| name | export-figma-assets |
| description | Use this skill when exporting assets from a Figma file — rendering nodes to PNG/SVG/JPG/PDF, or pulling image fills. |
Export Figma Assets
When to use
When the user wants images out of Figma: icons as SVG, frames as PNG for a doc or a PR, a design as PDF, or the original bitmaps someone dropped into the file.
Not for reading structure — use inspect-figma-file for that.
Ensure cyber-figma CLI
See the Ensure cyber-figma CLI section of the init-figma skill. If FIGMA_ACCESS_TOKEN is unset, run init-figma first.
If a command below exits 2 (usage error), the spelling has moved — confirm it with cyber-figma --help and cyber-figma <resource> --help rather than guessing. The global flags (--token, --team, --toon, --json, --full) and the exit codes are stable.
Two different things called "images"
Pick the right one before running anything:
| The user wants | Endpoint family | Command |
|---|
| Nodes rendered to an image (icons, frames, screens) | GET /v1/images/{file_key} | image export |
| The original uploaded bitmaps used as fills in the document | GET /v1/files/{file_key}/images | image fills |
Rendering is a render job — it produces a new file from the design. Image fills are the source assets a designer imported; rendering will not give you those at original quality.
Instructions
1. Resolve the file key and the node ids
The file key is the segment after /design/ (or the older /file/) in the Figma URL. If the user's link has ?node-id=, that is the node they mean.
If they described the thing in words ("the icon set", "the checkout screens") rather than linking it, find the ids first with inspect-figma-file — file get --depth 2 lists top-level frames per page. Confirm the list with the user before rendering, since rendering is the expensive part.
2. Batch every node into one call
cyber-figma image export <file-key> \
--ids <node-id>,<node-id>,<node-id> \
--format svg \
--toon
Batching is not an optimization, it is the documented way to avoid rate limits. Rendering is rate-limit tier 1 — the most expensive tier, roughly 6 calls per month on a View or Collab seat. One call listing 50 node ids costs one request; 50 calls cost 50.
Options that matter:
| Flag | Values | Use when |
|---|
--format | svg, png, jpg, pdf | svg for icons and anything that must scale; png for screenshots and docs; pdf for print/handoff |
--scale | 0.01–4 | Raster exports at 2x/3x for retina; ignored for svg |
--use-absolute-bounds | flag | Text is getting cropped — renders full node dimensions ignoring the crop |
--contents-only | flag | Exclude overlapping content from outside the node |
--svg-outline-text | flag | Render text as vector paths instead of <text> — use when the consumer lacks the font |
--svg-include-id / --svg-include-node-id | flag | Emit layer name / node id as attributes, for scripts that post-process the SVG |
--version | version id | Export a historical version rather than current |
Images above 32 megapixels are scaled down rather than rejected.
3. Read the response carefully — null is not an error
The response is { err, images: { <node-id>: <url> | null }, status }.
Every requested node id appears as a key, and a null value means that node failed to render — a bad id, or nothing renderable in it. It does not mean the request failed, and it must not be retried as a rate-limit or transient error. Report the null ids back to the user as "these could not be rendered" and move on.
If the call itself returns 400, the err field names which parameter was invalid. Surface that string — it is the most useful diagnostic the API gives, and it is easy to throw away.
4. Download before the URLs expire
The returned URLs are temporary:
- Rendered image URLs expire after 30 days.
- Image fill URLs expire after no more than 14 days — shorter.
So never hand a user a bare URL as the deliverable, and never store one in a repo, a doc, or a task. Download to disk immediately:
curl -sSL -o <name>.svg '<url>'
Ask the user where the files should land and what to name them; derive names from the layer names where they are usable, and say what mapping you used.
5. Original image fills
cyber-figma image fills <file-key> --toon
Returns a map of imageRef → download URL for every user-supplied image used as a fill. The imageRef keys match the imageRef values on Paint objects in the file's node data, so pair this with inspect-figma-file when the user needs to know which fill belongs to which layer. Tier 2 — cheaper than rendering, and unpaginated.
6. Report
Tell the user: what was exported, where the files are, which nodes returned null, and — if anything was skipped — why.
When it fails
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|
Some ids come back null | Those nodes have nothing renderable, or the id is wrong. Not a retryable error. |
400 with an err string | A parameter is invalid — err names which one. Common culprits: scale outside 0.01–4, a malformed node id. |
403 | The token expired (Figma reports expiry as 403, not 401), or it lacks file_content:read, or there is no access to the file. |
429 with a long Retry-After | Rendering is tier 1. On a View/Collab seat that is ~6 calls per month on any plan. Check X-Figma-Rate-Limit-Type (low = View/Collab seat) and X-Figma-Plan-Tier; surface X-Figma-Upgrade-Link. If the file lives in a personal/Starter space, moving it into the paid team restores the higher limit. |
| A previously working URL now 403s | It expired — re-run the export. Rendered URLs last 30 days, fill URLs at most 14. |
References
