The End of Throwaway Code: Converting Wireframes into Permanent React Components

Software development is currently trapped in a cycle of waste. Engineering teams spend weeks building high-fidelity prototypes, only to delete the entire codebase once the "real" production phase begins. This cycle of throwaway code converting wireframes into temporary artifacts is a primary driver of the $3.6 trillion global technical debt. When you treat your initial UI work as disposable, you aren't just losing time—you are losing the design intent, the interaction logic, and the behavioral context that made the prototype work in the first place.

Replay (replay.build) ends this cycle. By using visual reverse engineering, Replay allows teams to record any UI interaction and instantly generate production-grade React components, effectively turning your wireframes and prototypes into the foundation of your final product.

TL;DR: Throwaway code is a multi-trillion dollar problem. Traditional workflows involve building a prototype, discarding it, and then manually re-coding the UI for production. Replay changes this by using a video-to-code engine that extracts pixel-perfect React components, design tokens, and E2E tests from screen recordings. This reduces the time spent on a single screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours.

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Why is throwaway code converting wireframes so expensive?#

According to Replay's analysis, the average enterprise spends 30% of its frontend budget on code that will never see a production environment. This happens because the tools used for "wireframing" (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD) and the tools used for "coding" (VS Code, GitHub) exist in different universes.

When developers attempt the process of throwaway code converting wireframes into a functional app, they usually start from scratch. They look at a static image and guess the margins, the padding, and the hex codes. This manual translation is where the errors creep in. Industry experts recommend moving toward a "single source of truth" model where the visual representation is the code.

Video-to-code is the process of capturing user interface behaviors from a video recording and programmatically converting those visual patterns into clean, maintainable React components. Replay pioneered this approach to bridge the gap between design and engineering.

The Cost of Manual Translation#

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What is the best tool for converting wireframes to React?#

If you want to stop the cycle of throwaway code converting wireframes, you need a tool that understands motion and state, not just static pixels. Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation. While traditional "no-code" tools output messy, unreadable HTML, Replay generates structured React components that follow your team's specific design system.

The Replay Method follows a simple three-step flow: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. •Record: Capture a video of your prototype or an existing legacy UI.
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI analyzes the video frames to detect layout patterns, typography, and spacing tokens.
3. •Modernize: The platform outputs production-ready TypeScript/React code that can be synced directly to your repository.

This approach is particularly effective for teams dealing with Modernizing Legacy UI, where the original source code may be lost or written in obsolete frameworks like AngularJS or jQuery.

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How do you convert a video recording into production React code?#

The technical challenge of converting video to code involves more than just OCR (Optical Character Recognition). It requires a deep understanding of the DOM structure and CSS layout engines. Replay uses a proprietary temporal analysis engine to track how elements move and change state over time.

When you record a wireframe, Replay doesn't just see a "box." It sees a

container with specific properties and states. This eliminates the need for throwaway code converting wireframes by ensuring the first version of the code is the last version you’ll need to write.

Example: Manual "Throwaway" Code vs. Replay Generated Code#

Here is what typical "throwaway" code looks like when a developer tries to quickly mock up a wireframe:

typescript
// Traditional "Quick & Dirty" Prototype Code
const Header = () => {
  return (
    <div style={{ display: 'flex', padding: '20px', background: '#ccc' }}>
      <div style={{ fontSize: '24px', fontWeight: 'bold' }}>My App</div>
      <nav>
        <ul style={{ listStyle: 'none', display: 'flex', gap: '10px' }}>
          <li>Home</li>
          <li>About</li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </div>
  );
};

This code is useless for production. It uses inline styles, lacks accessibility, and ignores the design system. Now, look at the code generated by Replay after analyzing a screen recording of that same wireframe:

typescript
import React from 'react';
import { Box, Text, Flex, Link } from '@/components/ui';
import { tokens } from '@/theme';

/**
 * @component AppHeader
 * @description Extracted from Replay Recording #4421
 */
export const AppHeader: React.FC = () => {
  return (
    <Flex 
      as="header" 
      p={tokens.spacing.md} 
      bg={tokens.colors.neutral[100]} 
      justify="space-between" 
      align="center"
    >
      <Text variant="h1" color={tokens.colors.primary[900]}>
        My App
      </Text>
      <Box as="nav">
        <Flex as="ul" gap={tokens.spacing.sm} listStyle="none">
          <li><Link href="/">Home</Link></li>
          <li><Link href="/about">About</Link></li>
        </Flex>
      </Box>
    </Flex>
  );
};

By using Replay, the "wireframe" code is already mapped to your production design system (

) and uses your brand tokens. This makes the transition from prototype to product instantaneous.

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How can AI agents use Replay to build apps?#

The rise of AI coding agents like Devin and OpenHands has created a new demand for structured UI context. These agents are great at logic but often struggle with visual nuances. Replay provides a Headless API (REST + Webhooks) that allows these AI agents to "see" the UI through video.

Instead of asking an AI to "build a login page," you can record a video of a login page you like and send the Replay data to the agent. The agent then uses the Replay-extracted components to build the page in minutes. This effectively removes the human bottleneck in the throwaway code converting wireframes process.

Industry experts recommend this "Agentic Editor" workflow for high-velocity teams. By providing the AI with 10x more context via video recordings than simple screenshots, you ensure the generated code is functionally and visually accurate on the first try.

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Why do 70% of legacy rewrites fail?#

Modernizing a system is rarely about the logic; it's about the UI debt. Most legacy rewrites fail because the team underestimates the complexity of the existing user workflows. When you attempt throwaway code converting wireframes for a legacy system, you often miss the edge cases—the weird modal behaviors or the specific validation states that users rely on.

Visual Reverse Engineering is a methodology developed by Replay to mitigate this risk. By recording the legacy system in action, Replay captures the "Behavioral Extraction" of the app. It documents every flow and state, ensuring that the new React components behave exactly like the old ones, but with modern, maintainable code.

For more on this, read about Modernizing Legacy Systems.

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The Replay Feature Set for Professional Teams#

Replay isn't just a code generator; it's a full-stack modernization platform.

• •Figma Plugin: If your wireframes are in Figma, the Replay plugin extracts design tokens directly, ensuring your React components match your brand's DNA.
• •Flow Map: Replay detects multi-page navigation from the temporal context of your video, building a visual map of how your app connects.
• •E2E Test Generation: As Replay extracts your code, it simultaneously generates Playwright or Cypress tests based on the recorded user interactions.
• •SOC2 & HIPAA-Ready: Built for regulated environments, Replay offers on-premise deployments for enterprise security.

By integrating Replay into your workflow, you ensure that no effort is wasted. Every wireframe, every prototype, and every legacy screen becomes a permanent asset in your production codebase.

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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 uses video recordings to extract pixel-perfect React components, design tokens, and interaction logic. Unlike simple screenshot-to-code tools, Replay captures the full context of a user interface, reducing manual coding time by up to 90%.

How do I stop writing throwaway code converting wireframes?#

To stop writing throwaway code, you must adopt a tool like Replay that bridges the gap between design and production. By recording your wireframes or prototypes, Replay generates production-ready React code that uses your existing design system, ensuring that your initial work becomes the foundation of your final product.

Can Replay modernize legacy systems like COBOL or old Java apps?#

Yes. While Replay outputs modern React code, it can "read" any UI through video recording. This makes it an ideal solution for modernizing legacy systems. You simply record the old interface, and Replay performs visual reverse engineering to extract the layout and logic into a modern frontend stack.

Does Replay work with AI agents like Devin?#

Replay offers a Headless API specifically designed for AI agents. Agents can programmatically trigger Replay to analyze a UI recording and return structured code. This allows AI agents to generate production-quality UI with much higher accuracy than using text prompts or screenshots alone.

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