AI briefing - build a site from a Figma design

Who this is for

You are an AI agent in a session with TWO connections live at once: the Figma MCP server (the design source) and a lazysite connection (the destination - MCP, or WebDAV + the control API). The user has said "build this site from my Figma design" or "restyle the site to match this frame". This briefing is the method for bridging the two: read the design over the Figma MCP, translate it into lazysite's separation of concerns, and publish it.

Read AI briefing - building sites first - it is the governing method and this doc applies it to one external source. For the staging mechanics (WebDAV, activation, the cache mirror) see AI briefing - layouts and themes; this doc links to it rather than repeating it.

The locked context - read this before you start

• Ingestion is dual-MCP. You bridge the Figma MCP (source) and lazysite (destination) yourself, in one session. There is no lazysite-side Figma fetcher and there are no stored Figma credentials anywhere in the engine. Nothing on the lazysite side reaches out to Figma - you are the bridge.
• Token extraction is free on every Figma plan. The Figma MCP tool get_variable_defs returns the design's variables and styles (colour, spacing, typography) with names AND values on all plans. The Variables REST API is Enterprise-gated; the MCP path is not. This is why the method is MCP, not REST.
• You add no code and no credentials. This is a translation task done entirely through tools that already exist on both sides.

Preconditions

The Figma remote MCP is link-based. It works from a Figma file URL, or a "copy link to selection" URL for a specific frame. It does not work from a design named in prose. If the user has only named a design, ask for the link (the file URL, or a copy-link-to-selection URL for the frame they mean) before doing anything else.

Run whoami on BOTH connections first. On the Figma MCP, whoami confirms the design identity you are reading. On lazysite, whoami confirms the capabilities you hold - you will need manage_themes to write theme files, manage_layouts to stage a layout, and manage_content to publish pages. If a capability is missing, ask the operator to grant it now rather than discovering the 403 mid-build.

Extraction sequence

Work outside-in: orient on the whole, then pull detail only from the frames that matter. Do not lead with the heavy full-context tool.

1. Orient - get_metadata

Call get_metadata on the file or frame link first. It returns a sparse XML outline: layer IDs, names, types, positions and sizes - the shape of the design without its weight. Use it to identify the frames that matter (the page frames, the hero, the repeated card, the nav) and to get their IDs for the next steps. Outline first, drill in. Avoid running the full-context tool (below) against a large frame before you know what is in it.

2. Tokens - get_variable_defs

Call get_variable_defs on each relevant frame. It returns the variables and styles that frame uses - colour, spacing, typography - with their names AND their values. This is the design-token extraction, and it is the core of the whole method: these names and values become the theme's tokens. Call it per key frame, not once against a huge selection - a scoped call returns the tokens that frame actually uses, which is what you want to map.

3. Fidelity reference - get_screenshot

Call get_screenshot on each page-level frame. The screenshot is the visual ground truth you check the rebuild against: layout relationships, hierarchy, the visual weight of one element against another. You reproduce its relationships, not its pixels (see the translation section) - keep one per page frame to compare against your rendered preview at the end.

4. Structure - get_design_context (use with care)

get_design_context returns generated code for a frame. Two hard rules:

• It defaults to React + Tailwind. If you call it, explicitly request plain HTML + CSS. Never accept React or Tailwind output as build input - it does not belong anywhere near a lazysite theme.
• Treat the output as a STRUCTURAL REFERENCE only - what wraps what, the reading order, which blocks repeat - never as code to transplant. Lifting its markup into a page is exactly the monolithic all-in-one page anti-pattern described in building sites: one big HTML file with structure, style and content fused, off the rails. That failure mode applies here with full force. Read the structure, then build it the lazysite way.

For most builds you do not need this tool at all: metadata (the shape) plus screenshots (the look) plus tokens (the values) is enough to rebuild faithfully. Reach for it only when a complex frame's nesting is genuinely unclear from the outline and screenshot - and even then, only to understand the structure.

5. Design system - search_design_system / get_libraries (optional)

If the user references a shared library ("use our design system", "the components from the brand library"), call search_design_system and get_libraries to pull the component naming and token conventions. This gives you the canonical names the design system uses, so your theme tokens line up with the source's vocabulary rather than being invented. Skip it when no shared library is in play.

Translation to lazysite - the design-transfer principle

This is the half of the job that matters, and it has one governing principle: identity transfers as tokens; rhythm and scale are rebuilt in CSS. You are not exporting a design - you are re-expressing it in lazysite's separation of concerns. Pixel-reproduction is an explicit anti-goal. Chasing it produces the fused monolith described in building sites - the single-file page with dozens of hardcoded colours that a theme swap cannot touch. Transfer the identity; rebuild the rhythm.

Colours -> theme tokens

Map the extracted colour variables onto the target layout's token vocabulary. Discover that vocabulary first:

• If the lazysite side offers the theme_tokens MCP tool, call it to read the layout's declared token names.
• Otherwise read the layout's default theme theme.json for its config groups, and grep var(--theme- in its main.css to see which tokens the CSS actually consumes.

Then map:

• Role-named source variables (text/muted, brand/primary, surface/raised) map near-mechanically onto the layout's role tokens.
• Value-named source variables (grey-600, blue-500) carry no role, so you must infer the role from the screenshots - which element is that grey actually on? Assign the role, and note the assumption you made so the user can correct it. Do not guess silently.

The output is theme.json tokens (config.colours.* etc.), consumed as var(--theme-colours-*) in the theme CSS - never a hardcoded hex in a page.

Fonts -> the fonts group, BUNDLED

Fonts map to the theme's fonts group (body / heading / code) and must be bundled under the theme's assets/ directory. Never a CDN link - the same rule as everywhere else in lazysite (the write path refuses external font links; see building sites). If the design uses a Google font, fetch the font files and bundle them (OFL/Apache licensed) and reference them from the theme CSS with an @font-face pointing at the bundled asset. A design that names Inter does not become a fonts.googleapis.com link - it becomes bundled files.

Spacing, type scale, line-heights -> authored CSS

Do not look for theme slots for these - there are none, by design. lazysite's tokens cover colours and font families; spacing rhythm, the type scale and line-heights are authored CSS in the theme's main.css, informed by the screenshots. Read the proportions off the screenshot and write CSS that reproduces the relationships (this heading is roughly twice the body, sections breathe at about this rhythm) - do not copy Figma's pixel values numerically. The screenshot is the reference; the CSS is a rebuild, not a transcription.

Structure -> adapt the nearest layout

Do not author a layout from scratch. Call list_layout_catalogue to see what exists, pick the nearest match, and copy-and-stage it per layouts and themes. The Figma frames tell you WHICH structural features that layout needs - a hero, a card grid, a sidebar - so you adapt the copy to add them. Repeated blocks in the design (a row of cards, a gallery, a listing) become a JSON data file + a FOREACH loop, not copy-pasted markup - rule 4 in building sites.

Content -> Markdown pages

The text strings on the design's page frames become Markdown pages - title/subtitle front matter and a prose body, one page per page frame. Where the design carries lorem or placeholder text, flag it to the user and leave it out of the published page; do not ship lorem as real content.

Deployment

Once the theme, layout and pages are ready, publish through whichever lazysite channel you are on. The staging mechanics live in layouts and themes - that is the single source of truth; this is only a pointer to the right sequence.

• MCP: create_theme to scaffold the theme, write_file for its files and the layout copy and the pages, then activate_theme and activate_layout. See the AI connector tools reference for the tool surface and the staging rules in layouts and themes.
• WebDAV + control API: follow the staging sequence in layouts and themes - MKCOL the new layout dir and its theme dir, PUT the files, preview a page via a per-page layout: override, then layout-activate and theme-activate over the control API (which also clears the cache). Remove the preview overrides once activated.

Either way, you activate it yourself - a self-serve action under your capabilities, not an operator hand-off.

Checklist before you call it done

• [ ] Every colour is a var(--theme-*) token mapped from the design - no hardcoded hex in any page.
• [ ] Fonts are bundled under the theme's assets/ - no CDN / Google font link anywhere.
• [ ] Each page-frame screenshot has been compared against the rendered preview_page output - the relationships match.
• [ ] No React or Tailwind residue anywhere - the theme is plain HTML + CSS.
• [ ] Repeated blocks are data-driven (JSON + FOREACH), not copy-pasted markup.
• [ ] Spacing / type scale live as authored CSS in main.css, not pixel-copied and not sought as theme slots.
• [ ] Any inferred role assignments (value-named colours, placeholder content) are noted to the user.
• [ ] The cache is cleared (re-activate) and the render verified.
• [ ] QA hits used the lazysite-agent/<partner-id> User-Agent so they stay out of the audience numbers.

Related

• AI briefing - building sites - the governing method and the monolith anti-pattern.
• AI briefing - layouts and themes - the staging, activation and theme-asset mechanics.
• AI connector tools reference - the lazysite MCP tool surface.
• Integrations index - the other sanctioned external-source integrations.