Hi all, I’m running into a frustrating situation in Figma with component instances and variable propagation.I have a button system structured like this: _button/dna → skeleton (spacing, padding, icon placement, pill shape) _button/style → layout + state layers (including hug/fill variants) button/theme → color variables applied to layers in _button/style The problem: When I change a color variable in button/theme, some instances don’t update. Even overrides that aren’t related to color — for example, changing an instance from “hug” → “fill” — blocks variable updates. To work around this, I’ve had to create many extra variants in the theme component to cover each hug/fill combination so variables propagate, which is messy and hard to maintain. This feels like a workaround for a Figma quirk: any override on an instance, even unrelated to color, can stop variable updates from propagating.

Question

Figma overrides breaking variable propagation — too many variants needed as workaround

Hi all, I’m running into a frustrating situation in Figma with component instances and variable propagation.

I have a button system structured like this:

The problem:

When I change a color variable in button/theme, some instances don’t update.
Even overrides that aren’t related to color — for example, changing an instance from “hug” → “fill” — blocks variable updates.
To work around this, I’ve had to create many extra variants in the theme component to cover each hug/fill combination so variables propagate, which is messy and hard to maintain.

This feels like a workaround for a Figma quirk: any override on an instance, even unrelated to color, can stop variable updates from propagating.