. By using the Replay Headless API in your CI/CD pipeline, Replay can compare your production environment against your Storybook baseline and flag any visual or structural inconsistencies automatically.

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