Published Variable Adjustment - Editing Non-Local Variables

@dvaliao hey Denise, if you have a workaround to change a publish variable library locally to meet my client colors let me know, please!

Exactly. The variables don’t work much for us unless we get this. We build design systems that are used by multiple projects and clients. If we can’t change things like colors or sizes of border radius, it makes using variables in the system a waste of time a bit.

simple as that. Variables was meant to be scalable but it is not at the moment due to this limitation!

@Corey_O_Brien @Ygor_Henrique Be sure you guys voted the post! 🙏

We definitely need this!

As a user of a library, I want to be able to update and/or override Library-defined variables so that I can theme different files without core access to the Library

@dvaliao can you give an update/feedback from the Figma team for variables if they put this into the roadmap and if so when you estimate it to arrive ?

To me this seems an essential feature as @Corey_O_Brien describes it is same for me and I wonder how we could spread more upvotes to this! Thanks

What I am trying so far is:

Publish my components that do use variables as a library but exclude the variables from publishing. Then in the file using the library, create the same-named variables.

Instances do carry the variable name - but the values do not stick to the local variables.
I wonder if there could be a plugin / script to run through all variables and connect them.

Hey @Martin_Bertele, thanks for following up!

The team is already aware and monitoring this thread, but they don’t have a timeline to provide at this time. Be sure to keep an eye out on our future releases.

A workaround: export/import variables plugin to have them locally and then edit them.

Unfortunately, this plugin is useless because it doesn’t create references to the imported variables for existing components. This means they continue to use the original design system’s variables, requiring you to manually adjust them to the newly imported ones, which can become an incredibly tedious task.

For companies with many clients who want to reuse their corporate design system with some adjustments in branding and UX writing across various projects, this feature could have immense value that cannot be overstated.

@dvaliao we all would be glad for even a small hint if it’s in the roadmap or not 😉