Figma’s latest update to its AI design assistant, Figma Make, is poised to blur the lines between design and software engineering. By enabling a two-way GitHub integration, Figma Make allows designers to transform their visual creations into live production code, all while maintaining the integrity of the software development process. This development could significantly shift the dynamic within product teams, potentially altering who holds the reins in the design-to-production pipeline.
**What Figma Make Actually Does**
Figma Make has evolved from a prototyping tool into a full-fledged software editor that integrates directly with code repositories. This update allows designers and non-technical users to import existing Git repositories into the Figma desktop app, where they can visually edit an application’s underlying code. When these edits are completed, users can push changes back to engineering teams via standard GitHub pull requests, ensuring that all modifications are vetted through the usual engineering workflows.
The platform operates within traditional version control systems, making it viable for enterprise use. Design changes become local commits, and designers can generate branches and open pull requests directly from the Figma Make environment. This ensures that visual edits are subject to the same continuous integration pipelines, security checks, and code reviews as any engineering commit. Importantly, Figma Make remains a proprietary service available only to users on Figma’s paid plans, but it seamlessly interfaces with both open-source and proprietary Git repositories.
**Breaking the One-Way Barrier**
When Figma Make launched in May 2025, it primarily served as a bridge between static wireframes and interactive prototypes, but it was disconnected from the actual software development lifecycle. Previously, users could only export projects to new GitHub repositories, with no option to receive updates from existing codebases.
The new update breaks this limitation by allowing connections to any Git provider. Users can now sync their visual tools with production or sandbox repositories, highlighting specific UI elements and using natural language prompts to guide Figma’s AI in writing code. This AI uses models from Anthropic and Google to understand the code architecture, apply visual edits, and ensure consistency with the team’s design guidelines.
**The Competitive Landscape: Figma Make vs. Lovable vs. Claude Design**
As the market for AI-driven code generation expands, Figma Make faces competition from platforms like Lovable and Anthropic’s Claude Design. Each of these platforms offers a unique approach to the visual layer of software development.
Figma Make targets product teams that emphasize brand consistency and design system adherence, with pricing ranging from $16 to $90 per month for Full seats. Lovable, on the other hand, focuses on “vibe coding,” a holistic approach to development that emphasizes aesthetics and user experience. Meanwhile, Claude Design, a newcomer from Anthropic, leverages large language models to turn text prompts into prototypes, challenging Figma’s dominance in the space.
As these tools vie for attention, the choice of platform may depend largely on the specific needs of a team, whether they prioritize visual fidelity, speed, or integration capabilities.
**What Happens Next**
With Figma Make’s two-way integration, the role of designers in the software development process could become more central. Product teams might find themselves relying more on visual designers to not only create but directly implement design changes. For founders and product managers, this shift could mean rethinking team structures and workflows to accommodate a more integrated design and development process.
For engineers, this update might prompt a reevaluation of how design and code intersect, potentially leading to new collaboration models and a broader understanding of design principles. Investors, meanwhile, should watch how these integrations affect the competitive landscape, particularly as more platforms seek to democratize the coding process through AI.
