Published Library Changes Pending Sync

This guide covers the scenario where a designer or a team member has published changes to the Figma component library, but those changes haven’t been synced to Grails yet.

What “published pending sync” means

In Figma, publishing a library makes a component (or style, or variable collection) available to consumers across the organization. Publishing is a deliberate, intentional act — it signals that the changes are ready.

Grails tracks two timestamps per entity:

• last_published_at — when the entity was last published in Figma.
• last_synced_at — when it was last synced to Grails.

When last_published_at is more recent than last_synced_at, the entity is flagged as “published but not synced” — a Level 1 priority situation.

Note

This signal is independent of Figma’s CHANGED status. An entity can have unpublished local edits (WIP) without triggering this. This trigger fires specifically when the library was published after the last Grails sync.

What you see in the plugin

When the Dashboard loads and detects published-but-unsynced entities, a red banner appears:

“Published library changes pending sync” Some changes were published to the Figma library but are not yet synced to Grails. Detail: “N published” Button: Review Published Changes

This banner has higher priority than the standard “Unsynced changes” amber banner. If both conditions exist, only the red published banner is shown.

Step-by-Step

1. See the red banner on the Dashboard

   The banner “Published library changes pending sync” appears. The count tells you how many entities are affected.

2. Click “Review Published Changes”

   The plugin navigates to the Review & Sync screen, pre-filtered to show only the entities that were published after the last Grails sync. You won’t see entities that are merely locally modified (WIP) — only the confirmed-published ones.

3. Review the pre-selected list

   Each affected item shows a Published badge (red) in addition to the Modified badge (amber):

   Badge	Meaning
   Modified (amber)	Hash changed since last sync
   Published (red)	Was published to the Figma library after the last Grails sync — high confidence these are ready

   The items are organized by type (Components, Variable Collections, Paint Styles, Text Styles) in collapsible groups.

4. Adjust the selection if needed

   All published-pending items are pre-selected. You can:

   • Uncheck anything you want to postpone.
   • Switch to “All” filter tab to also include non-published modified items in the same sync.

5. Add a Sync note (optional)

   Example: “Library publish 2026-06-19 — button and input updates”

6. Click Sync Now

   The sync pipeline runs for all selected entities. After completion, the red banner disappears from the Dashboard.

Why published changes matter more

Changes published to the Figma library are immediately available to consumers — every designer using the library component in their files receives the update automatically. If Grails is not kept in sync, the Vault diverges from what’s live in the organization’s design system.

Prioritizing the sync of published changes ensures that Grails remains the source of truth that reflects the current, published state of the DS.

What about unpublished changes?

Entities with local Figma edits that haven’t been published yet appear with a WIP or Modified status — not with the Published badge. Those show up in the standard “Unsynced changes” amber banner flow and can be synced or ignored at your discretion.

Use the Syncing DS Changes workflow for those.