Design Rails vs Figma
Figma templates give you a starting point for design systems. But they assume you have a designer to customize them—and they don't output agent context.
Use Figma templates if you have designers who will customize them and create production assets.
Use Design Rails if you're a developer-founder who needs agent-ready files without Figma expertise.
| Feature | Figma | Design Rails |
|---|---|---|
| Requires Figma skill | Yes | No |
| Customization depth | Complete control | Guided choices |
| Outputs code/tokens | With plugins | Native |
| Agent context (.md) | No | Yes |
| Logo design | Manual | Generated |
| Time to usable output | Hours-weeks | ~30 minutes |
Design team building
Your designers need tailored mockups, detailed specs, and the ability to iterate visually before handing off to engineering.
Solo founder shipping
You don't have designers. You need Claude to generate consistent UI. You need something you can drop into your repo today.
Designers exploring fast
Use Design Rails to rapidly generate a design system starting point, then import into Figma for revisions. Skip the blank canvas and start with a cohesive foundation.
The bottom line
Figma templates are a starting point for designers. Design Rails is a complete solution for developer-founders. If you have a Figma-fluent team, a template might be the right foundation. If you're building alone with AI coding agents, Design Rails gives you the agent-ready context without the Figma detour.
Ready to give your AI design context?
Create your brand identity and get agent-ready files in about 30 minutes.