Open Design

What is Open Design?

Open Design is an open-source, local-first design workspace that connects existing AI coding agents to a visual creation workflow. Instead of hiding the output inside a proprietary canvas, it generates runnable artifacts as files on the user's machine. The workspace combines agent adapters, reusable design skills, portable design systems, live preview, and direct file access.

How Open Design works

Connect an AI coding agent

Install the desktop app and local daemon, then connect a supported coding agent such as Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, or another compatible command-line agent. Open Design acts as the visual workspace while the selected agent performs the generation and editing work.

Define visual direction

Start from local files, a code repository, or exported design material. Reusable skills and portable design-system files give the agent guidance about layout, typography, color, motion, and component behavior, helping later artifacts retain a consistent visual language.

Generate and refine artifacts

Describe the desired result, inspect it in the preview environment, and continue refining it through the connected agent. Because the output remains accessible as ordinary project files, developers can review, version, modify, and ship the generated work with their existing tools.

What can Open Design create?

Open Design supports visual work that can be expressed as runnable files, including interface prototypes, web pages, presentation decks, dashboards, editorial layouts, brand systems, design systems, and HTML-based video. The exact result depends on the connected agent, model access, selected skills, and source material.

Open Design local-first access and license

The core project is published under the Apache 2.0 license and can be inspected, forked, or self-hosted. Its local-first approach keeps project artifacts on the user's machine and supports bring-your-own-model workflows. Model-provider usage and any optional hosted services remain separate from the open-source desktop workflow.