Alex Kern (@kernio) header
Alex Kern (@kernio) profile picture

code and canvas. @figma ai via @dynaboard, prev @coinbase via @_dsys, @CalHacks

Joined January 2009
Photo by Alex Kern (@kernio)Photo by Alex Kern (@kernio)Photo by Alex Kern (@kernio)
Today, we’re unveiling a suite of code-backed primitives that raise the ceiling of what’s possible in the @figma canvas: - code repos as layers - shaders - motion - weave tools - generative plugins All orchestrated by AI agents and natively composable.
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Alex Kern retweeted
Excited to share more about the work behind Figma's first-party model: a specialized model for design editing that competes with top models. When we set out to build an agent, we wanted a model that understands design concepts and Figma's tools to help you quickly make edits on the canvas. We started with supervised fine-tuning (SFT) using Figma's native file format, pairing designs with synthetic edit requests. Deterministic validators, visual judges, and a self-healing pipeline helped evaluate and refine our outputs. We've since added reinforcement learning (RL) to our recipe to push for more improvements. Design is subjective, but we can still evaluate structural correctness, visual alignment, and request fulfillment using judges calibrated with expert designers. That includes checking whether an edit preserves everything it should. AI models often create unintended changes like dropped text or mismatched chart labels that we need to catch. Proud of the work of our incredible AI research team. Read more about the model here, and if this work sounds interesting, come join the team!
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Alex Kern retweeted
We built a CPU in @Figma to run Figma in Figma. CC @zoink
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ReLU is All You Need
My dear friends, I’d like to show you my latest toy project Introducing Handwired: turn your regular JavaScript code into a neural net! - no training - exact outputs vs the JS program - fully differentiable All runnable in a browser, without GPU
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Code is the material
you'll do your best work in a tool that allows you to be whimsical, too! 🔊🔊🔊 — lol i've lost hours building fun stuff like this with code layers… @figma code layers starting to roll out into open beta TODAY! incredibly excited to see what you'll cook!
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In context, at home, on brand.
We shared a sneak peek of a new dedicated place to bring all the pieces of your design system together, plus a couple updates: → Guidelines (open beta) → Code sources (closed beta) Live from Config India
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The Holographic Principle of Software: Software is now defined by its observable behavior, not its implementation. Agents have turned the bulk into the boundary.
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Anti-de Slopper space/conformal function theory correspondence
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Today’s the day. Code layers rolling out now. Push and pull from real repositories, instantly branch with option-drag, and build anything you can dream of with best-in-class models and MCP support.
When we announced Code Layers earlier this year, we wanted design and code to live side by side so you can collaborate with code directly on the Figma canvas. Excited to share it's now rolling out in open beta!
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Build full-stack apps in Figma Make. Incredible working with the @payloadcms team to make this happen!
We’re bringing the power of Payload into Figma → Create, build, ship with real data and content now in Figma Make Live from Config India
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Copy webpage, paste on canvas, start building.
Wake up babe the Figma Chrome extension can now capture your website code and bring into Figma as a code layer Live from Config India
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Specs have transformed how we build at Figma. Integration with Code Layers, the Figma Agent, and Figma MCP Server makes them so much more than a markdown editor: they’re collaborative artifacts for you, your teammates, and your agents to get work done together.
Introducing Specs! A new medium for markdown on the Figma canvas. You can think of Specs as a container for your context. Use MCP, Github, etc to move context in/out of Figma and across the Figma platform. Specs is rolling out in open beta over the next few weeks!
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Alex Kern retweeted
Gemini 4 Argon is now rolling out to Figma Make Early tests show it’s great for: → Building interactive prototypes, 3D visuals, and games → Creating detailed SVG animations and realistic motion effects → Independently exploring visual directions before choosing one → Tackling complex, multi-step coding tasks
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Alex Kern retweeted
codebases have always contained slop. we have always been okay with this because code rarely needs to be perfect, outside of mission critical "hard" (eg embedded) software. swe is a unique form of engineering because you're often building something that constantly evolves and is almost organic - user tastes change, your mental models evolve, and features come and go. admittedly, i and many others who've been coding for a long time were initially (like back in 2024) skeptical that agents would write production code. "but what about all the slop that would enter our beautiful codebase?". well, even before, we had human slop, and there was a lot of it! if we're being truthful, most people call "code i didn't write" slop. the reality is that 99% of people (i include myself in that number) don't even know what Good Code looks like, let alone be capable of writing it. i would propose that Good Code is: • correct • bug free • fast and cost efficient to run it has always been exceedingly difficult and expensive to write truly Good Code, because for the longest time (maybe @bendlang will change that), code was not something you could cheaply and formally guarantee to have all 3 of these properties. this is why writing hard software is much more difficult and expensive, because depending on the use case, you may only get one chance and so you have to be right from the start. but the vast majority of software we use does not need to be Good Code to provide value to users. in fact, it is very likely that most software we use is not formally verifiable! we accepted some bugs in exchange for velocity and progress, so we rely on tests and o11y instead and have adopted a more incremental approach. this is a good thing! agents help us move faster, and if you're open to the idea, are capable of helping us write better code. it won't be Good Code (that is still expensive), but it is likely to be much better on average at scale. the new craft of swe is to figure out how to do this. it's your job now! if your productivity with and without agents is not significantly different, you're doing something wrong. but it's not too late to embrace it and use it as an opportunity to learn a whole new skill tree
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Alex Kern retweeted
Find your flow(state) Figma agent is now out of beta
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Alex Kern retweeted
Dev Mode, now in Codex. Available in the Figma plugin.
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Alex Kern retweeted
Made a cool shader or plugin? Time to publish it to Community
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Alex Kern retweeted
Breaking news: things are going well. $FIG Q2 2026 results: → $370M in revenue → 48% YoY revenue growth rate, the 3rd straight quarter of accelerated growth → 136% Net Dollar Retention Rate
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Prompt with your mouse
Introducing: a new properties panel and annotations in Figma Make Directly edit your designs and prototypes built in code
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Alex Kern retweeted
hello there the jacobian conjecture is false thanx to my close friend akhil for asking about it and my other close friend fable for working during the world cup final ((1+xy)^3 z + y^2 (1+xy) (4+3xy), y + 3 x (1+xy)^2 z + 3 x y^2 (4+3xy), 2 x - 3 x^2 y - x^3 z): \C^3\to \C^3, has jacobian determinant -2, and sends (0, 0, -1/4), (1, -3/2, 13/2), and (-1, 3/2, 13/2) to (-1/4, 0, 0)
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/goooooooooooooool
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