Best way to extract a “mini” design system from a bloated Figma file?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice on the best way to slim down a large Figma project and create a smaller, more focused design system.

I have a Figma file that’s grown quite bloated over time. Ideally, I’d like to:

• Strip out a subset of master components

• Keep only the relevant text variables and styles

• Create a “mini” design system library containing just those components and variables/styles

• Publish that library

• Then copy/paste the layouts for the latest build into a fresh Figma file and relink them to this new, lighter library

My main questions:

• Is this actually possible to do cleanly in Figma?

• What’s the best or least painful workflow to achieve this without breaking too many links?

• Are there any gotchas with variables, styles, or component references when doing this?

My current thinking is:

1. Duplicate the existing Figma file

2. Save one version as an archive

3. In the duplicate, aggressively delete everything except the components, variables, and styles needed for the current build

4. Publish that stripped-down file as the new library

Before I go too far down this path, I wanted to check if this is the right approach or if there’s a smarter or more Figma-native way to do it.

Any tips, warnings, or alternative workflows would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance! 🙏