Figma's Dylan Field on MCP: Useful, but Not Perfect

Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field has said the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows AI agents to connect with external tools, is not perfect and tends to favour leading AI companies. Field made the comments during a media briefing in India around Figma's first Config conference in the country, according to a TechCrunch report published on 20 October 2026. His remarks are significant because Figma is one of the largest design platforms to adopt MCP, yet its CEO has openly raised concerns about the standard's limitations.

This article draws on TechCrunch's coverage of the briefing and Figma's official announcement about its plans in India. The quotes come from those sources and are not based on a direct interview with Field.

What Field Said About MCP

According to TechCrunch, Field told reporters that Figma wants to make its ecosystem more open, but he sees limitations in the Model Context Protocol (MCP). He described it as "not a perfect protocol" and said it is "advantaged more to frontier labs." Field believes there is considerable room for improvement and that users should be able to access their Figma data through a protocol if they choose.

Field also explained why Figma is cautious about opening its platform completely. According to TechCrunch, giving outside tools greater access to data through MCP could increase the risk of misuse. While he acknowledged that most users do not have harmful intentions, Figma still needs to consider the potential risks. The company therefore aims to support different standards without making all its data accessible.

The Dispute Before the Briefing

Field's comments came after a public exchange in late September. According to TechCrunch, a co-creator of MCP criticised Figma on 30 September 2026 for not supporting Pi, an open-source tool. Field responded on X by questioning why Anthropic, which created MCP, does not make artifacts and other cloud resources generated through the protocol available to outside tools. He argued that discussions about openness often focus on whether a platform is open or closed, while overlooking differences in how companies share data and context. Field later confirmed that Figma plans to support Pi.

The exchange helps explain Field's concerns. Although MCP is intended to be a neutral standard, he believes it can favour the AI companies whose assistants use it. Platforms such as Figma allow these assistants to access their data, but the assistants may not make the content they generate available for other tools to use. This is Field's view, and TechCrunch's report does not include a response from Anthropic.

Figma's Config India Announcements

The briefing took place around Figma's Config India conference, where the company announced 20 new MCP partners, according to TechCrunch. These include Amp, ClickUp, Dia, JetBrains' Junie, Linear, Meta's Muse, Mistral, Notion, OpenCode and Sarvam Agents. In its official announcement, published on 15 October 2026, Figma named Sarvam's Indus model as its first India-focused MCP partner. The company also said its protocol integration works with tools including Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Xcode and VS Code.

Figma also shared figures highlighting its presence in India. According to the company, Config India attracted more than 30,000 registrations across in-person and online attendance. As of 30 June 2026, India was its second-largest market by daily active users. Figma says more than 40% of companies in the BSE100 used its platform as of the second quarter of 2026. Its community programme has 23 chapters and over 33,000 members across India. In a survey of 507 Indian respondents, conducted as part of a global study involving more than 1,800 people, 65% of Indian builders said they were excited about changes in how people work, compared with 44% in the US and EMEA.

Figma also quoted Field saying that as code becomes more commoditised, design is becoming a stronger differentiator. His comments help explain the importance of MCP to the company's business. If AI agents can generate code more easily, a design platform's value will partly depend on how effectively those agents can access and update designs. That makes the rules governing data access and sharing commercially important.

Why the Protocol Debate Matters for Figma

MCP is often presented as a neutral way for AI assistants to connect with external tools, but Field's comments show that it also raises business concerns. When a platform shares more data through the protocol, it becomes more useful to AI assistants. At the same time, those assistants gain greater access to its information. Field's concerns about misuse highlight the security risks, while his criticism of how Anthropic handles artifacts points to the commercial implications.

Two points are worth keeping in mind. First, TechCrunch's report is based on a media briefing, so Field's remarks may have been shortened or summarised by the reporter. Second, part of the disagreement concerns Figma's lack of support for Pi, an integration Field says the company plans to add. That could resolve some of the immediate concerns, even if the wider debate over openness and data sharing continues.

What to Watch Next

Several developments will show how this debate moves forward. The first is whether Figma expands its list of MCP partners and adds support for open-source tools such as Pi. Another is whether Anthropic or the MCP maintainers address Field's concerns about access to artifacts, and whether changes to the protocol's governance give tool providers more influence.

Figma's approach to data sharing will also be worth watching. The company wants to support multiple standards while managing the risk of misuse. How it balances these priorities as more AI agents connect to its platform will help show whether greater openness can work alongside strong data protection.