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Question

There is no way to write an expression in Design mode

  • May 14, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 30 views
electrolyte

I am trying to design something where when I click one chip it becomes active and every other chip becomes inactive. 

I cannot achieve this no matter what I try. AI is telling me to write an expression in design mode; i cannot do this. This is for potentially hundreds of chips, I can’t make a variable for each one.

Ideally I would like to do the following:

  1. In PROTOTYPE: When a chip is clicked, set a variable to that name.
  2. In DESIGN: In the instance, set its state to a condition, ie “if chipName == [this chip], make this active. Otherwise inactive:

I cannot find any way to do this. Someone please help me. AI says that there should be a f(x) button in the assign variable dropdown in design mode but it’s not there, despite me being on a pro plan. 

    3 replies

    Jaycee Lewis
    Figmate

    Hey, ​@electrolyte I took this to my internal resources to get us clarification on what is possible in Figma Design currently. Out of curiosity, which AI tool gave you this suggestion? Talk soon! — Jaycee 

    electrolyte
    • electrolyte
    • Author
    • New Member
    • May 15, 2026

    I’m glad to hear this. I was using Gemini and I was sure that this wasn’t a thing but it kept insisting that it was, and I thought maybe I was missing something. The Figma resources on using variables tend to be really simplistic and it’s hard to get a sense of what variables actually can and can’t do - you’d think that things like selecting one element which would deselect all others would be a pretty standard thing variables can do since that’s so common in prototyping, but apparently it’s not so.

    Thanks for this response. I’m all ears if you have more info. 

    Jaycee Lewis
    Figmate

    Hey hey ​@electrolyte 👋 Thanks again for the great question. It helps both of us learn 🙌

    I made a quick example to test per-instance conditional in Figma Design binding:

    • built a 2-variant chip component (active/inactive)
    • placed 3 instances
    • bound each instance's State property to a single string variable
    • changed the variable's value

    Result = all 3 instances flipped together and no per-instance conditional in design-mode binding 😢

    My quick gif of the test

    My example is interesting and taught me a few new things and I am not sure if it is scaleable at the level you are looking for with potentially hundreds of chips. Might be worth submitting as a Feature Request. I hope this helps get you moving forward! — Jaycee

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