Fix Figma Weave API Request Timeout Errors

Developers integrating Figma Weave into custom pipelines, design system automation, or code generation workflows frequently encounter API request timeouts. These errors typically manifest as an HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout, HTTP 408 Request Timeout, or local SDK socket hang-ups (such as ETIMEDOUT or ECONNRESET).

When your requests to Figma Weave endpoints hang and eventually fail, the root cause is usually a combination of oversized Figma file payloads, overly complex layer hierarchies, restrictive local client timeout limits, or temporary gateway congestion on Figma's servers. Follow these structured troubleshooting steps to isolate the issue and restore connection stability.

Step 1: Isolate the source of the timeout Before changing your code, determine if the timeout is occurring on your local client, within your middle-tier server, or on the Figma Weave gateway.

1. Run a direct HTTP request: Use a CLI tool like curl or an API client like Postman to execute the exact same payload outside of your SDK environment.
2. Observe the execution time: If the raw HTTP request completes successfully but takes 15 seconds, and your application environment throws an error at exactly 10 seconds, your client-side SDK timeout threshold is configured too low.
3. Check the HTTP response code:
4. An HTTP 504 error indicates Figma's internal gateway timed out waiting for the upstream rendering/Weave engine to process your request.
5. An HTTP 408 or a socket hang-up usually indicates your client closed the connection prematurely, or a local firewall dropped the connection.

Step 2: Optimize and prune the payload Figma Weave processes design data to output code, variables, or layouts. Sending a request that references an entire Figma file containing hundreds of frames and thousands of nested vectors will quickly exhaust memory limits or exceed the maximum gateway processing time.

1. Query specific Node IDs: Do not point your Weave API calls to entire files. Instead, fetch specific component or frame Node IDs using the node_ids query parameter.
2. Flatten hidden layers: Before sending a node to the API, ensure your team has deleted or detached hidden, unused layers. Figma Weave still parses hidden layers in the document object model, which wastes processing overhead.
3. Reduce vector complexity: Frames containing high-resolution raster images or complex vector paths (such as raw maps or illustrations) cause Weave's layout analysis engine to lag. Strip or isolate these assets from the UI frames you are running through Weave.

Step 3: Adjust SDK connection and read timeouts If you are using the Figma Weave SDK or a standard HTTP library (like Axios or Fetch) in Node.js, the default client timeout is often set to a conservative limit (typically 5,000ms to 10,000ms). Because Weave performs generative layout tasks, deep analysis can take up to 30 seconds for complex frames.

Configure your HTTP client agent to allow a longer read window. For example, in an Axios-based node integration:

`javascript const instance = axios.create({ baseURL: 'https://api.figma.com/v1/weave', timeout: 45000, // Increase client-side timeout to 45 seconds headers: { 'X-Figma-Token': process.env.FIGMA_API_KEY } }); `

If you are running your integration inside serverless environments (like AWS Lambda or Vercel Functions), verify that your serverless function's execution limit is set higher than your API client timeout. Serverless functions often default to a 10-second or 15-second execution limit, which will prematurely kill your API calls.

Step 4: Implement exponential backoff and jitter If you are making concurrent calls to Figma Weave (for example, generating code for multiple components at once), you may be triggering rate limits that manifest as timeouts due to queued connection pools.

1. Queue your requests: Do not fire dozens of asynchronous requests in parallel. Limit concurrency using a pool library (like p-limit in JavaScript) to process 2 or 3 nodes at a time.
2. Implement retry logic with backoff: Configure your client to catch timeout codes, wait, and retry. Ensure you add "jitter" (randomized delay) to prevent your script from slamming the API repeatedly at identical intervals.

Step 5: Verify proxy and VPC configurations If your integration runs inside a corporate VPC, behind a reverse proxy (like Nginx), or through a corporate firewall, these intermediary systems often enforce their own strict timeout limits.

1. Inspect proxy logs: Check if your corporate proxy is returning a 504 Gateway Timeout before the Figma servers can even respond.
2. Bypass the proxy for testing: If possible, run a test call outside of your corporate network (on an open network or cellular hotspot) to determine if local network infrastructure is dropping long-lived TCP connections.

When to escalate If you have narrowed the target payload down to a single, simple frame (under 50 total elements), extended your client and serverless function timeouts to 60 seconds, and verified that no local proxy is dropping the connection, but you still consistently receive `HTTP 504` errors, the issue is likely on Figma's side. Check the official Figma status page for ongoing API or Weave performance degradation, and open a ticket with Figma Support, providing the specific file URL and Node IDs that are causing the timeout.