Reported issues for figma-mcp-express

Pod holds 13 of 13 problems reported by people outside the maintainer team. Issues filed by the project's own owners, members and collaborators are excluded entirely — a maintainer's release checklist is not a warning to a prospective user.

Back to figma-mcp-express.

Most discussed

get_design_context ignores nodeId parameter — returns current selection instead

Symptom

When get_design_context is called with a nodeId parameter specifying a target node, it returns the design context for the current Figma selection instead of the specified node.

Impact

Agents querying a specific component by ID receive data for whatever is currently selected in Figma, leading to incorrect structural reads and misidentified properties. Caused multiple debugging cycles in PickleHub build sessions.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have node A selected in Figma
2. Call

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 2 comments

find_replace_text ignores nodeId scope — traverses entire page and component tree

Symptom

find_replace_text is called with a nodeId parameter to scope the replacement to a specific frame, but the implementation traverses the entire page and component tree, hitting unintended nodes.

Impact

In 2 separate production builds (PickleHub mobile app), this corrupted tab bar labels globally — replacing text in the target frame also replaced the same string in the master component and every other instance on the page. Required manual batch revert to restore.

Steps to R

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 2 comments

import_component_by_key (and batch writes) can hang with no timeout/cancellation — wedges the whole channel and collateral-kills concurrent agents

Summary

import_component_by_key (and other plugin-side write ops) can hang indefinitely with no timeout, no progress signal, and no cancellation. Because each channel is a single serialized queue, a hung import head-of-line-blocks every queued op on that channel, and if the plugin actually disconnects mid-import it takes down every agent sharing that channel (one shared single-thread = one failure domain).

Observed (real incident)

• Building a 14-screen mobile app, 3–4 con

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 2 comments

Expose mainComponentId on instance reads (and list orphaned local masters) — recovery path for file-local component reuse

Problem

Reusing a file-local, unpublished component (a registered organism like a custom BottomTabBar) across the same file is unreliable:

• create_instance requires componentId (the master NODE id) — componentKey alone errors missing required param "componentId".
• The master node id is not exposed by any read: get_node/get_nodes_info on an instance return only mainComponent:{key,name,remote:false} (no id); get_local_components (per-page + all pages) does not list

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 2 comments

save_screenshots: surface a per-item error reason instead of a silent {succeeded:0,total:0}

Problem

During a multi-agent build session, save_screenshots repeatedly returned {succeeded:0, total:0} (or failed:0 with nothing written) without an error message, across multiple agents/frames on the same channel. Agents had to fall back to the get_screenshot batch op (base64) to see their work.

Impact

• Builders/reviewers silently get no image file; self-eval + visual verification break.
• No signal to distinguish "path write failed" from "node not found" from "plugin busy"

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 2 comments

feat: support scroll/overflow and fixed-position settings via batch API

Problem

Two frame/node properties critical for mobile prototype fidelity cannot be set via the batch API:

1. overflowDirection (VERTICAL / HORIZONTAL / BOTH / NONE) — controls whether a frame scrolls in the prototype. Currently read-only from the API; must be set manually in Figma UI (Design panel → Clip content + Prototype panel → Overflow behavior).

2. scrollBehavior (SCROLLS / FIXED) — controls whether a child node scrolls with its parent or stays pinned ("Fix po

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 1 comment

get_batch_op_spec returns 0 results for valid existing ops (set_text, set_opacity, etc.)

Symptom

get_batch_op_spec returns empty results or errors for ops that definitely exist in the batch catalog (e.g., set_text, set_opacity).

Impact

Agents cannot validate op parameter schemas at runtime before building batch payloads. This leads to:

• Guessing parameter names (causing trial-and-error loops)
• 120+ get_batch_op_spec calls across 9 agent sessions with unreliable results
• Agents falling back to search_batch_ops + reading skill docs for every write

Observed

Read the thread · 2026-06-17 · closed · 1 comment

create_variable batch op: validation fails even when required 'type' field is present

Symptom

The create_variable batch op rejects payloads with error "missing string type" even when the type field is explicitly present in the payload.

Impact

Agents cannot create new design variables through the batch API. They fall back to reusing existing variables or abandoning the variable creation step entirely.

Example Payload (fails)

{
  "type": "create_variable",
  "params": {
    "name": "spacing/custom",
    "type": "FLOAT",
    "collectionId": "VariableColle

[Read the thread](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues/35) · 2026-06-17 · closed · 1 comment

## Most recent

### batch text values: `$`+digit collides with op-ref syntax (e.g. "$12.2B" parsed as ref to op #12)

Inside a `batch(ops:[...])` call, a text value containing `$` immediately followed by digits — e.g. `set_text` with `"$12.2B"` or `create_text` `"$2.5B revenue"` — is parsed by the op-ref resolver as a reference to another op in the batch (`$12` → "ref points to op #12"), and the build fails.

## Impact
Any dollar-denominated copy in a batch fails. This is common in finance/IR/pricing decks. The only stopgap found is inserting a zero-width space (U+200B) between `$` and the first digit so the ad

[Read the thread](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues/82) · 2026-06-26 · open · 0 comments

### A plugin disconnect on a shared channel is a single failure domain — one op's drop kills every concurrent agent (failure isolation + reconnect resilience)

## Summary

A channel is backed by a single plugin WebSocket on one shared thread, so it is **one failure domain**: when the plugin disconnects mid-op (e.g. a hung `import_component_by_key`, a plugin crash, a transient socket drop), **every agent sharing that channel dies** — including agents that were only *reading* and had nothing to do with the failing op. There is no per-request isolation and no in-flight survival across a reconnect.

This is the resilience/blast-radius half of #31. #31 asks

[Read the thread](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues/32) · 2026-06-17 · open · 1 comment

### Can't override a component INSTANCE's auto-layout (alignment/padding) — set_auto_layout rejects instances ('not a FRAME')

## Problem
`set_auto_layout` errors `Node <id> is not a FRAME` when the target is an INSTANCE. So you cannot override a component instance's auto-layout properties — `primaryAxisAlignItems`, `counterAxisAlignItems`, padding, itemSpacing — even though the Figma API allows these overrides on instances.

## Concrete impact
A kit Solid Button instance bottom-aligns its label (`counterAxisAlignItems=MAX` in the master), so the text renders a few px below the button's vertical center. The natural fix 

[Read the thread](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues/30) · 2026-06-17 · closed · 1 comment

### Reads don't surface fill/paint variable bindings — token-binding unverifiable (only effects show boundVariables)

## Problem
No read tool surfaces a **fill/paint** variable binding. A variable-bound fill and a hand-typed raw hex of the same value are byte-identical in every read output, so there's no way to verify whether an authored fill is bound to a design token.

- `get_node` / `get_nodes_info` flatten every fill to a resolved hex array (`fills:["#ffffff"]`), no `boundVariables`.
- `get_design_context` at **every** detail (`compact`/`full`/`codegen`) serializes fills only as resolved-hex dedup aliases i

[Read the thread](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues/27) · 2026-06-17 · closed · 1 comment

### Version-aware leader election: prevent a stale binary from leading port 1994

## Background

figma-mcp-express elects a single **leader** on port 1994; other instances become **followers** that forward RPCs to the leader (`internal/election.go`, `internal/leader.go`, `internal/node.go`). When several instances of **different versions** run concurrently (mixed dev/published binaries, leftover processes from other sessions, the CC plugin's `npx` server racing a local build), whichever binds the port first wins — even if it's an **older** binary.

A follower then forwards a 

[Read the thread](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues/26) · 2026-06-16 · closed · 0 comments

The remaining reports are on [the project's issue tracker](https://github.com/sunhome243/figma-mcp-express/issues).