Quick Start

Getting Started

Install the plugin

Open Figma and go to the Community tab (or press ⌘/ to search). Search for Variable Master and click Install.

Open the plugin

In your Figma file, go to Main Menu → Plugins → Variable Master, or right-click on the canvas and choose it from the context menu.

Choose a tab

The plugin panel has three tabs: Swap, Find, and Import/Export. Each tab provides a focused set of tools for managing your design tokens.

The panel opens at 400 × 700px. All operations respect your chosen scope — selection, page, or file.

Start with the Find tab to understand your current variable landscape before running swap or export operations.

Swap

Variable Swap

Swap variable references from a source collection to a destination collection. Variables are matched by name and type.

How swapping works

Select source and destination collections

Choose from local or library collections. You can combine multiple collections on either side.

Review the match preview

Variable Master shows which source variables have a name-and-type match in the destination. Green dots indicate matched pairs.

Run the swap

All bound references in your chosen scope are updated. Fills, strokes, effects, gradients, layout grids, component properties, and more are handled.

Properties handled during swap

Property

Details

Fills

Solid and gradient fills. Gradient stop color variables are also swapped.

Strokes

Stroke color and weight variables.

Effects

Drop shadow, inner shadow color, blur radius variables.

Layout Grids

Count, offset, and gutter size variables.

Dimensions

Width, height, padding, gap, corner radius.

Opacity

Layer opacity bound to a FLOAT variable.

Component Props

Variant, boolean, text, and instance swap properties on instances.

Swapping is irreversible. Variable Master does not create undo checkpoints — use Figma's native undo (⌘Z) if needed, or duplicate your file before large-scale swaps.

Find

Find & Analyze

The Find tab lets you search, browse, and analyze variables across your file.

Find operations

Find All

List every variable in the selected scope with type, value, and usage count.

Filter variables by name. Search type supports exact match or contains.

Select Node

Click a variable result to select its bound layer on the canvas.

Unused Variables

Find variables not bound to any node. Great for cleaning up your token system.

Analyze Usage

See every layer using a specific variable. Select them all at once for review.

Scope Stats

Preview node count, variable count, and layers-with-variables before running.

Unused variables are highlighted in orange in the results list. Use the Analyze operation to double-check before deleting.

Tokens

Import / Export

Export variables to JSON and import them back into any Figma file. Ideal for migrating design tokens between projects or syncing across teams.

Export

Select collections

Choose which collections to export. You can export all or specific collections.

Download JSON

A structured JSON file is generated containing all variable definitions, values, and mode configurations.

Import

Paste or load JSON

Paste exported JSON or load a file. Variable Master validates the structure before proceeding.

Preview and resolve conflicts

See which variables will be created, updated, or skipped. Choose to skip duplicates, overwrite, or merge.

Import preserves variable modes if the destination collection supports them. Modes are matched by name.

Libraries

Library Support

Variable Master works with both local variables and variables imported from team libraries.

Source

Behaviour

Local

Full read/write access. Variables can be swapped, found, exported, and analyzed.

Library

Read-only reference. Swap works on bound references in your file — the library source is never modified.

Library collections are loaded on demand. If a library has many variables, Variable Master fetches them lazily to keep the panel responsive.

Scope

Scope & Selection

Every operation in Variable Master respects a scope setting. Choose how much of your file to process.

Scope

What it processes

Selection

Only selected nodes and their children. Fastest option for targeted updates.

Page

Every node on the current page.

File

Every node across all pages in the file. Use with caution on large files.

Before running, Variable Master shows scope stats: total nodes, variables, and layers with variables. This helps you verify you are processing the right content.

For large files, start with Selection scope to test your swap, then switch to Page or File once confident.

Tips

Tips & Tricks

Find before you swap

Use the Find tab to check variable names and match rates before running a swap. This avoids surprises.

Duplicate your file first

Large-scale swaps are hard to undo. Duplicate the file (⌘⇧D) before processing your entire design system.

Clean up with unused finder

Run Find Unused Variables to locate orphaned tokens. Delete them to reduce file size and improve panel load times.

Export for versioning

Export your token JSON before major refactors. You can re-import later if something goes wrong.

Use library-aware swaps

When migrating from local tokens to a library, set the source as local and destination as the library collection.

Check scope stats

The stats panel shows how many nodes and variables will be processed. Verify the numbers match your expectations.

Feedback

Figma Community plugin page.

Open on Figma

Variable Master Docs