Figma Desktop for Linux

Run the real Figma Desktop app on Linux — not a browser wrapper, not a web app, but the actual Electron-based desktop client with full functionality.

This project extracts the official Figma Desktop Windows installer, patches it for Linux compatibility, and packages it as an AppImage, .deb, or .rpm. You get everything the Windows/macOS client has: system tray icon, figma:// protocol handling, MCP server support, native window frames, and offline file opening.

Why This Exists

Every other "Figma for Linux" project is just a browser window pretending to be a desktop app. This one is different:

Feature	This project	Browser wrappers
Full desktop Electron client	Yes	No
System tray icon	Yes	No
figma:// URL protocol handler	Yes	No
MCP server (127.0.0.1:3845/mcp)	Yes	No
Native .fig file opening	Yes	No
Dark mode detection	Yes	Varies
Figma i18n locales (7 languages)	Yes	No
Desktop notifications	Yes	Browser-level
Auto desktop integration	Yes	Manual
Allow duplicate tabs (same file in multiple tabs)	Yes	No

How It Works

The build script performs a multi-stage pipeline:

1. Extract — Downloads (or uses a local copy of) FigmaSetup.exe, unpacks the Squirrel/NuGet package to reach app.asar
2. Patch — Applies Linux-specific fixes:
   • Enables native window frames (Figma ships with frame:false for custom titlebar)
   • Stubs Windows/macOS native modules (bindings.node, desktop_rust.node) with JS equivalents
   • Fixes handleCommandLineArgs to find figma:// URLs in Linux's argv layout
   • Hides the Electron menu bar while keeping the native frame
3. Package — Bundles a matching Electron binary + patched app.asar into your chosen format
4. Integrate — On first launch, the AppImage automatically registers a .desktop file and figma:// URI handler

Installation

Option 1: Download Pre-built AppImage (Recommended)

Grab the latest AppImage from the Releases page — no build step required:

chmod +x figma-desktop-*.AppImage
./figma-desktop-*.AppImage

On first launch the AppImage automatically:

• Creates a .desktop entry in ~/.local/share/applications/
• Registers itself as the figma:// URL handler
• Copies the Figma icon to your icon theme

After that, Figma appears in your application menu like any other app.

Option 2: Build from Source

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ (or the script installs it locally)
• p7zip — for extracting the Windows installer
• ImageMagick — for icon conversion
• wget — for downloading the installer

The build script auto-detects missing dependencies and installs them via apt (Debian/Ubuntu) or dnf (Fedora/RHEL).

Build & Run

git clone https://github.com/IliyaBrook/figma-linux.git
cd figma-linux

# Build an AppImage (default)
./build.sh

# Run it
chmod +x figma-desktop-*.AppImage
./figma-desktop-*.AppImage

Build Options

# Build a .deb package (Debian/Ubuntu)
./build.sh --build deb

# Build an .rpm package (Fedora/RHEL)
./build.sh --build rpm

# Build an AppImage (explicit)
./build.sh --build appimage

# Use a previously downloaded installer (skip download)
./build.sh --exe /path/to/FigmaSetup.exe

# Keep intermediate build files for debugging
./build.sh --clean no

Install Packages

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install ./figma-desktop_*.deb

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install ./figma-desktop-*.rpm

Makefile Shortcuts

make build          # Build AppImage (default)
make build-deb      # Build .deb
make build-rpm      # Build .rpm
make run            # Run the built AppImage
make run-debug      # Run with FIGMA_DEBUG=1 (logs to stdout)
make clean          # Remove all build artifacts
make url            # Print the latest Figma download URLs

MCP Server

When Figma Desktop is running, it exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server at:

http://127.0.0.1:3845/mcp

This is the same MCP endpoint available in the Windows/macOS clients. You can connect any MCP-compatible tool (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code extensions, etc.) to interact with the running Figma instance — inspect documents, export assets, run code generation, and more.

Display Server Support

The launcher handles both X11 and Wayland:

Environment	Behavior
X11	Works out of the box
Wayland (default)	Uses XWayland for compatibility
Wayland (native)	Set FIGMA_USE_WAYLAND=1 for native Wayland

# Force native Wayland mode
FIGMA_USE_WAYLAND=1 ./figma-desktop-*.AppImage

Extra Features

This build includes enhancements not available in the official Figma Desktop client:

Allow Duplicate Tabs

In the official Figma client, clicking a file that's already open simply switches to the existing tab — there's no way to open the same file in two tabs side by side. This build adds a "Allow Duplicate Tabs" toggle in the system tray menu.

How to use: Right-click the Figma icon in the system tray and check "Allow Duplicate Tabs". Now clicking any file (from Home, Starred, Recents, or anywhere) will always open it in a new tab, even if it's already open. Uncheck to restore the default behavior.

This is useful when you need to view different pages or sections of the same file simultaneously.

Debugging

Logs are written to ~/.cache/figma-desktop-linux/launcher.log.

# Run with debug output to terminal
FIGMA_DEBUG=1 ./figma-desktop-*.AppImage

# Or via Make
make run-debug

Setting FIGMA_DEBUG=1 enables verbose logging to stdout and automatically opens DevTools for the tray notification window (Feed).

Developer Tools Shortcuts

Figma Desktop includes built-in DevTools accessible via keyboard shortcuts (menu bar: Help → Troubleshooting):

Shortcut	What it opens
Ctrl+Alt+I	DevTools for the active tab (editor, files — main Figma content)
Shift+Ctrl+Alt+I	DevTools for the shell (window frame, tab bar, sidebar)

Tip: The menu bar is hidden by default. Press Alt to toggle it and access Help → Troubleshooting for additional debug options including saving debug info, network logs, and performance logs.

Architecture

figma-desktop-linux/
  build.sh                          # Main orchestrator
  Makefile                          # Build/run shortcuts
  get-url-x64.sh                   # Print latest Figma download URLs
  scripts/
    frame-fix-wrapper.js            # BrowserWindow monkey-patch for native frames
    figma-native-stub.js            # JS stubs for Windows/macOS native modules
    launcher-common.sh              # Shared X11/Wayland detection logic
    build-appimage.sh               # AppImage packaging
    build-deb-package.sh            # Debian packaging
    build-rpm-package.sh            # RPM packaging

What Gets Patched

• frame:!1 / frame:false in BrowserWindow options replaced with frame:true
• titleBarStyle:"hidden" replaced with "default"
• require("./bindings.node") redirected to figma-native-stub.js (40+ stubbed methods)
• require("./desktop_rust.node") redirected to stub
• handleCommandLineArgs rewritten to scan all argv entries (Linux passes CLI flags before the app path)
• package.json main entry updated to load frame-fix-wrapper.js before the original entry point
• openFileTab default parameter patched to support the "Allow Duplicate Tabs" toggle via system tray

Known Limitations

• No auto-updates — The Squirrel updater is Windows-only. Rebuild to update to a new version.
• No eyedropper tool — Requires native screen capture (bindings.node), which is stubbed.
• x86_64 only — Figma's Windows installer is x86_64-only.

License

This project provides build tooling only. Figma Desktop is proprietary software owned by Figma, Inc. By using this project you agree to Figma's Terms of Service.