Figma's design agent moves beyond prompting

The Figma design agent is moving into open beta with a broader feature set aimed at giving designers more control over how the agent works and what it produces. While a well-crafted prompt is enough to get started, Figma is now pushing the agent to understand custom tools, project context, and slashable workflows so that the output on the canvas matches a team's existing patterns.

The core shift is that the agent can now operate on custom-built tools directly within Figma. Reusable plugins and shader effects can be created by describing them to the agent, eliminating the need for a separate dev environment. These tools live on the canvas itself, which Figma says allows for more direct iteration compared to traditional plugins that run outside the design file.

Generative plugins and shaders

Previously, building a Figma plugin required familiarity with the plugin API and a setup that most designers don't have. With the agent, you can describe a plugin's function, and the agent generates it. These plugins are based on PropsKit, making them feel native to Figma. They're best suited for canvas-bound workflows—importing HTML, creating dashboard layouts, or visualizing data.

For tasks that require access to external services or third-party APIs, Figma notes that classic plugins remain the option that supports those integrations. Generative plugins are intended for what can happen inside the design file itself.

Shaders take a similar path. These are programs powered by WebGPU that control pixel rendering. The agent can build two types:

  • Shader effects: Native-like effects built by you—for example, particle stretch, lens distortion, or color outline. These can stack with each other and with native Figma effects.
  • Shader fills: Dynamic fills that go beyond solid colors and gradients, such as watercolor, moiré, or pattern grids.

Generative plugins and shaders appear alongside classic plugins, Weave tools, and widgets in a new Tools tab. The agent handles the underlying code, while designers control which properties they want to manipulate. Figma points to its Community library as a starting point, but notes the most useful tools tend to be the ones you build specifically for your own work.

Feeding the agent better context

The utility of these custom tools is limited by the context the agent has to work with. Figma is expanding how much of that context can be brought into a conversation.

  • File attachments: Drag a user interview, UX copy document, or data report into the agent chat and it becomes a reference point for the whole session.
  • Figma file links: Paste a link and the agent sees the full file structure—components, tokens, layout, styles. It can then reproduce patterns rather than approximating them from a static image.
  • Web search: The agent can pull live data into the canvas, such as current restaurant listings with photos, or competitor UX patterns for realistic mockups.
  • MCP connectors: Tools like GitHub, Atlassian, Slack, Linear, and Hex can be connected directly. This lets the agent pull product tickets into a design or reference data without copying and pasting, and can post updates back to those tools.

Codifying how your team designs

Consistency across a team often comes down to shared understanding. Figma's approach to this with the agent is via "skills"—reusable slash commands that capture a prompt you use repeatedly. A skill for applying a signature aesthetic, running a specific design review, or automating repeated formatting changes can be shared with the team.

Collaborating means the thinking behind an agent's work is also more visible. Unless you mark a conversation private, collaborators in a file can see the agent's iteration history, which Figma describes as a window into how team members approach their work.

Beta availability

The design agent is available in open beta now for Full seat users on Professional, Organization, and Enterprise plans. Collab, Dev, and View seats can pull the agent into their drafts. It is currently free to use during this testing phase. Prompting the agent to build plugins or shaders will cost AI credits once the feature moves beyond beta. Using any plugin, shader, or skill—whether built yourself or taken from the Community—is free across all plans.