Figma rolls out Plugin API v2 with persistent background workers and native ML bindings

Tech · 5 min read

Figma launched Plugin API v2, which supports persistent background workers that can maintain long-lived state and handle asynchronous tasks even when the main editor is idle. This enables plugins to perform background linting, analytics aggregation, and queued asset exports.

Crucially, v2 exposes native bindings to platform ML accelerators (on-device GPU/NPUs) through a secure sandbox so plugins can run models for tasks like layout suggestions or image enhancement without shipping large models in JavaScript.

Figma also added improved permission scopes and audit logs for enterprise admins. Plugin authors must declare long-running capabilities and adhere to new usage quotas to protect editor performance.