Publish a library

This article is available for both the previous Figma UI and the new Figma UI. Use the toggle at the bottom left of the page to select your current UI. Get to know UI3: Figma’s redesign →

Who can use this feature

Available on all paid plans

Requires a full design seat with edit access to the library's source file

Publish a library to share common design elements—like buttons, icons, pieces of UI, colors, or values for certain properties—with the rest of your team. Other people can use these design elements in their files, which helps everyone stay consistent.

When you first create a style, component, or variable in a file, it is only accessible from that file. To make it available in other files, you need to publish it as a library.

If you make changes to these assets or add new ones, you can publish them as updates to the library. People using the library in their files can quickly review the changes and automatically update their designs.

Note: Libraries are only available on paid plans. You can still create components and styles on the free Starter plan, but you can't publish them in a library to access them in other files.

To publish a design file as a library, there needs to be at least one component, style, or variable in the file. If the file is in your drafts, you’ll need to move it to a project before publishing.

Once published, anyone with access to the library’s source file can use the library in their files.

Tip: A library inherits its name from the source file. Make sure you give your file a clear, meaningful name that helps people understand what it’s for, like ‘Habitz design system’, ‘UI3 library’, or ‘Website design kit’.

In a file with components, styles, or variables you’d like to share, select the Assets tab in the left sidebar.
Click Libraries.
From the Libraries tab, find your current file and click Publish.
Add a description of the library's purpose, or a summary of any decisions or changes.
From the list of styles, components, or variables that have been added, modified, or removed, uncheck any assets you don't want to publish. You can also uncheck Changes to deselect everything.
Organization and Enterprise plans only: Use the dropdown menu to choose where to publish the library.
Click Publish. A notification will appear confirming your library has been successfully published.

Tip: If you want to make sure certain components, styles, or variables never get published, you can hide them in the publishing flow. Right-click on any asset in the library modal and select Hide when publishing. To undo, right-click it again and select Show when publishing.

Why is the publish button not working?

If the publish button is deactivated, it might be one of the following reasons:

There are no components, styles, or variables in the file. Try creating a new one to see if the option to publish appears.
The library has no publishable changes. In this case, nothing has changed since the last time the library was published. Try editing a component, style or variable in the library. You may also need to check whether the design elements you’re editing are hidden from publishing.

Choose where to publish a library Organization and Enterprise

Organization or Enterprise plan users can publish libraries to a specific team or the whole organization. Enterprise plan users can also publish libraries to workspaces.

This helps libraries reach the right audience. For example, you might publish a company-wide design system library to the organization, or a library with mobile app components to the specific team working on the mobile app.

If the library’s source file has sharing permissions that are too restrictive, Figma will prompt you to change them. For example, if your file is set to Only invited people can access and you want to publish a library to the organization, you’ll be asked to change the file’s permissions to Everyone at your organization can access.

Publish updates to a library

If you make changes to a style, component, or variable in a library’s source file, those changes will only appear in the current file until you publish them. Publishing updates to a library follows the same process as publishing a library for the first time.

Note: Once you’ve publish updates to a library, people using the library will see a blue badge on the library icon in the left sidebar of their file. They can then review and accept the updates.

Tip: Every time you publish updates to a library, you'll be prompted to add a description. This allows you to communicate decisions and changes to the people who use your library.

Figma shows descriptions when accepting updates from a library, as well as in the file's version history.

Who can use this feature

Anyone on a paid plan.

Anyone with can edit access to a file can publish it to team libraries.

When you first create styles, components, and variables you can only access them in the current file. To use them in other files, you can publish them as a library.

Who can publish styles, components, and variables?

Education plan: team members with can edit team permissions can publish a library.
Professional plan: only members with a paid seat for Figma design on the team can publish a library.
Organization and Enterprise plans: only members with a paid seat for Figma design can publish a library.

Publish styles, components, and variables

Publish assets to your libraries from the Library modal. You can choose which styles, components, and variables you want to publish. The publishing process is the same for new libraries, as well as changes to existing libraries.

There are a few ways to access the Library modal from within a file:

Click on the Assets panel in the left sidebar.
Click the to open the library modal.

Assets panel open in the left sidebar with the cursor hovering over the team library icon

Use the keyboard shortcut:

Mac: ⌥ Option 3
Windows: Alt 3

Note: Libraries are only available on paid plans. You can still create and use components and styles on the free Starter plan, but you can't publish them to access them in other files.

Publish to a library

Every time you publish to a library, you'll be prompted to add a description. This allows you to communicate decisions and changes to the people who use your library.

Figma shows descriptions when accepting updates from a library, as well as in the file's version history.

Publish styles, components, and variables from the file where they live.

Open the library modal from the file ↑
Select the Libraries tab.
In the Current file section, click the Publish button.
Add a description of the library's purpose, or a summary of any decisions or changes.
View a list of changes to the library. This details any styles, components, or variables added, modified, or removed.
Choose which changes you want to publish:
- Check individual assets you do want to publish
- Uncheck individual assets you don't want to publish
- Uncheck Changes to deselect all styles and components
When you've finalized your assets, click the Publish button. Figma will show a notification to confirm your file has been successfully published.

Note: If you receive an error when attempting to publish a library, you may need to adjust your firewall settings →

Publish individual styles, components, or variables

If you are missing styles, components, or variables from a published file, or want to add more, you can publish them individually.

Click the Assets tab in the left sidebar or use the keyboard shortcut:
- MacOS: ⌥ Option 2
- Windows: Alt 2
Scroll down to the Hidden section, which will list any components that exist in the file, but haven't been published.
Right-click on the component and select Show when publishing. If you have hidden the component using the . or _ prefix, you will need to remove this.
Figma will notify you that your updates are successfully published.

Tip: You can quickly publish a component right from the canvas. Right click on the component you'd like to publish and select Publish selected components.

Publish updates to a library

If you make changes to a published style, component, or variable, it will only apply those changes to instances in the current file. If you want those changes to be reflected in your library, you will also need to publish those changes to the library.

Figma will display a blue dot on the Libraries icon in the top toolbar if there are any updates that need to be published.

A zoomed in image of the top toolbar in Figma. A cursor hovers over the Libraries icon, which is depicted as an open book. There is a blue dot in the top right corner of the Libraries icon.

Note: The Libraries icon will also display a blue badge if you there are library updates available for review. Learn more about reviewing and accepting library updates →

Open the Libraries panel by doing one of the following:
- Click the Libraries icon in the top toolbar.
- Select the Assets panel from the left sidebar, then click the Libraries icon.
Select the Libraries tab.
Add a description of any decisions or changes. This will show in the file's version history, and the Updates tab of the Libraries modal.
View a list of changes to the library. This details any styles and components added, modified, or removed.
Choose which changes you want to publish:
- Check individual components you do want to publish
- Uncheck individual components you don't want to publish
- Uncheck Changes to deselect all styles and components
When you've finalized your styles and components, click the Publish button. Figma will show a notification to confirm your file has been successfully published.

Note: If you are a member of an organization, you can also choose to share the library with your organization. This will allow other members of the organization to find and use styles and components from this file.

Check the box next to Allow any member of organization to access this file before you click Publish. Learn how add and remove libraries in an organization →

Tip: If you have styles and components you don't want to share, or are still a work in progress, you can hide them from publishing. When you're ready to share you can show them again to publish and share them.

···