Design Branches in Figma: A Developer Workflow for Designers

Branching isn’t just for developers anymore.

Figma’s branching system brings version control, experimentation, and safe iteration to the design world—without needing Git. If you’re part of a team managing a complex design system or working in parallel with others, branching is about to become your new best friend.

Let’s break down how design branching works in Figma, and how to use it like a pro.

🌿 What Is Branching in Figma?

A branch in Figma is a separate version of a file or component library where you can safely:

Explore new ideas
Make large changes
Collaborate without breaking the main file

When you’re done, you can merge your branch back into the main file—just like in software development.

🧠 Why Branching Matters

Without branching, collaboration can get messy fast:

Changes overwrite each other
Experiments clutter live files
Design systems break when tokens or components get changed mid-project

Branching solves this by giving each contributor a sandbox that’s still connected to the core file.

🔁 The Basic Workflow

Create a Branch
- Click the down-arrow next to the file name → “Create Branch”
- Name it clearly: Add-New-Nav-Header, Dark-Mode-Refresh, etc.
Design Safely
- Tweak components
- Try new layouts
- Break stuff—you’re in a separate branch
Review + Compare
- Figma shows a side-by-side diff of changes
- View by page, component, or property
Merge
- Merge cleanly into main
- Resolve conflicts if someone else edited the same item

🧩 What You Can Use Branching For

Use Case	Example
New features	Design a new component or interaction
Refactoring components	Clean up a button library
Theming experiments	Apply new token modes to layouts
Dev feedback integration	Adjust designs without affecting live work
QA or accessibility review	Test color contrast, alt text, etc.

🔒 What Branching Does (and Doesn’t) Protect

✅ Keeps your edits isolated
✅ Prevents overwriting live libraries
✅ Lets reviewers preview changes safely
❌ Doesn’t version individual elements (no “undo merge”)
❌ Doesn’t automatically resolve all merge conflicts (you’ll need to review)

👨‍💻 Think Like a Developer: Best Practices

Name branches clearly: feature/button-refresh beats test123
One branch per task: Avoid “everything-changes” branches
Merge early, merge often: Don’t let branches get stale
Use branching for system work: Great for tokens, variables, modes

💬 Final Thoughts: Design Is Becoming More Like Code

As design systems grow in complexity, workflows like branching help teams stay organized, scalable, and safe.
Figma branching gives you the freedom to explore—with the control to deploy safely.

It’s time to stop being afraid of breaking the file.
Branch it. Build it. Merge it.