"For years, we've preached the gospel of the design system as the "single source of truth." We built libraries, evangelised tokens, and perfected our handoffs. However, despite all our efforts, the system often remained just that: a library. It was a meticulously organised collection of design assets that lived next to the real product, a reference file that designers owned and everyone else chased."
"The New Way: With Figma Make now supporting npm package imports, designers can pull actual production React components from the design system's codebase directly onto the canvas. We are no longer building with pictures of buttons; we are building with the real button. This makes the prototype an interactive, high-fidelity extension of the product itself, not just a drawing of it."
Design systems have shifted from static reference libraries to active engines that are interactive, intelligent, and integrated. Figma's 2025 Config and Schema announcements enable this shift by allowing design files to use production code and incorporate system behaviors directly. Designers can import npm packages and pull production React components into the design canvas, turning prototypes into high-fidelity, interactive instances of the real product. The previous component-to-code race is alleviated because design artifacts now use the same components as production. The legacy library model required human 'librarians' to police usage, producing bottlenecks and ongoing design-debt reviews.
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