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Figma restricts MCP access to whitelisted clients, excluding Pi

187 points · 106 comments · thdr

  1. miguel-muniz · · focus · HN ↗
    For context: Figma has two MCPs. The local "dev" MCP that works through the Desktop app, and the remote MCP that requires a connection to Figma. Companies need to be whitelisted to use the remote MCP, which is the only one that allows agents edit access to Figma documents.

    I only found out about Figma's limitation when I was trying to add the remote MCP server to GitHub Copilot Desktop and kept running into errors. Turns out they whitelisted GitHub Copilot CLI but not the Desktop app and had put a pause on enabling any more vendors. Eventually someone (not sure which side) got it working.

    Kind of strange to limit edit access only to the Remote MCP when their competitors like Pen[1] and Paper[2] allow any local agent to edit.

    [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pen.dev&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pen.dev&#x2F;

    [2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;paper.design&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;paper.design&#x2F;

    1. TeMPOraL · · focus · HN ↗
      They&#x27;re realizing what most product companies aren&#x27;t yet (at least not openly): AI subsumes products.

      Most companies seem to still be in denial about it, and hope that if they add some more AI into their product, or do it just right, it will make sense. But it won&#x27;t. AI is destined to sit on the outside, and products to be reduced into a bag of tools for AI to call.

      Taking away write access from AI tools outside their contractual control is an expected knee-jerk reaction, but it&#x27;ll probably just hasten the product&#x27;s slide into irrelevancy by ceding ground to competition (that will ultimately share the same fate, too, but is still in denial about it).

      1. miguel-muniz · · focus · HN ↗
        I imagine every CEO breaks out in night sweats thinking of the Chegg stock chart. I don&#x27;t envy them, these are hard waters to navigate and many of us are still blind as to where we are going. Seems like the new moat is just the data each company holds, I guess they&#x27;re holding onto it for dear life
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