I Found a Tool That Actually Beats Traditional Figma-to-Code Tools

Introduction

Developers are always looking to add new features and updates when maintaining live products. These updates could improve the user experience or introduce a new feature to enhance the application. However, it can be tricky to add new features and UI to an existing app without breaking what already works, especially when using Figma-to-code plugins.

Traditional Figma-to-code tools are great for building designs from scratch through Figma links. But it is a different game when adding UI to mature codebases. Kombai is one of the Frontend Agents you can find that bridges this gap. It helps developers add new features without compromising the structure of the existing code. Other alternatives, like Animapp, struggle to maintain the existing app structure while adding a new feature.

This blog will demonstrate practical scenarios where Kombai stands out against other alternatives.

How Traditional Figma-to-code Tools Handle New Updates/Features

Adding new features to existing applications is great with Kombai, but not as seamless as with other Figma-to-code tools. A lot of them either require changing the codebase's architecture or rebuilding the whole application from scratch. This limitation can break the existing codebase, leading developers to encounter numerous errors in production.

Although these tools can add new features in other ways, Kombai remains one of the best at performing this task with a simple prompt. Traditional Figma-to-code tools rely on screenshots or other representations to produce a practical UI component. It may also require that you have already built a design system with variables, components, and styles. These all come with some disadvantages, which include;

• Requiring developers to generate new code and leaving the existing structure.
• Developers might also encounter common issues like overwritten styles, duplicated components, and conflicting folder structures.
• This problem also forces developers to rebuild or manually merge code every time.

How Kombai Solves This Problem

Kombai is one of the best AI Frontend Agents, helping developers add new features and updates without issues. With a single prompt, it can read your existing codebase and file structure to create new UIs and components that are production-ready. With Kombai, almost every issue you might encounter with other alternatives is solved. So, developers can;

• Generate code that considers the architecture of their existing codebase.
• Use their existing tech stack, routers, and UI component library.
• Add new components without touching what's already in production.
• Map designs to the current code structure, naming conventions, and other design elements.
• Make feature enhancements feel more like extending the system than recreating it.

Real-World Scenario: Kombai vs. Anima App

In this section, we will explore real-world use cases for Kombai, add new features to existing applications, and compare it with Animapp and another Figma-to-code tool.

Use Case 1: Display; Kombai Vs. Anima App.

We already have a site that we want to display. With Kombai, some features appear different; Kombai offers a better UI, while the Anima app shows limitations, as it cannot accurately recreate the existing code structure or UI.

Here is a display difference between the same site with Kombai and Animapp.

Anima App, on the other hand, creates this UI with overlapping spaces on the right side of the screen.

This output illustrates one of the advantages of Kombai as a Frontend Agent compared to other Figma-to-code tools, such as the Anima app. With Kombai, your code remains intact, and developers will not experience poor UI display of the component.

Use Case 2 – Adding New Features; Kombai Vs Animapp

When adding a new feature to existing applications, Kombai also beats Anima app. We added a new feature to an existing dashboard page using Kombai and Anima with the same prompt.

Here is how the page looks before adding the prompt.

The prompt below reads, ' Add categories of products sold and payment method used to the Dashboard Page.'

Adding this prompt brings a new feature to the Frontend UI. Compared to its previous look, the dashboard now includes product categories and payment methods.

Anima app had a different result while approaching the same prompt on an identical codebase. This tool encountered several errors while adding new features to an existing codebase.

The result in the Anima app included multiple errors, preventing the addition of new features.

Other Effective Alternative: Kombai vs. Builder.io

We tried Builder.io, which added a new feature. However, the output differs slightly from Kombai. Kombai UI designs offer more in-depth design and more clarity.

We have the same dashboard here that Kombai worked on. We also added the same prompt as Kombai.

Builder's Result? This prompt created a new product category and payment method component. But without more depth on the design of specific categories or payment methods that would be included.

Kombai's Result: As displayed below again, Kombai's approach and execution seem better than Builder.io, as it provides UI designs for specific payment methods and product categories. All the developer has to do is replace it with what they have. With builder.io, on the other hand, achieving this would require more code, either via prompts or manually, if prompts do not work.

When to Use Kombai vs Traditional Tools

Figma-to-code tools are all designed to help developers in different ways. But the question is how best to leverage them. It is important to understand their capabilities and weaknesses before deciding on the best use.

Kombai shines more in the hands of more technical developers with better knowledge of system designs and architecture. So, developers working on mature applications with well-defined architecture, reusable components, and patterns would have a better experience with Kombai.

It allows you to introduce new UI sections, enhance existing workflows, and extend complex designs. But that is not all, Kombai keeps your structure intact and plugs new components into your current system.

On the other hand, traditional Figma-to-code plugins are perfect for quick prototypes and other new projects you want to build from scratch. So, if you're going to start a project from zero, these tools can generate clean code with an existing structure.

With that established, it is advised to use Kombai Agent when;

• Updating a feature or making changes to a live product.
• Looking to preserve your existing UI component.
• You have a team that wants code that matches your project's current architecture.

Other traditional tools are great when:

• Building a Demo or prototype.
• Creating a brand new app from scratch.
• Generating code that does not need long-term maintenance.

The best usage is clear and depends on what the developer wants to achieve. However, Kombai's versatility means it can generate code for short- or long-term purposes.

Capabilities of Kombai

Kombai's primary capability as a Frontend agent is to turn a design file, images, prompts, and any existing project repo into production-ready code. Kombai excels in this and other aspects of frontend development. It understands your tech stack, analyzes your workspace, builds a clear plan, and produces clean code that aligns with your architecture. Here are some of the key capabilities of Kombai:

• Developers can work on UIs using multiple inputs: Figma URLs, text descriptions, screenshots, or a mix of these.
• Kombai can also detect and permit you to configure your tech stack, styling systems, and libraries.
• Produces code that reuses existing components, matches your patterns, and auto-fixes errors.
• It also lets you preview changes in a sandbox before finalizing and saving them to your workspace.

Wrapping Up

Upgrading an existing app without breaking its code structure is an incredible value that Kombai offers. It also supports various libraries and can be integrated into your favourite code editor as an extension. Although other tools without Kombai's ability can be used for demos and building from scratch, adding features to an existing codebase is where they struggle.

Kombai bridging this gap has given developers maintaining real products a real advantage. So, whether it's improving a dashboard and adding new UI elements or components, or extending complex workflows, Kombai is the fastest and most reliable Frontend Agent.