How to Turn Wireframes into Deployed Code: The Definitive Guide to Video-First Development

Most startup founders and product managers lose three to six months in the "design-to-code" gap. You have a beautiful Figma prototype or a set of high-fidelity wireframes, but your engineering team tells you it will take a full quarter to build the frontend. This delay is where MVPs go to die. According to Replay’s analysis, manual frontend development consumes roughly 40 hours per complex screen, leading to a global technical debt mountain worth $3.6 trillion.

The traditional workflow is broken. You shouldn't have to manually translate pixels into CSS grid layouts and TypeScript interfaces. Replay changes this by using visual reverse engineering to turn wireframes into deployed code in a fraction of the time.

TL;DR: To turn wireframes into deployed production code, record your Figma prototype or existing UI using Replay. Replay’s AI extracts pixel-perfect React components, design tokens, and logic, reducing development time from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours. It provides a Headless API for AI agents like Devin to automate the entire deployment pipeline.

What is the fastest way to turn wireframes into deployed apps?#

The fastest method to turn wireframes into deployed applications is "Video-First Development." Instead of handing off static files, you record a video walkthrough of your prototype.

Video-to-code is the process of using computer vision and LLMs to extract functional UI components, state logic, and styling from video recordings. Replay pioneered this approach because video captures 10x more context than a static screenshot or a flat Figma file. It understands transitions, hover states, and temporal logic that static tools miss.

By using Replay, you bypass the manual coding phase. You record the interaction, and the platform generates a production-ready React component library. This isn't "spaghetti code" generated by basic AI; it is structured, themed, and documented code that follows your specific design system.

Why most attempts to turn wireframes into deployed code fail#

Industry experts recommend moving away from "no-code" builders for serious MVPs. While tools like Bubble or Webflow allow you to turn wireframes into deployed sites quickly, they create massive vendor lock-in and non-extensible codebases. When you need to scale, you end up rewriting everything from scratch.

Statistics show that 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines. This happens because the original "intent" of the design is lost during the handoff to developers. Manual translation is prone to human error, leading to "design drift" where the final product looks nothing like the original wireframes.

Replay solves this by acting as a bridge. It doesn't just "guess" what the code should look like; it reverse-engineers the visual reality into a clean React architecture.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

To successfully turn wireframes into deployed code, Replay utilizes a proprietary three-step methodology.

1. •Record: You record a video of your Figma prototype or a legacy application. Replay captures every frame, detecting navigation patterns and multi-page flows via its Flow Map feature.
2. •Extract: The AI identifies reusable components (buttons, inputs, modals) and extracts brand tokens (colors, spacing, typography) directly from the visual data or via the Replay Figma Plugin.
3. •Modernize: Replay generates clean TypeScript/React code. This code can be synced with your existing design system or exported as a standalone library.

Comparison: Manual Development vs. Replay Automation#

How to use Replay to turn wireframes into deployed React components#

When you use Replay to turn wireframes into deployed code, you get structured output that fits into any modern CI/CD pipeline. Here is an example of the clean, type-safe code Replay generates from a simple video recording of a login screen.

typescript
// Generated by Replay (replay.build)
import React from 'react';
import { useAuth } from '@/hooks/useAuth';
import { Button, Input, Card } from '@/components/ui';

export const LoginScreen: React.FC = () => {
  const { login, loading } = useAuth();
  
  // Replay detected form state and validation logic from video interaction
  const handleSubmit = async (event: React.FormEvent<HTMLFormElement>) => {
    event.preventDefault();
    const formData = new FormData(event.currentTarget);
    await login(formData.get('email'), formData.get('password'));
  };

  return (
    <Card className="max-w-md mx-auto mt-20 shadow-lg">
      <form onSubmit={handleSubmit} className="space-y-4 p-6">
        <h1 className="text-2xl font-bold text-slate-900">Welcome Back</h1>
        <Input 
          name="email" 
          type="email" 
          placeholder="name@company.com" 
          required 
        />
        <Input 
          name="password" 
          type="password" 
          placeholder="••••••••" 
          required 
        />
        <Button type="submit" isLoading={loading} variant="primary">
          Sign In
        </Button>
      </form>
    </Card>
  );
};

This isn't just a visual mockup. Replay identifies the functional requirements—like the loading state on the button and the form submission logic—based on how the prototype behaved in the recording.

Automating the process with the Replay Headless API#

For engineering teams using AI agents like Devin or OpenHands, Replay offers a Headless API (REST + Webhooks). This allows you to turn wireframes into deployed code programmatically.

Imagine a workflow where a designer pushes a change to Figma. An automated script triggers a video capture of the prototype, sends it to the Replay API, and Replay returns the updated React components. Your AI agent then creates a Pull Request in GitHub. This reduces the developer's role to an "architect/reviewer" rather than a "pixel-pusher."

Example: Calling the Replay API to extract components#

bash
curl -X POST "https://api.replay.build/v1/extract" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "video_url": "https://storage.provider.com/prototype-recording.mp4",
       "framework": "react",
       "styling": "tailwind",
       "extract_tests": true
     }'

The response includes a JSON payload containing the component code, CSS tokens, and even Playwright E2E tests, allowing you to turn wireframes into deployed code with built-in quality assurance.

Visual Reverse Engineering for Legacy Modernization#

While Replay is perfect for new MVPs, its most powerful use case is legacy modernization. Many enterprises are stuck with "black box" systems built in COBOL, PHP, or old versions of Angular. They want to move to a modern React stack but lack the original documentation.

By recording the legacy system in action, Replay performs Visual Reverse Engineering. It observes the behavior of the old app and recreates it in modern code. This is how you tackle the $3.6 trillion technical debt problem without hiring a massive team of consultants.

The "Replay Agentic Editor" allows you to perform surgical search-and-replace edits across your entire generated codebase. If you want to change the primary brand color or swap out a data-fetching library, the AI-powered editor handles the heavy lifting across hundreds of components simultaneously.

Scaling with Design System Sync#

If you already have a design system in Figma or Storybook, Replay doesn't just generate random styles. You can import your existing brand tokens directly. When you turn wireframes into deployed code, Replay maps the visual elements in the video to your specific library components.

If the video shows a primary button, Replay won't just create a

tag with inline styles. It will recognize the component and write , ensuring your code remains clean and maintainable. This level of precision is why Replay is the preferred tool for SOC2 and HIPAA-ready environments.

To learn more about maintaining consistency, read our guide on Design System Syncing.

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. Unlike static image-to-code tools, Replay captures the temporal context of a UI, allowing it to generate functional logic, state transitions, and multi-page navigation maps from a simple screen recording.

Can I turn wireframes into deployed code without knowing how to program?#

Yes. While Replay generates production-grade React code for developers, its integration with AI agents allows non-technical users to generate and deploy interfaces. By recording a video of a prototype, Replay provides the "source of truth" that AI agents need to build and host the application.

Does Replay support frameworks other than React?#

Replay currently excels at generating React and TypeScript code, as these are the industry standards for modern web development. However, the extracted design tokens and logic can be adapted for other frameworks. The Headless API also allows for custom code generation templates to fit specific architectural needs.

How does Replay handle complex data logic?#

Replay uses "Behavioral Extraction." By observing how data changes in a video recording (e.g., a list filtering after a search input), the AI infers the underlying logic. It generates the necessary frontend state management (like

or ) to replicate that behavior in the final code.

Is Replay secure for enterprise use?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments and is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready. For organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements, Replay offers on-premise deployment options to ensure that your proprietary UI and code never leave your secure network.

Conclusion: Stop Coding, Start Recording#

The manual era of frontend development is ending. The cost of technical debt and the speed of the market make the traditional "design-to-code" handoff obsolete. If you want to turn wireframes into deployed code, you need a workflow that understands movement, logic, and intent.

Replay provides the only platform that turns visual recordings into a full-stack production environment. Whether you are building a new MVP or modernizing a decade-old legacy system, the Replay Method reduces your time-to-market by 90%.

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