At the first Config India in Bengaluru, Dylan Field framed the launches around two ways of building: building to think and building to ship. Code layers go to open beta, Specs bring Markdown to the canvas, design systems get guidelines and code sources, and Make can scaffold a Payload backend. ​“Don’t delegate your thinking to AI. You need to think.”

Figma VP of Design Noah Levin sums up the shift: ​“June’s Config themes were around Tools and Materials (Motion, Shaders, Plugins, Weave, etc). This time around, it’s all about Context and Workflows (Code Layers, Design Systems, Specs, Payload)”. His thread walks through each, including why Specs exist: ​“So much of good design is good writing, thinking, and planning.”

Jayneil Dalal live-threaded 18 takeaways from Config India, from shipping PRs out of Figma and the code layer terminal to system check and passing specs to Codex with one link.

Code layers are now in open beta. Figma designer advocate Anthony DiSpezio’s demo shows the loop that makes them different from a vibe-coded prototype: duplicate a layer to branch, edit visually or in code, extract designs and push them back, then combine two teammates’ explorations with one prompt. The Chrome extension can also capture a live website as a code layer.

Figma’s newest product is a Markdown editor. ​“You can think of Specs as a container for your context.” Specs live on the canvas and as their own file type, are multiplayer with comments, and can be filled by hand or through MCP and GitHub. Rolling out in open beta on paid plans.

A 24-hour online design conference on November 5–6, run as a relay of Friends of Figma chapters from Sydney to Vancouver. One talk, one topic, one hour each, from people in their own cities.

“Intelligent UI is a step toward a ChatGPT that can shape an interface around what you’re trying to do. Over time, we want ChatGPT to create more of the interfaces people need for everyday tasks. You should be able to describe what you want to accomplish and work with an experience built around it.” OpenAI’s take on generative UI ships to all ChatGPT users, built on a component library plus a model trained to judge layout and interaction.

Agu Seguí, founding brand designer at Paper, shows how the Paper Mono launch video was made. ​“Everything is code but I didn’t touch any of it.”

High contrast mode in Notion came out of an accessibility audit and focuses on foreground content: borders, text, and icons, applied systematically so every page still feels considered. Tamara Chu, who worked on it, wanted it to be beautiful too, and feedback during the work compared it to the no-fluff UI of the 1984 Macintosh.

Mentha is Mintlify’s design system for an agent-heavy team. Fay Dakrouri’s takeaway: the more instructions, skills, and component constraints you feed an agent, the better its first direction, though someone still has to judge whether the result solves the problem tastefully.

Jacob Miller argues that mathematical models are bad at representing human color preference, so his free palette generator uses image models instead. Drop in a photo or a vibe and get 8 ramps of 10 steps, exportable as CSS, Tailwind, or JSON.

The Figma agent is out of beta, with lower latency, file search across the platform, and the ability to watch your teammates’ agents work live on the canvas. Generative plugins are now generally available too.

Guidelines let a design systems team upload Markdown rules to a published library, and the Figma agent reads them every time someone prompts with that library. Include dos and don’ts, anti-patterns, and unwritten taste. When the agent keeps inventing navigation, add a rule.

At Config India, Figma also put code sources in closed beta and previewed one place to manage a whole system.

Figma Make gets a real backend. Payload, the open-source CMS Figma brought in last year, now powers data-backed apps straight from a prototype, with content that stays bound to your design system.

Gemini 4 Argon, Google’s latest model, is now in the Figma Make model picker on all plans.

Four ways to make motion consistent and easy for non-motion designers on your team: components, easing and timing variables, custom animation styles, and plugins you generate with the agent.

Vibe-coded prototypes have no good place for feedback. Ridd launched Inflight to everyone: it adds pinned comments, built-in video, and structured questions on top of any prototype link, then hands it all to your coding agent through MCP.

Hayden Mills has run Fontpair for over a decade, curating free font pairings with friends. The new version starts from brand kits: pick a font pairing and color palette, remix it on a sample site in the Playground, and download the result as a PDF or a DESIGN​.md for your agent.

Josh Puckett launched Graphical, ​“a simple, powerful, and fun tool to design visual languages, style components, and work with coding agents to create interfaces that look memorable and feel unique.” You tune colors, type, spacing, shape, and motion springs visually, then hand your agent a GUI​.md, theme references, and three skills for building and reviewing screens.

Logo.dev now has an MCP server, so your agent can look up a brand by domain, ticker, ISIN, crypto symbol, or name and pull its logo or brandmark.

DS Manager adds an MCP server so agents can edit a shadcn/​ui design system without breaking the rules you locked. Handy if your team builds on shadcn and the shadcndesign Figma kit.

After years without a design chief over both hardware and software, Apple isn’t hiring one. Mark Gurman reports that John Ternus has taken the role himself, working in the studio several times a week. ​“Steve Jobs, of course, was known for taking a similarly direct approach to design while working with Ive. But Ternus’ involvement marks a major shift from the Cook era. Designers say Cook typically visited the studio for about an hour once a month, at most.”