I’m building a plugin that manages numbered dots on canvas, organized in groups. In the plugin, the user can click a button to add a dot to the canvas.

However, on larger files, adding the first or any dot is slow to update the UI in the plugin.

So far I’ve done this setup

• Uses Figma.clientStorage registry instead of page scanning


• Built with Preact, communicates via messages


• In-memory caching for groups/dots

Issue

Creating new elements is fast, but UI updates are delayed:

// Fast canvas operations

create_first_dot: 220ms

add_dot_to_page: 0ms

registry_update: 0ms

// But slow UI update

Message received → +513ms → State update

State update → +3948ms → Render scheduled

Render scheduled → +559ms → Complete

Total: ~5s delay

Interestingly, the canvas dot appears instantly (despite the large file size). Furthermore:

• Registry updates immediately


• Subsequent UI updates are fast (~15ms)


• Only first update after creating element is slow

Any ideas why there’s such a delay between canvas operations and UI updates? Looking for insights on Figma plugin UI performance best practices.