Figma Weave API Timeout: How to Fix 504 and Connection Drops

Figma Weave connections frequently time out when resolving large-scale design tokens, processing deeply nested component libraries, or fetching complex vector geometries over the REST API. When the connection times out, you will typically see HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout errors, client-side TCP connection drops, or incomplete data payloads.

This guide explains how to isolate the cause of Figma Weave API timeout errors and optimize your setup to prevent connection drops.

1. Check Figma's API Status and Local Network Before modifying your codebase, rule out systemic outages or localized network bottlenecks. 1. Visit the official Figma Status page (`status.figma.com`) to verify if the Design Public API or Figma Weave infrastructure is experiencing degraded performance. 2. Disable any local VPNs, firewalls, or corporate proxies that inspect SSL/TLS traffic. These systems often terminate long-polling connections or HTTP requests that exceed 10–15 seconds. 3. Run a traceroute to `api.figma.com` from your terminal to identify any routing latency or packet loss issues: ```bash traceroute api.figma.com ```

2. Reduce the Depth and Scope of Your Queries Fetching a massive Figma file with multiple nested pages is the most common cause of a Weave API timeout. By default, querying a file returns the entire node tree, which overwhelms the parsing engine. 1. **Use Specific Node IDs**: Instead of calling the entire file path, target specific frames or components using the `ids` query parameter. This limits the Figma API payload to only the components you need to parse: ``` https://api.figma.com/v1/files/:file_key/nodes?ids=1:12,1:14 ``` 2. **Limit Depth**: If you are using the Weave SDK to crawl pages, set the query depth parameter to retrieve only top-level design nodes. Avoid fetching deep vector geometries unless absolutely necessary. 3. **Isolate Style and Token Collections**: Keep design system tokens on a dedicated Figma page. Querying a lightweight page with only token variables is significantly faster than querying a page containing complex layout grids and high-resolution images.

3. Adjust Client-Side Timeout Limits If your script or build pipeline uses standard Fetch, Axios, or the Figma Weave SDK, the default client-side timeout might be set too low (often 5 to 10 seconds). You must explicitly extend this value to allow Figma's backend to process heavy design files.

If you are using Axios, increase the timeout configuration option: `javascript const axiosInstance = axios.create({ baseURL: 'https://api.figma.com/v1/', timeout: 30000, // Extend timeout limit to 30 seconds headers: { 'X-Figma-Token': process.env.FIGMA_ACCESS_TOKEN } }); `

If you are using the native Fetch API, implement an AbortController to handle and customize timeout thresholds manually: `javascript const controller = new AbortController(); const timeoutId = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 30000); // 30-second limit

try { const response = await fetch('https://api.figma.com/v1/files/FILE_KEY', { signal: controller.signal, headers: { 'X-Figma-Token': 'YOUR_TOKEN' } }); const data = await response.json(); } catch (error) { if (error.name === 'AbortError') { console.error('The Figma Weave request timed out after 30 seconds.'); } } finally { clearTimeout(timeoutId); } `

4. Implement Chunked Node Requests If you must extract data from hundreds of design frames, querying them all in a single batch will inevitably trigger a timeout. Split your requests into chunks to keep response times low and predictable. 1. Create an array of all target node IDs. 2. Divide the array into smaller chunks (e.g., 20–30 node IDs per request). 3. Fetch the chunks sequentially or in parallel using a controlled concurrency library (like `p-limit` in Node.js) to avoid hitting Figma API rate limits simultaneously.

5. Clear Local Build and Weave Caches Stale local caches can cause mismatch conflicts between the Figma API schemas and your SDK parser, leading to hung processes that look like network timeouts. 1. Delete the local cache folder of your build tool (such as `.next`, `.svelte-kit`, or `node_modules/.cache`). 2. Clear your package manager cache: ```bash npm cache clean --force # Or for Yarn yarn cache clean ``` 3. Re-run your Weave pipeline with clean dependencies.

When to Escalate If you have optimized your payload size, verified your local network, and extended your client-side timeout settings to over 60 seconds but still get timeout errors, the issue may lie with the Figma file itself (e.g., corrupted file history or excessive memory usage). Contact your Figma workspace administrator to check the file's memory usage via the Developer Console inside Figma, or file a bug report with Figma Developer Support with your file key and the target node IDs.