IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Figma restricts MCP access to whitelisted clients, excluding Pi

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Three prevalent themes in the discussion

  • Restrictive whitelisting undermines the open spirit of MCP and frustrates users

    “Companies need to be whitelisted to use the remote MCP, which is the only one that allows agents edit access to Figma documents.” – miguel‑muniz
    “Another thing they do that I find equally frustrating is their MCP can do things you cannot do via API so you are forced to use theirs and cannot implement your own.” – pjm331
    “Even if you’re whitelisted you get only 6 accesses a day on a standard account…” – WhitneyLand

  • Open MCP threatens SaaS business models; whitelisting only delays inevitable obsolescence

    “Open MCP basically kills your product in my opinion, you can't charge for any feature the LLM can do itself.” – chpatrick
    “For products for which this is true resorting to whitelisting clients simply accelerates your obsolescence…” – fidotron
    “Soon they might require a vendor specific api key to access it and that requires support from the big players…” – adithyassekhar

  • Users seek workarounds, open alternatives, or predict that openness will prevail

    “I found figma’s remote MCP to be a poor fit… got much better results by having Claude build a set of ‘lens’ tools around their REST API.” – cellularmitosis
    “I created an opensource unofficial mcp/skill/cli… It works for read/write, comments etc. and it does not require anything except a cookie session.” – allan_s
    “I like how Pi released an updated with a new oauth client name field for mcp where I just wrote Codex and Figma mcp works now.” – ig0r0

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

FigmaMCP Gateway

Summary

  • A self-hosted reverse proxy that adds Figma‑whitelisted User‑Agent headers and manages session cookies so any LLM‑based MCP client can access Figma’s remote MCP without being blocked.
  • Core value proposition: restores open MCP access to Figma, eliminating the need for whitelist approval or paid dev seats.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers, AI‑tool builders, and designers who want to use arbitrary LLMs (Claude, GPT‑4o, local models) with Figma’s remote MCP
Core Feature Transparent forwarding of MCP requests with allowed User‑Agent (e.g., GitHub Copilot CLI) and automatic cookie‑based auth handling
Tech Stack Node.js (Express) or Go (Gin) for proxy, optional Docker for deployment, Redis for session cache
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN users lament that “Figma has been absolute dog shit about opening up to mcp usage” and that “whitelisting clients simply accelerates your obsolescence” (RobertDeNiro, fidotron). This proxy directly addresses those frustrations.
  • Enables experimentation with custom MCP clients (Pi, Opencode, local harnesses) without waiting for Figma’s approval, fostering discussion around open agent ecosystems.

Figma Lens MCP

Summary

  • A lightweight MCP server that exposes Figma document data via a custom plain‑text “lens” format (fonts, layout dimensions, colors, component tree) optimized for token‑efficient LLM consumption.
  • Core value proposition: reduces token usage and latency when LLMs need to read Figma designs, enabling faster AI‑driven design workflows.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience AI‑assisted design tools, plugin developers, and LLMs that need to read Figma files efficiently
Core Feature REST‑API‑based endpoints that return concise, human‑readable markup (e.g., FONT:Inter 14px #333) instead of verbose JSON, plus batching of multiple lens queries
Tech Stack Python (FastAPI) or Rust (Actix‑web), Figma REST API, optional WASM for client‑side lens generation
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Commenter cellularmitosis noted they “got much better results by having Claude build a set of “lens” tools around their REST API” and that “the key to making it token efficient was allowing Claude to invent its own plaintext markup format.” This product formalizes that approach.
  • Provides a concrete alternative to the heavyweight MCP, appealing to users who find the current MCP “sets tokens on fire” and want a simpler, cheaper data pipeline.

Figma MCP SSO Bridge

Summary

  • A hosted service that translates enterprise OIDC/SAML tokens into Figma‑compatible MCP session tokens and offers per‑tenant MCP configuration, letting any LLM client work with Figma under the company’s identity provider.
  • Core value proposition: removes the need for individual dev seats and whitelist approval while preserving security and compliance for organizations.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Enterprises and teams using SSO (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace) who want to enable AI agents across the organization
Core Feature OIDC token exchange service + admin console to map users/groups to Figma MCP access, with audit logging and rate‑limiting per tenant
Tech Stack Go (Echo) or Java (Spring Boot) for backend, PostgreSQL for tenant config, OAuth2 libraries, optional Kubernetes deployment
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription per active user (e.g., $5/user/mo)

Notes

  • HN discussion highlighted the pain of “dev seats always felt like a ripoff” and the desire for “OIDC tokens generated at the SSO placed on the dev environment upon user authentication” (hparadiz, miguel-muniz). This bridge directly satisfies that request.
  • Enables broader adoption of AI‑driven design workflows in regulated environments, likely sparking conversation about balancing openness with enterprise security.

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