Figma Unveils New Features for Defining How AI Agents Work on Its Platform

Figma Also Releases Its Code Layers Feature in Open Beta.

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Design platform Figma introduced a new Markdown-based editor to help define a company's design, provide code and design libraries, and integrate with headless content management system Payload at the company's first Config event in India. Through some of these features, the company aims to provide definition for its own and third-party agents to better adhere to brand design rules while creating with AI.

The company introduced a new feature called Figma Specs, a markup editor that allows users to define their design language in a simple way. This document can serve as a reference for teams and agents while designing in Figma. The profile can exist as a standalone file in Figma or it can exist within the canvas. Apart from the text editor role, users can refer to other Figma elements such as canvas elements and embed FigJam diagrams, code layers and sketches.

In addition, teams can provide additional context for the design, including design libraries, code libraries, and guidelines for managing context for the design system. Agents can also refer to this centralized system for compliance.

Last week, the company made its Agent on Canvas available to a wider range of users. However, due to the uncertain nature of artificial intelligence, the company is providing tools to guide it further. Predictable results.

Figma has also created its Code Layers feature, which adds coding to canvas designs for more interactive prototypes. The company announced the feature in private beta in June. At this week's India event, the company is making the feature available in public beta for more users to test. Users can also ask the agent to convert a design to code or modify a piece of code to iterate on a prototype.

"We see Figma as a place where software teams decide what to build and ship," Lordana Crisan, chief design officer at Figma, told TechCrunch. "So for that, I think one of the key things to remember about what AI has changed and what it's made available is the ability to build." "There are 17 times more lines of code being produced today than in the past. But when you look at releases, it's only 1.3 times more. A lot of that code isn't actually necessarily being built to ship, it's really being built to figure out what the product is. It's being built to design."

The company also announced support for more than 20 new tools with its MCP, including Open Code, Dia, Grok Bot and Indian AI startup Sarvam.

Last year, Figma acquired the open source Headless Payload CMS. Now, the company is integrating it with its Figma Make product to generate dynamic websites and direct content management. Payload downloads have grown sixfold in the past 12 months, the company said.

The company opened its first office in India late last year with sales, partnership, go-to-market and product support roles. Figma said the country is its biggest market in terms of users outside the US. The platform works with 40 percent of India's top 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company noted.

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Evan covers global developments in consumer technology at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked for publications including The Huffington Post and The Next Web.

You can contact or confirm Ivan by sending an email to [email protected] or via encrypted message to ivan.42 on Signal.

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