Introducing Fio: The Visual Canvas Where Every Block Is Real Code

The Design-to-Code Gap Is Broken

Every product team knows this workflow: designers create beautiful prototypes in Figma, then developers spend days rebuilding everything from scratch. The handoff involves screenshots, Slack threads, endless "what's the spacing here?" questions, and code that never quite matches the original vision.

The design isn't the code. The code isn't the design. They're two separate things that need constant synchronisation.

This is broken.

What Is Fio?

Fio is the first visual canvas where every block is a real React component. Not a representation. Not an approximation. The actual code.

Drag a Button onto the canvas—it's a real <Button> component. Style it with Tailwind classes—those classes exist in your codebase. Connect components together—that's real component composition. What you design IS the code.

No handoff. No translation layer. No rebuilding.

The Problem We're Solving

The design-to-code workflow wastes thousands of developer hours every week:

• Designers work in tools disconnected from code - they create specs that developers must manually translate
• Design systems drift from implementation - the Button in Figma doesn't match the Button in React
• Token extraction is manual labour - developers eyeball colours, measure spacing, guess at shadows
• AI tools need context - feeding design context to Cursor or v0 means copying screenshots and writing detailed prompts
• Production code needs real components - prototyping tools export garbage code that gets thrown away

We built Fio because we were tired of designing interfaces twice—once in a design tool, then again in code.

How Fio Works

Fio collapses the design-to-code workflow into a single step:

1. Extract Design Tokens from Any URL

Point Fio at any website. In <60 seconds, it extracts colours, typography, spacing, shadows—every design token. These become your design system foundation.

No more colour-picking from screenshots. No more guessing font weights. Fio captures the actual values.

2. Design with Real Components

Our canvas includes 225+ production-ready components from shadcn, Magic UI, and Aceternity. Every component is:

• Built with React and TypeScript
• Styled with Tailwind CSS
• Accessible by default (ARIA compliant)
• Responsive and production-ready

Drag a Card component. It's not a rectangle that will become a card later—it's the actual <Card> you'll ship. Nest a Button inside. That's real component composition.

3. Export to Your Workflow

When you're done designing, Fio exports to multiple formats:

• Tailwind CSS - utility classes ready to paste into your codebase
• CSS - standard stylesheets for any framework
• AI prompts - structured context for Cursor, v0, or any AI coding assistant

The design you created is the code you deploy. No translation. No drift.

Who Fio Is For

Developers who design - You understand React and Tailwind. You want to prototype interfaces without leaving your technical context. Fio speaks your language.

Designers who code - You know enough React to be dangerous. You want your designs to be production-ready from the start. Fio removes the handoff.

Product teams shipping fast - You don't have time for a multi-week design process. You need to iterate in hours, not days. Fio is built for speed.

Solo founders building MVPs - You're designer, developer, and product manager. You need tools that don't slow you down. Fio gives you a complete component library and design system out of the box.

Why We Built Fio

The web development community has built incredible tools: React gave us component thinking, Tailwind made styling fast, shadcn proved that copy-paste components work, AI coding assistants accelerated implementation.

But the design tools didn't evolve. We're still using pixel-pushing interfaces built for print designers, then manually translating everything to code.

We asked: what if the canvas understood React? What if dragging a component meant instantiating it, not drawing a rectangle? What if styling meant writing Tailwind classes, not adjusting sliders?

Fio is the answer. A canvas that speaks developer natively.

The Vision: Design and Code Convergence

This is just the beginning. We're building toward a future where:

• Design systems are living code - not separate Figma files that need constant syncing
• Prototypes become production - the MVP you build in Fio ships to customers
• AI workflows start with real components - feed your AI assistant actual React code, not vague descriptions
• Teams collaborate in code from day one - designers and developers work in the same environment, with the same components
• Visual editing doesn't mean no-code - it means writing code faster with visual feedback

We're not trying to replace your IDE. We're building the layer between "idea" and "code"—the place where you experiment, iterate, and prototype before committing to implementation.

What Might Come Next

The roadmap is driven by real workflows:

• Component customisation - bring your own component library, not just our curated 225+
• State and interactivity - design with real props, hooks, and event handlers
• Responsive design tools - breakpoint-specific layouts with mobile-first defaults
• Team collaboration - multiplayer editing, version control, component sharing
• Deeper AI integration - generate components from prompts, then refine visually
• Direct code sync - two-way binding between Fio and your codebase

But we're starting with the foundation: a canvas that understands code.

Different by Design

Fio isn't a prototyping tool that exports code as an afterthought. It isn't a design tool with a developer handoff feature. It isn't a no-code builder pretending to be a coding environment.

Fio is a real code canvas. The components you drag are the components you ship. The tokens you extract are the values in your stylesheet. The design you create is the code you deploy.

No approximation. No translation. No gap.

Try Fio Today

We're opening access to teams who want to collapse their design-to-code workflow.

Point Fio at your website. Extract your design system in <60 seconds. Start designing with 225+ real React components. Export to Tailwind, CSS, or your AI workflow.

Visit fio.so to join the waitlist.

The design-to-code gap ends here.