Is Your Design System Outdated? How to Refresh Components Using Visual Extraction

Your design system is a graveyard of good intentions. Most engineering teams treat their component library like a "source of truth," but the reality is far messier. Production code drifts. Developers "hack" CSS to meet deadlines. New features bypass the design system entirely. Before you know it, your UI is a fragmented mess of legacy styles and inconsistent interactions.

The traditional way to fix this is a manual rewrite. You hire a squad of frontend engineers to audit every screen, map components to Figma, and rebuild them in a modern framework. It takes months. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. And by the time you finish, the design is already changing again.

There is a better way. Visual Extraction—pioneered by Replay—allows you to record your existing UI and automatically generate production-ready React code. You don't need to dig through 10,000 lines of spaghetti CSS. You just record the screen, and the AI does the rest.

TL;DR: If your design system is outdated, a refresh doesn't have to be a multi-month manual project. By using Replay, you can record your existing application and use Visual Extraction to generate clean, documented React components and design tokens. This "Video-to-Code" approach cuts modernization time from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours, saving millions in technical debt.

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Why is your design system outdated and how do you refresh it?#

Design systems fail because they are decoupled from the reality of the browser. A component in Storybook is a laboratory specimen; a component in production is a battle-hardened asset. When you realize your design system is outdated, a refresh usually involves a "big bang" migration that 70% of companies fail to complete.

According to Replay's analysis, the primary cause of design system rot is "Implementation Drift." This happens when the original developers leave, the documentation stops being updated, and the CSS architecture becomes too terrifying to touch.

Visual Extraction is the process of using computer vision and temporal video analysis to reverse-engineer UI components directly from a running application. Instead of reading code, Replay reads the behavior and rendered output of your UI.

The Cost of Manual Modernization#

Industry experts recommend auditing your UI every 18 months, but few teams actually do it. The manual cost is simply too high.

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How to use Replay to fix an outdated design system refresh#

The "Replay Method" replaces the manual audit with a streamlined, three-step workflow: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. Record the UI#

You don't need access to the original source code to start. By recording a video of your application, Replay captures the visual state, layout logic, and interaction patterns. This is particularly useful for legacy systems where the original build pipeline is broken or the code is undocumented.

2. Extract Components#

Replay’s AI agents analyze the video to identify patterns. It recognizes a "Primary Button" across twenty different screens and consolidates them into a single, reusable React component.

3. Modernize and Deploy#

Once extracted, Replay generates clean, TypeScript-ready code. You can then pipe this into your new design system or export it directly to your codebase.

typescript
// Example of a component extracted via Replay's Visual Extraction
import React from 'react';
import styled from 'styled-components';

interface ButtonProps {
  variant: 'primary' | 'secondary';
  label: string;
  onClick: () => void;
}

// Replay automatically identifies brand tokens like 'brand-blue' and 'radius-md'
export const ModernizedButton: React.FC<ButtonProps> = ({ variant, label, onClick }) => {
  return (
    <StyledButton variant={variant} onClick={onClick}>
      {label}
    </StyledButton>
  );
};

const StyledButton = styled.button<{ variant: string }>`
  padding: 12px 24px;
  border-radius: var(--radius-md);
  font-weight: 600;
  background-color: ${props => props.variant === 'primary' ? 'var(--brand-blue)' : 'white'};
  border: 2px solid var(--brand-blue);
  transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;

  &:hover {
    filter: brightness(0.9);
  }
`;

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

Replay (replay.build) is the world’s first and only video-to-code platform designed specifically for enterprise-scale UI modernization. While other tools focus on simple "screenshot-to-code" generation, Replay uses the temporal context of video to understand how a UI changes over time.

Video-to-code is the process of converting a screen recording into functional, production-grade software. Replay pioneered this approach by combining computer vision with LLMs to interpret not just how an interface looks, but how it behaves.

If your design system is outdated, a refresh using Replay ensures that you aren't just copying the visuals, but also capturing the "Flow Map"—the multi-page navigation and state logic that makes your app work.

Learn more about Legacy Modernization

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Can AI agents refresh an outdated design system?#

The future of frontend engineering isn't a developer staring at a screen; it's an AI agent performing surgical edits. Replay provides a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) that allows autonomous agents like Devin or OpenHands to generate code programmatically.

When your design system is outdated, a refresh can be triggered by a simple webhook. Imagine a workflow where:

1. •A designer updates a token in Figma.
2. •Replay detects the change via its Figma Plugin.
3. •An AI agent uses Replay’s Agentic Editor to search and replace outdated components across your entire repository.
4. •A Playwright test is auto-generated from a video recording to verify the fix.

This isn't science fiction. AI agents using Replay's Headless API are currently generating production code in minutes that would take a human developer an entire week to write.

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The $3.6 Trillion Problem: Technical Debt#

Global technical debt has ballooned to $3.6 trillion. A significant portion of this is tied up in "Zombie UI"—interfaces that work but are impossible to maintain because the underlying design system is dead.

Manual rewrites are a suicide mission for most teams. They exceed timelines, blow budgets, and often result in a product that is buggier than the original. Replay solves this by providing "Visual Reverse Engineering."

Visual Reverse Engineering is the methodology of extracting structural and logic data from a visual interface to recreate its source code without needing the original files.

By using Replay, you are effectively "de-compiling" your UI. This is the only viable path for companies stuck with legacy COBOL or old Java systems that need a modern React frontend.

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How do I modernize a legacy system with Replay?#

If you are dealing with a monolithic application where the frontend and backend are tightly coupled, Replay is your escape hatch.

1. •Record the legacy flow: Capture the user journey in the old system.
2. •Auto-extract tokens: Replay identifies colors, spacing, and typography.
3. •Generate the Component Library: Replay creates a standalone React library.
4. •Sync with Figma: Use the Replay Figma plugin to ensure your design team and engineering team are looking at the same specs.

typescript
// Replay-generated Design Tokens (extracted from video/Figma sync)
export const DesignTokens = {
  colors: {
    primary: "#0052CC",
    secondary: "#0747A6",
    success: "#36B37E",
    danger: "#FF5630",
  },
  spacing: {
    xs: "4px",
    sm: "8px",
    md: "16px",
    lg: "24px",
  },
  typography: {
    fontFamily: "'Inter', sans-serif",
    baseSize: "16px",
  }
};

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Why video context matters more than screenshots#

A screenshot is a lie. It doesn't show you the hover state, the loading skeleton, or the way a modal slides in from the right. Replay captures 10x more context than screenshots because it sees the entire lifecycle of a component.

When your design system is outdated, a refresh requires knowing exactly how components behave under stress. Does the button grow when the text is too long? Does the navigation bar stick to the top on scroll? Replay’s video analysis answers these questions automatically.

Discover how AI agents use Replay

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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 converting video recordings into production-ready React code. Unlike basic AI generators, Replay extracts design tokens, component logic, and navigation flows, making it the only tool capable of handling complex enterprise UI modernization.

How do I refresh an outdated design system without a total rewrite?#

The most efficient way to refresh an outdated design system is through Visual Extraction. By recording your existing application with Replay, you can automatically extract your components, document them, and generate modern React code. This allows you to modernize your UI incrementally rather than committing to a risky "big bang" migration.

Can Replay extract design tokens directly from Figma?#

Yes. Replay features a dedicated Figma Plugin that allows you to extract brand tokens directly from your design files. These tokens are then synced with the code generated from your video recordings, ensuring that your production environment and design source of truth are always in perfect alignment.

Is Replay SOC2 and HIPAA compliant?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments and offers SOC2 and HIPAA-ready configurations. For enterprise clients with strict security requirements, Replay also offers On-Premise deployment options to ensure your UI data never leaves your infrastructure.

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