AI can spin up a functional React app in seconds, and tools like GeekyAnts promise to pull that freshly-generated code back into Figma without losing the design system’s structure. The claim matters because design teams have been forced to start from scratch whenever AI-written code appears, inflating redesign time and cost.

For years the hand-off looked simple on paper: designers crafted screens in Figma, developers rewrote those screens in code, and each side kept its own copy of the layout. AI-driven code generators shattered that rhythm. An AI engine delivers a ready-to-run React project, but there is no straightforward way to import the resulting components back into the original design file. The result is a painful loop of “code-first, design-later” that erodes the shared design language and drives up maintenance overhead.

Why the DOM falls short

Most reverse-engineering tools start with the Document Object Model (DOM), the browser’s representation of HTML elements. The DOM treats every visual piece as a generic <div> or <span>. It cannot tell a button from a card, nor does it know whether a set of elements belongs to a master component in a design system. When a page contains ten buttons, the DOM simply reports ten anonymous layers. The connection to the original component library disappears, leaving designers with a tangled mess of ungrouped shapes that often requires more work to clean up than rebuilding the screen from scratch.

React Fiber offers a richer map

React’s internal scheduler, called Fiber, maintains a tree of components, complete with names, parent-child relationships, and property bags. By reading the Fiber structure instead of the rendered HTML, a reverse-engineering tool can identify that a particular <div> is really a PrimaryButton component, that it lives inside a Header component, and that it carries a set of props defining its state. This insight preserves the intent the original developer—or the AI that generated the code—imposed on the UI.

GeekyAnts uses React Fiber extraction to bring live code into editable Figma files.

How the new workflow solves real problems

Variant expansion

Traditional capture methods snapshot only the visible state of a component—say, a button in its default hover-off state. By inspecting the component definition in the Fiber tree, the tool enumerates every variant declared in the source code: hover, focused, disabled, loading, etc. It then creates a Figma Component Set that bundles all those states together, mirroring the design system’s intent without manual duplication.

Layout mapping

Web layouts rely heavily on CSS Flexbox, while Figma’s equivalent is Auto Layout. A translation layer that maps Flexbox properties (direction, justification, alignment, gaps) directly onto Auto Layout parameters means that spacing, resizing behavior, and alignment survive the round-trip. Designers no longer rebuild complex flex containers by hand.

State triggering

Many UI pieces—modals, dropdowns, accordions—are hidden in the DOM until JavaScript changes state. Because the Fiber tree records that logic, the reverse-engineering tool can programmatically trigger those states, surface the hidden elements, and capture them as design objects. The result is a complete design file that includes every interactive piece, not just what was initially visible on load.

The emerging toolbox

  • GeekyAnts – extracts React Fiber to produce live, editable Figma files that respect component boundaries.
  • Anima – focuses on the forward path, turning Figma designs into React or Vue code.
  • Locofy.ai – uses AI to convert Figma layouts into responsive code, emphasizing speed.
  • Builder.io – pulls HTML components back into Figma.
  • Codia AI – converts screenshots into structured Figma files.

Stakes for teams and budgets

When design and development drift apart, fixing inconsistencies quickly becomes expensive.

Counter-arguments and limits

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What to watch next

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Takeaway

Odczytywanie wewnętrznego drzewa Fiber Reacta zamiast powierzchownego DOM zmienia bolesną pętlę „najpierw kod, potem projekt” w dwukierunkową relację. Aplikacje generowane przez AI można teraz przenosić z powrotem do Figmy bez utraty struktury komponentów. Dla zespołów zmagających się z rozbieżnością projektową i rosnącymi kosztami utrzymania, ta zmiana może stanowić różnicę między chaotycznym sprintem przebudowy a zdyscyplinowanym procesem pracy opartym na komponentach.