ft — Tokens Studio applied tokens, one command

ft reads the design tokens applied by the Tokens Studio for Figma plugin and prints them next to the layers that use them. Paste a Figma URL into your terminal and you get back an annotated layer tree, a grouped token dictionary, or a style-gap report — whichever one you asked for.

# Copy a Figma frame URL in your browser, then:
ft

That's it. No quoting, no setup beyond a one-time Figma token, no Figma desktop app. ft also runs as an MCP stdio server so Claude Code can read applied tokens without leaving the chat.

Why this exists

Figma's official Dev Mode MCP server exposes layer metadata (ids, names, types, coordinates) but not the Tokens Studio data — because that data lives in sharedPluginData on every node, under the tokens namespace, and is invisible to most REST consumers.

The result: an LLM code agent can see the layers but not which tokens drive which properties, so generated code falls back to hard-coded colours and spacings.

ft closes that gap. One REST call with plugin_data=shared, one walk of the returned tree, and every node comes back labelled with its Tokens Studio tokens — ready for the next ft tokens or for Claude Code to consume over MCP.

Install

git clone https://github.com/Blyawon/tokensStudioMCP.git
cd tokensStudioMCP
npm run setup
source ~/.zshrc   # or restart your terminal

npm run setup runs the whole chain:

1. npm install

2. npm run build — compiles TypeScript to dist/.

3. npm run alias — installs ft and figtokens aliases in ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc). On zsh they're wrapped in noglob so ? in URLs doesn't trigger globbing.

4. node dist/index.js setup — prompts for your Figma personal access token and saves it to .env (chmod 600).

Get a token at https://www.figma.com/developers/api#access-tokens with scope File content: Read-only. The setup step links you there and walks you through it.

Requires Node.js ≥ 18 (native fetch).

Quick start

The fastest path is clipboard mode — no quoting, no shell gotchas:

# 1. Copy any Figma frame URL in your browser.
# 2. Run:
ft

With no arguments, ft reads the URL from your clipboard (macOS pbpaste). You can also pass a URL directly:

ft 'https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2'

Sample output

resultpage_lg  COMPONENT 2007:102481  coverage=1735/2903
└─ .appShell  INSTANCE 94:774  fill=page.background.100
   ├─ .navigation  INSTANCE 93:3974
   │  └─ .collapseButton  INSTANCE 20:814  sizing=dimension.2xl
   │     └─ buttonAction  INSTANCE 19:792  composition=…
   └─ .sectionList  INSTANCE 101:222718
      └─ items  SLOT 101:214831  itemSpacing=section.spacing.prominent.md
         ├─ (×4) container  INSTANCE 102:269769  composition=…
         └─ footer  INSTANCE 102:269770  fill=colors.surface.default

• One line per node: <name> <TYPE> <id> <tokens…>.

• Adjacent siblings with identical structure + tokens collapse into (×N).

• Untokenized nodes show no trailing token cluster — absence is the default.

• The root carries coverage=<with>/<total> so you see how tokenized the selection is at a glance.

• composition=… marks nodes that use a composition token; see Composition tokens below.

Commands

ft                     # clipboard URL → compact tree (same as `ft <url>`)
ft <url>               # compact tree of a frame with applied tokens
ft tree <url>          # same as `ft <url>` (explicit)
ft tokens <url>        # grouped token dictionary + style-gap report
ft coverage <url>      # % of nodes that have tokens, with a progress bar
ft node <url>          # tokens applied to one node
ft config              # show the effective config and where it came from
ft setup               # save or replace your Figma access token
ft help                # cheat sheet with every flag
ft mcp                 # run as an MCP stdio server (Claude Code uses this)

ft tokens — the cheap pre-flight

Ask "which tokens does this frame actually use?" before fetching the full tree. Output is grouped by property key (fill, spacing, typography, composition, …), values sorted alphabetically, each value annotated with the layer names that use it.

47 unique tokens across 8 properties

fill (3)
  colors.border.subtle   used by: .divider ×4, .card ×2
  colors.text.primary    used by: .title, .body ×6
  page.background.100    used by: .appShell

spacing (5)
  section.spacing.prominent.md
  spacing.lg
  spacing.sm
  …

composition (27)
  ecommerce.container.base.size:lg
  styles.buttonAction.base.variant:control.size:sm.hover
  …

▸ 12 nodes have visual styling with no covering token

The trailing style-gap line is a count of nodes that have visual styling (fills, strokes, effects, shared styles) but no Tokens Studio token covering that property. --no-warn silences it.

ft coverage — fast sanity check

[█████████████░░░░░░░] 1735 / 2903  (60%)

Use it to sanity-check whether a file is tokenized at all before you start processing anything. Prints a plain text line instead of the bar when stdout isn't a TTY.

ft node — one-node snippet

ft node 'https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2'

Returns a single-node XML snippet with just the <tokens …/> child. Useful when you already know the node id and want the smallest possible answer.

Flags

Every CLI command accepts the same flag set. Grouped by intent:

What to show

How to show it

Example:

ft 'https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2' --depth 3 -o

--json output

Every command that returns data (ft, ft tree, ft tokens, ft coverage, ft node) accepts --json. The object always has a format discriminator so one consumer can tell the shapes apart.

ft tokens 'https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2' --json

{
  "format": "tokens",
  "totalUnique": 47,
  "totalProperties": 8,
  "compositionHidden": 27,
  "properties": {
    "fill": {
      "colors.brand.primary": [
        { "name": "button", "type": "INSTANCE", "count": 4 },
        { "name": "link", "type": "TEXT", "count": 2 }
      ]
    }
  },
  "gaps": [
    { "name": "divider", "type": "LINE", "id": "1:27", "gaps": ["borderColor"] }
  ]
}

Tree JSON carries a coverage object and a nested root with { id, name, type, tokens?, gaps?, characters?, layout?, children? } on every node. Coverage JSON is a plain { format: "coverage", withTokens, total, percent }. Node JSON is a single-node snapshot with the display tokens inlined. None of them print the splash or summary divider — stdout stays clean for piping into jq, other scripts, or downstream codegen.

Composition tokens

Tokens Studio lets you apply a single composition token to a node that bundles multiple property styles at once (e.g. button.primary.hover → fill + border + padding + typography). That's great for design maintenance but terrible for automatic codegen — a composition token's value is an opaque string.

ft handles composition tokens this way:

• Coverage counts them. A node with only a composition token is counted as tokenized. It does not show up as a gap.

• Display strips them by default. The compact tree shows composition=… as a placeholder so you know one is present without drowning the output in long composition paths. Pass --with-composition (or includeComposition: true in config, or the MCP tool parameter) to see the full value.

• Gap detection trusts them. Because a composition token can cover fill/stroke/spacing/typography all at once, nodes with a composition token applied never report style gaps. This is the right default for the common Tokens Studio workflow.

ft tokens surfaces a one-line note when composition tokens are present, so you're never guessing why a visually-styled frame looks "empty".

Config file

Put persistent defaults in ~/.ftrc.json (global) or ./ft.config.json (per-project). Any key is optional.

{
  "ignoreVectorsWithoutFill": true,
  "ignoreComponents": true,
  "warnStyleGaps": true,
  "onlyWithTokens": false,
  "includeComposition": false
}

Project config wins over global config; CLI flags win over both. ft config prints the effective config and shows which file each value came from.

--all bypasses the config entirely for one run — handy when you want to see everything, once, without editing a file.

Shell quoting (zsh + bash)

Figma URLs contain ? and &, both of which are shell metacharacters:

• zsh: ? triggers filename globbing, & triggers job control.

• bash: same story for &; ? is usually safe unless failglob is set.

npm run setup installs the ft alias wrapped in noglob on zsh, so bare ? is safe even without quotes. & still splits the command line (job control is not part of filename expansion and can't be disabled by noglob), so URLs containing & still need single quotes.

# zsh:
ft https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2          # ok (noglob)
ft 'https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2&t=xyz'  # ok (single-quoted)

# bash:
ft 'https://www.figma.com/design/abc/File?node-id=1-2'        # always single-quote

The easy way to sidestep all of this: copy the URL in your browser and just run ft.

ft detects the classic "zsh ate my URL" pattern (a Figma URL with query params but no node-id) and prints a soft warning to stderr telling you to either single-quote the URL or use clipboard mode — no silent failures.

Use it from Claude Code

claude mcp add tokens-studio node "$PWD/dist/index.js"

(No subcommand — node dist/index.js with no args and a non-TTY stdin runs the MCP server.)

Three tools are exposed:

All three accept any combination of url, fileKey, and nodeId, so you can point them at a whole file or a specific frame. All three respect your config file and the includeComposition parameter.

In any chat, ask:

Use tokens-studio to list the tokens applied in <paste figma url>, then show me the frame tree only for the components that use colors.brand.primary.

Claude Code will call list_tokens first, see what's there, then call get_metadata_with_tokens with the right filters.

How it works

• Figma's REST API supports ?plugin_data=shared, which returns every node's sharedPluginData.

• Tokens Studio stores applied tokens under the tokens namespace on each node, keyed by the property they target (fill, borderRadius, spacing, typography, composition, …).

• ft walks the returned tree and renders it either as a compact ASCII tree (default) or a Figma-MCP-style XML tree (--xml).

• Dedupe is content-hash based: the hash mixes every descendant's type + name + tokens signature + recursive child hash. Two instances that differ only by a leaf-level token override hash differently and are kept separate.

• No Figma desktop app needed. Headless. Your token stays in .env on your machine.

Project layout

src/
├── index.ts          # CLI router + MCP stdio server + tool definitions
├── cli-ui.ts         # Spinner, splash, progress bar, colour helpers (TTY-gated)
├── figma-client.ts   # Minimal REST client with plugin_data=shared
├── parse-url.ts      # Figma URL → { fileKey, nodeId? }
├── tokens.ts         # extractTokens / extractDisplayTokens / style-gap logic
├── xml.ts            # Legacy XML renderer (get_metadata_with_tokens)
├── render-tree.ts    # Compact ASCII tree renderer + token dictionary
├── config.ts         # ~/.ftrc.json + ./ft.config.json loader
├── tokens.test.ts    # Node test runner suite
└── render-tree.test.ts

Run the tests with:

npx tsx --test src/tokens.test.ts src/render-tree.test.ts

Scope

• Read only. ft never writes tokens back to Figma.

• Returns token names (reference paths like colors.primary.500) — not resolved values. Composition token values are shown as full reference paths when --with-composition is on.

• Node 18+ (native fetch).

See CHANGELOG.md for the v0.1 → v0.2 history.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.