Figma MCP vs. Figma Console MCP

Figma’s official MCP server and Figma Console MCP both connect AI assistants to Figma, and both can read from and write to Figma files. They were built for different jobs, and many teams run both in the same MCP client.

• The official Figma MCP server is Figma’s hosted server. It focuses on design-to-code context, Code Connect, and creating content in Figma: design files, FigJam diagrams, motion, and shaders.
• Figma Console MCP is an open-source server focused on design-system operations: deterministic audits and design-code parity checks, token sync with round-trip IDs, component documentation, version-history diffs, extracting a design system from a codebase, and plugin console debugging.

This page reflects both servers as of September 2026. Figma’s server changes often, so check Figma’s documentation for its current capabilities.

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At a Glance

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Shared Ground

Both servers can do the following. How they do it differs: the official server usually does it through a general tool such as use_figma plus a skill, and Console MCP usually has a dedicated tool for it.

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What the Official Figma MCP Is Built For

These are areas where the official server has first-party capabilities that Console MCP does not provide:

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What Figma Console MCP Is Built For

Console MCP concentrates on operating a design system across Figma and code. Each of these has dedicated tools:

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Deterministic checks

Rule-based checks that return the same result for the same input, so they can gate a merge or a release:

• Accessibility: figma_lint_design (WCAG checks on the canvas), figma_audit_component_accessibility (state, focus, and color-blind scorecard for a component), and figma_scan_code_accessibility (axe-core scan of HTML, Local Mode).
• Design-code parity: figma_check_design_parity compares a Figma component with its code implementation and reports each discrepancy.
• Design-system health: figma_audit_design_system_report scores naming, token architecture, component metadata, accessibility, consistency, and coverage, and says which findings the MCP can fix.
• Extracted-system fidelity: figma_ds_verify checks that tokens extracted from a codebase parse, resolve, and are ready to import into Figma.

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Bidirectional token sync

• figma_export_tokens writes Figma variables to 10 formats: DTCG JSON (legacy or 2025.10 dialect), CSS custom properties, Tailwind v4 and v3, SCSS, TypeScript, flat and nested JSON, Style Dictionary v3, and Tokens Studio.
• figma_import_tokens applies DTCG JSON back to Figma: value updates, new collections and variables, renames matched by the Figma variable ID stored in $extensions, alias writes, and deletes only under strategy: "replace".
• Export refuses to overwrite a token file generated from a different Figma file, or one that would lose tokens the export doesn’t manage.

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Variables on any Figma plan

Figma’s Variables REST API requires an Enterprise plan. Console MCP reads and writes variables through the Plugin API in the Desktop Bridge plugin, so variable tools work on every plan, including batch creates and updates of up to 100 variables per call.

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Component documentation and history

• figma_generate_component_doc produces markdown documentation from Figma and your code: anatomy, per-variant color, spacing, and typography tokens, annotations, a design-code parity section, and (with the history option) a changelog built from Figma version history and git log.
• Version-history tools (figma_get_file_versions, figma_diff_versions, figma_generate_changelog, figma_blame_node) diff snapshots and find when, and by whom, a property or variant was introduced.

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Codebase → design system → Figma

Seven figma_ds_* tools (Local Mode) analyze a production codebase, extract its styling as DTCG tokens with per-token provenance, scaffold a design-system package with Storybook, and verify it. The extracted tokens import into Figma variables with figma_import_tokens.

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Plugin debugging and live file awareness (Local Mode)

Console log capture from the Desktop Bridge plugin (figma_get_console_logs, figma_watch_console), the current selection (figma_get_selection), buffered document changes (figma_get_design_changes), multi-file targeting and figma_execute_across_files, and a plain-language health check (figma_diagnose).

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Other dedicated tools

Structured tools for variables, components and component sets (figma_create_component_set), Slots, node editing, annotations, comments, FigJam, and Slides. See the Tools Reference.

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Structured Tools and Scripted Writes

Both servers can change a Figma file by running Plugin API code: use_figma on the official server, figma_execute in Console MCP. Console MCP also provides dedicated tools for common operations. For example, figma_batch_create_variables takes a JSON array of variables, and figma_create_component_set builds a variant set from an axes matrix. Their inputs are schema-validated and their errors name the problem. Neither approach is universally better. A script is flexible and handles one-off changes. A dedicated tool is predictable and easier to review, which matters most for repeated design-system operations such as syncing hundreds of tokens across modes.

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How They Connect to Figma

For Figma’s current plan requirements and usage limits, see Figma’s documentation. Figma Console MCP is free. It calls the Figma REST API with your own token, so Figma’s REST API rate limits apply.

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Who Should Use Which

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Quick Reference

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How This Page Has Changed

When this comparison was first written, the official Figma MCP was read-only and focused on design-to-code, and write access was the main difference between the two servers. That is no longer true. The official server now writes to Figma, creates files, and covers motion, shaders, and diagrams. Console MCP’s focus has narrowed to design-system operations. This page was rewritten in September 2026 to reflect both.

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