Handoff - Design Token Automation

A design token pipeline to read figma files, extract tokens as JSON, and transform tokens into dev ready artifacts.

Table of Contents

• What Is Handoff?
• How does it work
  • Handoff is in Beta!
• Requirements
• Get Started
  • Figma
  • Create a project
  • Test fetch
• Further Reading
• Maintainers
• Contributing
• License

What Is Handoff?

Handoff is an open source tool for extracting design tokens from the Figma REST API and building frontend developer documentation from that Figma file. By automating the design token delivery, Handoff helps to eliminate bottlenecks between design and development.

Handoff is a collection of 4 javascript tools:

• Figma Token Extraction - A framework for extracting standardized design foundations and components from Figma.
• Transformation Pipeline - A set of transformers for producing SASS, CSS, Style Dictionary, and preview snippets from that data.
• Documentation Web App - A static, client side, Javascript web app that renders live, working previews of your components, tokens and styles.
• Delivery Tools - Easy build tooling and CI/CD wrapper that allows automation to render and ship the various deliverables as needed.

How does it work?

Handoff works by extracting design foundations and component data from well-formed Figma libraries, storing them as JSON, and then transforming them into design tokens. Those design tokens are published as SASS and CSS variables.

Out of the box, Handoff has native SCSS and CSS maps to connect these tokens to any site using the Bootstrap 5 frontend framework. If you use another framework, or custom CSS, you can easily write map files to connect the generated tokens with your site or application.

• Get Started
• Requirements
• Integrating Tokens
• Customization

Once Handoff extracts design tokens and variables, it builds a statically generated NextJS application that can be published to the web. This asset can be hosted on a static webhost (NGINX, s3/Cloudfront, Cloudflare pages etc).

• Tokens Overview
• Build Site

This pipeline from Figma to the Documentation Web app can be automated via CI/CD to provide automatic, up-to-date, easily readable developer documentation.

• CI/CD Integration

Handoff is in Beta!

Handoff is Awesome. Handoff is also really new. We're constantly building new features, and expanding what it can do. We'd love to chat if you have a use case that isn't quite met.

Requirements

• A paid Figma account is required to publish the Figma file library
• Node 18.17+
• NPM 8+

Get Started

Figma

1. Open the Handoff Figma starter and duplicate this project to your account

2. Publish components to the library

• Click on the Figma logo at the top left
• Click on Libraries
• Click on the current file
• Click publish changes

You'll need a developer token if you don't have one already

• Click on the Figma logo in the top left
• Go to Help and Account
• Click on Account Settings
• Scroll to Personal Access Token
• Enter a token name and hit enter
• Note that token for the next steps

Create a project

The easiest way to get started is using the handoff-app init command to scaffold a new project:

npm install -g handoff-app
handoff-app init

This interactive CLI will guide you through:

1. Project name - Enter a name for your project directory
2. Project type - Choose between:
   • Project with sample components - Includes example components to help you get started
   • Blank project - Only the essential configuration files
3. Figma configuration - Optionally provide your Figma project ID and developer access token

The scaffolding will:

• Create a new directory with your project name
• Generate all necessary configuration files
• Install dependencies automatically

After scaffolding

cd my-handoff-project
npm run fetch    # Fetch design tokens from Figma
npm run start    # Start the documentation site

This will fetch the latest from your Figma file and boot a demo site at http://localhost:3000

Alternative: Global installation

You can also install handoff-app globally:

npm install -g handoff-app
create-handoff-app

Or manually set up a project:

mkdir my-new-project && cd my-new-project
handoff-app fetch   # Will prompt for Figma credentials
handoff-app start

Test Fetch

• Now go back to your Figma file and change a button color
• Republish the changes to the library. Click on the publish button from the main dropdown. You'll see a list of changes that have been made. Clicking publish will make those changes available to handoff.
• Back in your project, open a new terminal tab and type npm run fetch

Once that runs, your browser should update with the new colors.

Further Reading

• Configure your project
• Customize the content
• Integrate tokens with your project
• Build to Static Assets
• Integrate with Github Actions CI/CD
• Integrate with Bitbucket Pipelines CI/CD

Maintainers

@bradmering

@DomagojGojak.

@Natko.

Contributing

Feel free to dive in! Open an issue or submit PRs.

Handoff follows the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct.

License

MIT ©Convertiv