Figma .fig File — Proprietary Binary Format

Key Takeaways

.fig file = ZIP archive containing canvas.fig (binary, magic bytes fig-kiwij, proprietary compressed format)
Image assets (photos, icons) stored as regular files inside the ZIP — accessible via unzip
Layer positions, offsets, component definitions, and text content NOT accessible without Figma
strings command on canvas.fig returns nothing useful — the binary is compressed/encoded
Figma plugins cannot be installed from terminal — only through Figma Desktop or Browser UI

Details

A .fig file can be unzipped:

unzip design.fig -d design_extracted/
# → canvas.fig   (the binary, ~95% of file size)
# → images/      (PNG/JPEG assets referenced in the design)
# → thumbnails/  (preview images)

The canvas.fig file has magic bytes fig-kiwij and is a proprietary compressed binary. It is NOT parseable without the Figma proprietary decoder — strings, jq, binwalk, and similar tools yield nothing useful.

What You Can and Cannot Do

Goal	Approach	Works?
Extract image assets from .fig	`unzip file.fig -d out/`	✅ Yes
Read layer names / positions	`unzip` + parse `canvas.fig`	❌ No
Read component structure	`unzip` + parse `canvas.fig`	❌ No
Read text content	`unzip` + parse `canvas.fig`	❌ No
Full design data	Figma REST API (`GET /v1/files/:key`)	✅ Yes (requires key)
Full design data from local file	Figma Desktop (File → Export)	✅ Yes

Figma REST API Alternative

To get layer/component/text data programmatically:

curl -H "X-Figma-Token: $FIGMA_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.figma.com/v1/files/$FILE_KEY" | jq '.document'

The FILE_KEY is the hash from the Figma URL: figma.com/design/{FILE_KEY}/...

Context

Discovered while attempting to parse a .fig file locally to extract component information for a project setup. The Figma MCP server (plugin:figma) uses the Figma REST API under the hood — it requires the file to be in Figma's cloud, not a local .fig file.

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