TokensBrücke — Figma plugin

What is this plugin for?

The plugin converts Figma variables into design-tokens JSON that are compatible with the latest Design Tokens specification.

Table of contents

• TokensBrücke — Figma plugin
  • What is this plugin for?
  • Table of contents
  • New version 2.0.0
  • How to use
  • General settings
    • Color mode
    • Include styles
    • Add styles to
    • Include variable scopes
    • Use DTCG keys format
    • Include .value string for aliases
  • Push to server
    • JSONBin
    • GitHub
    • GitHub PR
    • GitLab
    • Custom server
  • Show output
  • Config autosaving
  • Styles support
    • Typography
    • Grids
    • Shadows
    • Blur
    • Multiple Shadow and Blur styles support
    • Why there is no support for color styles?
    • Gradients support 🚧
  • Tokens structure
  • Aliases handling
    • Include .value string for aliases
    • Handle variables from another file
    • Handle modes
  • Variables types conversion
  • Design tokens types
  • Scopes lemitations
  • Style Dictionary support
  • Contribution 🚧
  • Feedback
  • Changelog

New version 2.0.0

In the new version of the plugin all mode variables moved into the $extensions / modes object. This is how Terrazzo (formerly “Cobalt UI”) works with multiple modes. Check it here — https://terrazzo.app/docs/

You can download and install previos version 1.6.1 here — github.com/tokens-bruecke/figma-plugin/files/13536853/build.zip

How to use

1. Install the plugin from the Figma Community.
2. Make sure you have variables in your Figma file.
3. Run the plugin.
4. Adjust the settings.
5. Then you can download the JSON file or push it to on of the supported services.

General settings

Color mode

Allows you to choose the color mode for the generated JSON. Default value is HEX. The plugin supports the following color modes:

• HEX — HEX color format. Could be converted into HEXA if the color has an alpha channel.
• RGBA CSS — RGBA color format in CSS syntax, e.g. rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5).
• RGBA Object — RGBA color format in object syntax, e.g. { r: 0, g: 0, b: 0, a: 0.5 }.
• HSLA CSS — HSLA color format in CSS syntax, e.g. hsla(0, 0%, 0%, 0.5).
• HSLA Object — HSLA color format in object syntax, e.g. { h: 0, s: 0, l: 0, a: 0.5 }.

Include styles

Allows you to include styles into the generated JSON. See more about styles support in the Styles support section.

There is an option to rename each style's group and give it a custom name for better organization.

Add styles to

Allows you to choose where to put styles in the generated JSON. By default, the selected value is Keep separate. In this case styles will be added into the root of the JSON and will be treated as collections. There is also an option to add styles into the corresponding collection (fig.4).

Include variable scopes

Each Figma variable has a scope property. The plugin allows you to include scopes into the generated JSON. It will be included as an array of strings without any transformations.

{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "type": "color",
      "value": "#000000",
      "scopes": ["ALL_SCOPES"]
    }
  }
}

Use DTCG keys format

Is off by default. Currently many design tokens tools doesn't support DTCG keys format. All DTCG keys are prefixed with $ symbol.

// Without DTCG keys format
{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "type": "color",
      "value": "#000000"
    }
  }
}

// With DTCG keys format
{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "$type": "color",
      "$value": "#000000",
    }
  }
}

Include .value string for aliases

Is off by default. Allows you to include .value string to the end of the path for aliases. It will be added to the alias string.

{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "type": "color",
      "value": "{colors.light.primary.10.value}"
    }
  }
}

If the format is DTCG:

{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "$type": "color",
      "$value": "{colors.light.primary.10.$value}"
    }
  }
}

Push to server

With this feature you can connect a server and push the generated JSON directly to it. At the moment the plugin supports JSONBin, GitHub and custom servers.

If you connected multiple servers, the plugin will try to push the tokens to all of them one by one. In ordere to test if your credentials are valid you can make a test request by clicking the Push to server button (fig.6).

JSONBin

1. Open JSONBin and create an account.
2. Generate a new API key.
3. If you want to use an existing bin, copy its ID. Otherwise just leave the ID field empty in the plugin settings.
4. Add a name for the bin.

GitHub

1. You need to create a personal access token with repo scope.
2. In the plugin settings paste the token into the Personal access token field.
3. Add an owner name, repository name and a branch name.
4. In the file name field you can specify a path to the file. If the file doesn't exist, it will be created. If the file exists, it will be overwritten. File name should include the file extension, e.g. tokens.json.
5. You can also specify a commit message.

GitHub PR

All the steps are the same as for the GitHub server, except the last two.

• PR title. You can specify a title for the PR. If you leave it empty, the plugin will use chore(tokens): update tokens as a default title.
• PR body. You can specify a body for the PR. If you leave it empty, the plugin won't add any body to the PR.

GitLab

1. You need to create a project access token with api scope.
2. In the plugin settings paste the token into the Project access token field.
3. Add an owner name, repository name and a branch name.
4. In the file name field you can specify a path to the file. If the file doesn't exist, it will be created. If the file exists, it will be overwritten. File name should include the file extension, e.g. tokens.json. 5. You can also specify a commit message.

Custom server

There is a possibilty to connect a custom server. In order to do that you need to specify a URL, a method (by default it's POST) and headers.

Show output

If you want to see the generated JSON, you can enable the Show output option. The plugin will show the JSON in the sidebar. The output doesn't update automatically, in order to optimize the performance. So, if you want to see the updated JSON, you need to click the Update button.

Config autosaving

The plugin saves the config automatically. So, you don't need to set it up every time you run the plugin.

Styles support

The plugin can support some styles and effects too. Until Figma will support all the styles and effects, the plugin will convert them into the corresponding design tokens types. But it's not a backward compatibility, it's a temporary solution until Figma will support all the styles and effects as variables.

Supported styles:

• Typography
• Grids
• Shadows (including inset shadows)
• Blur (including background and layer blur)

Typography

"extralight": {
  "type": "typography",
  "value": {
    "fontFamily": "Inter",
    "fontWeight": 400,
    "fontSize": "18px",
    "lineHeight": "28px",
    "letterSpacing": "0%"
  },
  "description": "",
  "extensions": {
    "styleId": "S:0ffe98ad785a13839980113831d5fbaf21724594,"
  }
}

Grids

In Figma you can add as many grids in the style as you want. But the plugin will take only first two grids and treat the first one as column grid and the second one as row grid.

// Column grid
"1024": {
  "type": "grid",
  "value": {
    "columnCount": 12,
    "columnGap": "20px",
    "columnMargin": "40px"
  }
}

// Row grid
"1024": {
  "type": "grid",
  "value": {
    "rowCount": 12,
    "rowGap": "20px",
    "rowMargin": "40px"
  }
}

// Both grids
"1024": {
  "type": "grid",
  "value": {
    "columnCount": 12,
    "columnGap": "20px",
    "columnMargin": "40px",
    "rowCount": 12,
    "rowGap": "20px",
    "rowMargin": "40px"
  }
}

Shadows

The plugin supports drop-shadow and inner-shadow effects. If the effect is inner-shadow, the plugin will set the inset property to true.

"xl": {
  "type": "shadow",
  "value": {
    "inset": false,
    "color": "#0000000a",
    "offsetX": "0px",
    "offsetY": "10px",
    "blur": "10px",
    "spread": "-5px"
  }
}

Blur

The plugin supports background and layer blur effects. In order to distinguish between them, the plugin adds the role property to the generated JSON.

// Background blur
"sm": {
  "type": "blur",
  "value": {
    "role": "background",
    "blur": "4px"
  }
}

// Layer blur
"md": {
  "type": "blur",
  "value": {
    "role": "layer",
    "blur": "12px"
  }
}

Multiple Shadow and Blur styles support

If the style has multiple Shadow or Blur styles, the plugin will add them into the array.

"new-sh": {
  "$type": "shadow",
  "$value": [
    {
      "inset": false,
      "color": "#e4505040",
      "offsetX": "0px",
      "offsetY": "4px",
      "blur": "54px",
      "spread": "0px"
    },
    {
      "inset": false,
      "color": "#5b75ff40",
      "offsetX": "0px",
      "offsetY": "4px",
      "blur": "24px",
      "spread": "0px"
    },
    {
      "inset": false,
      "color": "#00000040",
      "offsetX": "0px",
      "offsetY": "4px",
      "blur": "4px",
      "spread": "0px"
    }
  ]
}

Why there is no support for color styles?

Despite the fact that color styles could be important for backward compatibility — the main goal of the plugin is to convert Figma variables into design tokens. Since Figma already has a support for color in variables, there is no need to convert also color styles into design tokens.

Gradients support 🚧

Support for gradients is comming with the next major release.

Tokens structure

Plugin first takes the collection name, then the group and then the variable name (fig.1). Mode variables will be wrapped under the $extensions objects

For example, if you have a collection named clr-theme, mode named light and variable named dark, the plugin will generate the following JSON:

"clr-theme": {
  "container-outline/mid": {
    "type": "color",
    "value": "{clr-core.ntrl.40}",
    "description": "",
    "$extensions": {
      "mode": {
        "light": "{clr-core.ntrl.40}",
        "dark": "{clr-core.ntrl.55}"
      }
    }
  }
}
,

Figma automatically merges groups and their names into a single name, e.g. Base/Primary/10 (fig.2). In this case, the plugin will generate the following JSON:

{
  "base": {
    "primary": {
      "10": {
        "type": "color",
        "value": "#000000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Aliases handling

All aliases are converted into the alias string format from the Design Tokens specification.

{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "type": "color",
      "value": "{colors.primary.10}"
    }
  }
}

Include .value string for aliases

You can switch on the Include .value string for aliases option in the plugin settings.

Handle variables from another file

Imagine you have a library from another file with "base" variables. And you use this variables in your current file.

The plugin will generate the alias name anyway, but it will be a path to the variable as if it was in the current file.

{
  "button": {
    "background": {
      "type": "color",
      "value": "{colors.primary.10}"
    }
  }
}

The plugin wouldn't include the variable into the generated JSON in order to avoid duplicates or conflicts with JSON files you can generate from another Figma files.

So you will need to merge the file with the base variables from one file with another where you use them. Otherwise tools like Style Dictionary wouldn't be able to resolve the aliases.

Handle modes

If there is only one mode — the plugin wouldn't include it in a generated JSON. If there are multiple modes, the plugin will place them under the $extensions objects.

It follows the same pattern as used by Cobalt

Variables types conversion

Unlike design tokens, Figma variables now support only 4 types — COLOR, BOOLEAN, FLOAT and STRING. So, the plugin converts them into the corresponding types from the Design Tokens specification.

* native JSON types. The specification doesn't restrict the type of the value, so it could be any JSON type. Also see this issue.

** currently figma supports only the FLOAT type for dimensions, that could be used only for px values. So, the plugin converts FLOAT values into dimension type with px unit.

Design tokens types

In order to validate types, the plugin uses the Design Tokens types.

Scopes lemitations

In order to convert FONT-WEIGHT and OPACITY types into valid values you should specify thme as scopes in the Figma variables. The plugin will read the first scope and convert it into the valid value. If there are multiple scopes, the plugin will take the first one.

• FONT_WEIGHT scope will be converted into string type.
• OPACITY scope will be converted into number type.

Style Dictionary support

There is a set of utils for Style Dictionary.

Contribution 🚧

Comming soon.

Feedback

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to create an issue

Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release

1.0.1

• Fixed Aliases handling. Removed mode from the alias string if there is only one mode in the collection.

1.0.2

• Fixed RGBA to HEXA conversion
• Added color styles support
• Added basic support for linear and radial gradients

1.0.3

• HEX color fixed
• Alias variables fixed

1.0.4

• Fix scopes conversion
• $meta info adding order fixed

1.0.5

• Allowed to use plugin in files without variables

1.0.6

• WIP Reference tokens auto-referencing themselves in the exported JSON

1.0.7

• Code cleanup

1.0.8

• Fix for Reference tokens auto-referencing themselves in the exported JSON

1.0.9

• Fixed line-height value conversion. It wasn't rounded to the nearest integer.

1.1.0

• Update button animation added
• added token types as a separate package

1.1.1

• Updated errors handling for GitHub server

1.2.0

• Updated method to check VARIABLE_ALIAS in normalizeValue function
• Handle aliases from another files
• Removed the property aliasPath from $extensions object, since it's not needed anymore

1.3.0

• Functions names refactoring

1.4.0

• Added warning type to the Toast component
• structure refactoring
• code refactoring
• updated Github errors handling
• added value to all aliases at the end of the path. Also support for DTCG keys format added
• added storage versioning
• updated DTCG format switching
• added Copy button for the tokens preview

1.5.0

• Added GitHub PR option to the Push to server feature
• Connect server renamed to Push to server
• Thanks for contribution to @distolma

1.6.0

• value string for aliases is now optional

2.0.0

• tokens structure was changed. All modes now moved from variable names into $extensions/modes object. In order to make it work with Cobalt. For morre details see this issue — Multiple collection and modes. Previous implementation didn't work correctly with multiple modes and aliasees.

2.1.0

• Multiple Shadow and Blur styles support added. Link to the PR

2.1.1

• $meta tag moved to $extensions object. See issue — $meta is not valid DTCG

2.1.2

• Updated the function to generate text styles. Related PR — Update textStylesToTokens.ts

2.1.3

• Fixed font weights to be numbers. Related PR — Font weights fix - output as numbers (DTCG format)

2.1.4 and 2.1.5

• Fix wrong font weight output. Related PR — Right the heuristic wrongs. Thanks to @JeroenRoodIHS

2.2.0

• Added aliases handling for typography styles — Related issue
• Added aliases handling for effects

2.2.1

• Added paragraphSpacing and paragraphIndent to the typography styles

2.2.2

• Do not convert the value to PX units if the variable scope is FONT_WEIGHT

2.2.3

• Convert OPACITY scope to valid value using this formula value / 100.

2.3.0

• Added codeSyntax property to variables. See this PR — include variable's "codeSyntax" property in exported token json

2.3.1

• Fixes dimension type for vars with single scope