DEV Community

Cover image for From app design to running React code, without redrawing a single screen
Usman Bashir
Usman Bashir

Posted on Originally published at svglab.app

From app design to running React code, without redrawing a single screen

#ai #react #design #webdev

The slow part of building an app from a design is rarely the logic. It is rebuilding every screen by eye: which button is which, how far apart the cards sit, what happens on tap. SVG Lab (svglab.app) now hands that over three ways, and all three shipped between 10 and 19 October 2026.

1. Download the screens as a React app

In SVG Lab, switch to Prototype mode, press Build prompt and choose Download React code. You get a React app (Vite) of your screens, on every plan, for up to 200 screens, in about a second.

npm install
npm run dev
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The app follows the links and animations you set in Prototype mode: taps move between screens, tabs switch at once, switches flip, swiped rows go away, sliders drag, charts draw, and text effects such as Typewriter and Count up play when a screen opens. It is the front end only. The server, the data and sign-in are still yours to build.

2. Hand the design to Lovable, Bolt or v0

Same window, Copy prompt. The Build prompt lists every part of each screen with its position, its size and its words, how the screens link, and how each part moves at the timings you set. That means the coding tool knows which button is which without reading a picture. Copy prompt works without an account. Download with screen pictures adds a picture of each screen if your tool wants one.

3. Let your AI export native code through the SVG Lab MCP

If your screens were designed by an AI through the SVG Lab MCP and its Design Engine, the same AI can export them as HTML, React, SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, Flutter, or a layered SVG for Figma. Colours and fonts come out as design tokens, every drawing and icon is its own file (an icon used on every card is one file), and you get one download link that lasts 7 days.

You can also ask Codex, Claude or another connected AI app to build the app in your own repo from a saved design. Give it the project's link or name. It reads each screen's layout (rows, columns, spacing, what stretches, where each button goes) and pulls your drawings and icons as SVG or PNG files, so the code uses the real design, not a redrawn copy.

The MCP is remote: add https://svglab.app/mcp as a connector and sign in with OAuth. Setup per app is on svglab.app/mcp-setup.

What it costs

  • Download React code: every plan, Free included. It uses one of your plan's exports (Free has 3 a month), checked before it starts and counted only once the file is ready.
  • Copy prompt: free, no account needed.
  • The SVG Lab MCP: 100 free credits once per account, one tool call is one credit. Plans start at Starter, $7 a month for 2,500 credits.

What it is not

SVG Lab (svglab.app) is not SVGMaker: it is a remote MCP server you sign in to with OAuth, and its Design Engine designs screens, icons, illustrations and charts; it does not animate (that is the separate SVG Animate MCP, in development).

The full write-up, with the step list and FAQ, is on the SVG Lab blog: How do you turn app designs into code?

Top comments (0)