Figma translation workspace

The Localisync Figma Design integration is a local development plugin in validation. It is not published in Figma Community. Real Desktop acceptance and hosted deployment are separate release gates. See development installation.

Connect and choose scope

You need a Localisync account with current workspace membership and an enabled Figma integration. Open the development plugin, choose Connect to Localisync, then use the browser approval page. Select a workspace, project and branch, enter the connection code displayed by your plugin, and approve that scope. Check the scope before approving.

The credential stays in plugin memory. Reopening the plugin requires a new connection. It expires with your browser session or after 30 minutes of plugin inactivity. Sign-out, connection revocation and lost membership are checked on subsequent operations. Account → Figma connections lists your recent connections and lets you revoke them. Disconnect / change scope revokes the current connection before selecting another scope.

Figma editing access does not grant Localisync access. Owner/Admin, restricted Editors, Viewers and independent review permissions retain their existing rules. Viewers can read and discuss content but cannot save translations or approve them. Provider administration, tasks, membership changes and publishing remain in the Customer Panel.

Map and save text

Choose the design language. Select text or frames in Figma and choose Scan selection. Scan current page is a separate explicit action; other pages stay unloaded.
Use Map text to choose an existing key or define a new key and its message format. Review generated names. Identical text does not prove identical meaning.
Choose Preview save. Inspect the baseline, design and current server values. Resolve competing changes explicitly or exclude the layer, then prepare a fresh preview.
Choose Save selected translations. The selected content and history commit together. This does not approve a translation or publish a release.

Mappings carry stable key and branch identities. Renaming a layer does not rename its key. Copied mappings and other branch scopes require explicit relinking. Several layers can share one key, but conflicting text cannot be silently merged. Empty/deleted layers never implicitly clear translations or archive keys. Mapping metadata is visible to people with the design; it contains no access credential.

The preview supports at most 1,000 text layers and 1 MiB of request data. Larger selections must be narrowed. An atomic server save is never silently split into smaller transactions. If server content changes after preview, nothing in that save is applied. The draft remains. A lost response is recovered using the operation identity; repeated clicks do not create another content history entry. Previews expire after 24 hours; completed receipts remain.

Work on a key

Translations & context opens these sections:

Translations: read the source and target, edit the target with Save/Cancel, then review or revoke the current revision separately. Changed text needs a new review.
Suggestions: consult linked glossaries and translation memory. Use suggestion fills a draft. It neither saves nor approves. Incompatible ICU contracts cannot be applied.
Assistance: select a shared provider connection and an active source with saved text. Review scope, usage and selected context before Generate. Provider use is charged to the workspace’s provider account. Review/edit the proposal and choose Apply explicitly. Only Missing targets are eligible. Cancel generation does not undo an already started charge. An uncertain paid call is never retried automatically; regeneration needs explicit approval.
Context: edit shared description, read scoped file notes, and inspect private images. Preview selected frame capture does not upload. Enter alternative text and choose Upload this image to Localisync to use the existing sanitizer and workspace quota. Queued/failed images cannot be used by AI. Sending an uploaded image to AI is a separate opt-in.
Discussion: create threads, reply, mention current members and resolve/reopen threads within your existing permissions. Edits and removal retain history.
History: inspect recorded content changes, or open the scoped panel for more detail.

Save or cancel a draft before changing sections. Selection changes preserve drafts and require an explicit rescan. Errors retain drafts instead of substituting empty or fake data.

Apply translations to a design

Choose Preview design, supply ICU sample parameters when needed, and inspect the translations. Create language copy is the default. Replace current layers explicitly changes the original selection. Missing translations preserve existing text.

Preview design layout loads required fonts, measures temporary copies and removes them. Compare text/container dimensions and inspect any overflow warning. It does not shrink text, replace fonts or repair a layout. Choose Apply to design after reviewing the result.

Mixed text styles, missing fonts, locked text, variable bindings and component-controlled text are blocked. The first delivery supports uniform text and the existing ICU grammar. ICU sample output is marked separately and cannot be saved as the canonical template.

Figma and Localisync do not share a transaction. Figma Undo affects document changes only, not a previously saved server translation. A partial document failure reports completed and failed layers. Inspect the document, then rescan. If a document response is lost, application is blocked until a fresh inspection; the plugin does not blindly repeat it. A saved server result can retry layer mapping without creating another translation edit.