Figma explorer

Figma Kiwi Protocol — Design Explorer

Decode and explore Figma designs via the binary Kiwi wire protocol. Bypasses REST API rate limits by reading the same data Figma's editor reads — directly from the WebSocket stream.

Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• Chrome with remote debugging enabled
• A Figma account (free plan works)

Environment variables

Set these before using any command:

export CDP_WS_URL="ws://host:port/devtools/browser/<id>"   # Chrome DevTools WebSocket
export FIGMA_TOKEN="figd_..."                                # Figma personal access token
export FIGMA_FILE_KEY="abc123def"                            # From your Figma URL
export FIGMA_KIWI_DIR="/tmp/figma_kiwi"                      # Output directory (default)

To get CDP_WS_URL: start Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=9222, then fetch http://localhost:9222/json/version and use the webSocketDebuggerUrl.

To get FIGMA_TOKEN: Figma → Settings → Personal access tokens → Generate.

To get FIGMA_FILE_KEY: from your Figma URL figma.com/design/<FILE_KEY>/....

Install

The plugin directory is the repo itself. All scripts are in bin/.

PLUGIN_DIR="$(dirname "$(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")")"

Workflow

1. Capture — grab WebSocket frames from Chrome

Open your Figma file in Chrome, then:

# Capture all pages (auto-discovers via REST API, ~14s per page)
node ${PLUGIN_DIR}/bin/capture-all-pages.mjs

# Or capture just the current page (faster)
node ${PLUGIN_DIR}/bin/capture.mjs 25

2. Decode — binary frames → JSON scenegraph

node ${PLUGIN_DIR}/bin/decode.mjs

Produces $FIGMA_KIWI_DIR/scenegraph.json (~27 MB for a typical file, 5000+ nodes).

First run auto-installs dependencies (fzstd, kiwi repo) and generates the Kiwi decoder (~558 types).

3. Query — explore the decoded scenegraph

Use the Python query tool for interactive exploration:

# List all pages
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py pages

# Show page tree
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py page <name> --depth 3

# Inspect a node (with CSS + state machine)
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py node <name_or_id>

# Search by name
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py search <pattern>

# Extract text content
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py texts <page_name>

# Get CSS properties
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py css <name_or_id>

# Prototype interactions
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py interactions <name_or_id>

# List components (with variant properties)
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py components [pattern]

# Component detail (variants, state machine, instances)
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py component <name_or_id>

# Find all instances of a component
python3 ${PLUGIN_DIR}/query/local.py instances <name_or_id>

4. Extract SVGs — vector nodes → individual SVG files

node ${PLUGIN_DIR}/bin/extract-svgs.mjs

Outputs individual .svg files to $FIGMA_KIWI_DIR/svgs/ with an index at svg_index.json.

Library usage (from JavaScript)

import {
  commandsBlobToPath,
  vectorNetworkBlobToPath,
  extractSvgs,
  extractCSSFromKiwi,
  isFigWireFrame,
  mergePages,
  buildTree,
} from 'figma-kiwi-protocol';

Exploration tips

1. Start broad: pages → page <name> --depth 2 → understand layout
2. Drill down: page <name> --depth 4 → see component hierarchy
3. Search: search <pattern> → find specific elements
4. Inspect: node <id> → full detail with CSS and state machine
5. Components: component <name> → variant properties, states, all instances

Binary formats

Three binary formats are fully documented as Kaitai Struct specs in kaitai/:

• commands_blob.ksy — pre-computed SVG path commands (MoveTo, LineTo, CubicBezier, ClosePath)
• vector_network_blob.ksy — editable vector path data (vertices, segments with tangent handles, regions with loops)
• fig_wire_frame.ksy — WebSocket frame header containing the zstd-compressed Kiwi schema