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Figma MCP + Claude Unable to Replace Slot Contents

  • May 15, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 41 views

drewcovi_usb

Seems that with Figma’s MCP integration with Claude (via VSCode Chat) It is struggling to replace contents dynamically. is this a known limitation given the newness of slots?

 

Actually, I'm realizing the real constraint in Figma's component model depends on whether the component uses defined component properties or slot-based children. For slot components, I need to navigate the instance tree correctly to modify the slot frame's children, but the approach differs based on how the component is structured.

Looking at how the DetailsPage component is set up, it has named frames like "Heading", "Content", and "Aside" that act as slots, each with default content that gets replaced when properties are passed in. This means within an instance, I should be able to modify what's inside those slot frames by targeting them correctly.

The key insight is that I don't need to detach the instance to customize it. Instead, I can create the instance and then navigate into its internal structure to either hide the default content and add new frames, or swap out nested instances within those slots while keeping the parent instance intact.

But there's a limitation I'm running into—in the Figma plugin API, I can't actually add arbitrary new frames to an instance's internal frames since those children are read-only overrides. What I can do is modify text, change properties, swap nested component instances, and toggle visibility.

So I need to pivot away from the component instance approach entirely and instead treat the DetailsPage component as a frame reference to work from.

 

 

5 replies

adamsmasher
Figmate
  • Figmate
  • May 16, 2026

Hey, ​@drewcovi_usb!

 

Thanks for detailing your experience. Is that quote something that Claude gave you? Has the alternative approach it gave you worked out for you in the meantime? 

 

Regarding Slots and our MCP, this is helpful feedback that our team can use to refine Slots while it’s in open Beta ahead of GA. While I don’t have any specific updates right now, keep an eye out on our Release Notes page for more information on Slots and other features. Let me know if you have any other questions!


drewcovi_usb
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • May 18, 2026

thanks ​@adamsmasher ! ill stay tuned.


drewcovi_usb
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • May 18, 2026

the alternative approach really did not work :) i was pretty explicit about it not breaking the component and so it just put three instances on the screen seemingly unmodified.


d_greg
  • New Member
  • May 19, 2026

Yes, API for MCPs still lacks of some features. Slots it’s still in Beta so that won’t be there for some time. However that would be a great improvement to let e.g. Claude setting up Slots.


d_greg
  • New Member
  • May 19, 2026

My workaround is to ask Claude to put a pink placeholder for me and then I convert it into a Slot. Not the best but it works