Building the Engine While Flying the Plane: Launching the Figma MCP Server — Jesse Lumarie, Figma
Figma shipped its first MCP server in 3 months, bridging design and production code for any AI tool
“AI tools don't need to build a dedicated integration. They can just use our Figma MCP and they kind of get started.”
Figma engineer Jesse Lumarie recounts building the company's first MCP server in roughly three months, starting as a 20%-time project after Anthropic released the MCP spec in November 2024. The server lets any AI tool access Figma design context without a custom integration, lowering the barrier for non-designers. The team had to navigate a moving target: the spec deprecated their initial transport choice mid-build, and client support was wildly fragmented—VS Code eventually emerged as the most spec-complete MCP client.