Update Figma-imported screens from Figma

Overview

A screen imported from Figma can be refreshed from its Figma frame whenever the design changes, without losing the guides, annotations, variables, or other edits you've layered on top. Walnut re-reads the frame, rebuilds the screen, and stages the result as a pending update — the same review flow a recaptured screen goes through — so you can see which edits still match the new document before anything commits.

The screen's share link, embed, and analytics continue to point at the same screen. Only its underlying frame and layers are refreshed.

Prerequisites

• The screen's origin must be Figma import. Captured screens and template screens update through their own flows.
• Your workspace must be connected to Figma. See Import screens from Figma for the one-time setup.
• You need editor access to the storyline that holds the screen.
• The screen can't already have an update waiting for review — commit or revert the pending update first.

Update a single screen

1. In the storyline's screens sidebar, open the screen's menu and choose Update screen. (From the storyline Flows view, selecting Update screen on a Figma screen tells you to open it in the editor — Figma updates run inside the editor, not from the storyline page.)
2. The Update from Figma modal asks which frame to re-read:
   • Leave the link field empty to re-read the screen's own Figma frame — the usual case when the designer edited the frame in place.
   • Paste a link to a different frame in the same Figma file to point the screen at a new version — the usual case when the designer duplicated the old frame as "v2" beside it. In Figma, right-click the frame and choose Copy link to selection to get a frame link.
3. Click Update. Walnut re-reads the frame, re-renders it, and stages the result as the screen's pending update.
4. Open the update review on the screen to decide which edits still apply, then commit the update or revert it.

Update several screens at once

Each screen updates from its own frame — bulk update doesn't take a link.

1. In the screens sidebar, select the Figma-imported screens you want to refresh.
2. In the selection pill, click Update N screens from Figma.
3. Confirm in the modal. Walnut updates each selected screen one at a time to stay within your Figma rate budget.
4. Open the update review on each refreshed screen to commit or revert the changes.

Any screens in your selection that aren't Figma-imported are left alone, so you can select broadly without filtering first. If some screens in a batch fail, the rest still update and the failures are listed by name so you can retry them.

How a different frame keeps your edits

Your edits are anchored to the layers of the frame they were made against. Re-reading the same frame matches on its own, because the layers still carry the ids the edits were saved to.

When you point a screen at a different frame, Walnut pairs the layers of the two frames by name and type:

• The two frames pair with each other at the root.
• A child pairs with the old parent's child of the same name and type.
• Siblings that share a name and type pair in order, but only when both sides have the same number of them — a list that grew or shrank is left unpaired rather than shifted onto the wrong rows.
• A renamed or retyped layer doesn't pair.

Layers that pair keep the edits they held. Layers that don't pair — because they were renamed, retyped, added, or removed — show up in the update review as unmatched edits, so you can decide what to do with them rather than losing them silently.

Once you commit the update, the screen follows the new frame from then on, and future updates (from either the same frame or yet another duplicate) rename the same way, so edits made before the first duplicate keep flowing forward.

Limits and errors

Walnut will refuse the update and explain why in these cases:

• Only a screen imported from Figma can be updated from Figma. The screen's origin is a capture or a template.
• This screen was imported before updates were supported. Older imports didn't record the Figma file they came from. Paste a link to the frame to update it.
• This screen already has an update waiting for review. Commit or revert the pending update first.
• A screen made from a prototype state can't be updated from Figma. Overlays and variants composed on top of a base frame aren't a single frame that can be re-read.
• Link to a frame in the Figma file this screen was imported from. Figma node ids are only unique within a file, so Walnut won't follow a link into a different file.
• That link doesn't point at a frame. The link is to a page or file. In Figma, use Copy link to selection on the frame itself. Prototype links aren't accepted either — their target is the prototype's starting frame rather than a specific frame to update from.
• That frame could not be read from Figma. The frame may have been deleted, or Figma didn't answer in time. Try again, or paste a link to a different frame if the designer renamed or moved it.