open-design/README.md

Open Design

The open-source Claude Design alternative.
Agent-native, local-first product-design platform. Native desktop app for macOS & Windows.

Website · All releases · Quickstart · Architecture · Discord · X / Twitter

Important

🔥 Open Design 0.8.0 is here. Design's old world ends here. Help us build the new one.

One folder upgrades anything — Plugins, Skills, Design Systems — into a reusable, agent-runnable artifact. New Skill registry, refreshed DESIGN.md Design Systems, brand-grade templates, and a clean upgrade path for 0.7.x projects.

🧩 Call for plugin authors. 0.8.0 lands the plugin marketplace foundation with 400+ official plugins across scenarios, image templates, video templates, atoms, design systems and examples. A plugin can:

• 🎨 Ship a full design brief (landing page, pitch deck, OKR scorecard) — see od-default · od-design-refine · od-new-generation.
• 🔁 Migrate Figma / Pencil → React / Next / Vue — see od-figma-migration · od-react-export · od-nextjs-export.
• 🛠️ Refresh an existing codebase to a brand — point at a git repo + DESIGN.md, get a PR. See od-code-migration.
• 🎬 Generate media — image / video / audio batches via od-media-generation.

Author your own → spec at plugins/spec/SPEC.md · agent-dev guide at plugins/spec/AGENT-DEVELOPMENT.md · contributing guide at plugins/spec/CONTRIBUTING.md. Drop a folder under plugins/_official/ or plugins/community/, open a PR — your plugin ships in the next release.

→ Read the announcement & changelog · 0.8.0 release · runs side-by-side with your current 0.7.

English · Español · Português · Deutsch · Français · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 한국어 · 日本語 · العربية · Русский · Українська · Türkçe

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What is Open Design

🎨 Local-first, open-source Claude Design alternative.  🖥️ Native desktop app for macOS & Windows.  ⚡ 100+ Skills · ✨ 100+ brand-grade DESIGN.md systems · 📦 400+ ready-to-use Plugins.  🖼️ Generate web · desktop · mobile prototypes, live dashboards / artifacts, slides, images, videos, and HyperFrames motion graphics. 🔒 Sandboxed iframe preview · HTML / PDF / PPTX / MP4 export.  🤖 Runs on Claude Code · OpenClaw · Codex · Cursor · OpenCode · Qwen · Copilot · Hermes · Kimi · Antigravity & 17+ local CLIs, or BYOK with any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Open Design is what happens when the agent-native loop Anthropic shipped with Claude Design — discover the brief, lock the direction, stream the artifact, critique, ship — stops being closed and starts being a filesystem of skills, design systems, and plugins the coding agent already on your laptop can read, write, and remix. Your CLI becomes the design engine. Your laptop becomes the workshop. Your team's DESIGN.md becomes the brand contract.

It is also the Figma alternative for the agent era — instead of pixel-pushing in a canvas, you ship a single-page artifact with real CSS, real fonts, real components, and real export to HTML / PDF / PPTX / MP4 — already shaped by your design system, already runnable inside the agents you use every day.

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Platform Compatibility

Open Design ships as Skills, CLIs, and an MCP server that mainstream coding agents consume natively. Install once, then invoke open-design (or od) from inside any of the agents below — same loop, no UI re-tooling.

Platform	Status	Install method
Claude Code	✅ Native	Plugin marketplace · claude plugin install open-design
Cursor	✅ Supported	Auto-discovery from PATH · Cursor deeplink in Settings → MCP server
VS Code + GitHub Copilot	✅ Supported	Auto-discovery from PATH
GitHub Copilot CLI	✅ Supported	od plugin install copilot
Codex CLI	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s codex
OpenCode	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s opencode
OpenClaw	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s openclaw
Antigravity	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s antigravity
Gemini CLI	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s gemini
Pi Agent	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s pi
Mistral Vibe CLI	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s vibe
Hermes Agent	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s hermes
Cline	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s cline
Kimi CLI	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s kimi
Trae	✅ Supported	curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s trae
Devin for Terminal · Qwen Code · Qoder CLI · Kiro · Kilo · DeepSeek TUI	✅ Supported	auto-detected on PATH, no setup

No CLI installed? The BYOK proxy at POST /api/proxy/{anthropic,openai,azure,google,ollama,senseaudio}/stream is the same loop minus the spawn — paste a baseUrl + apiKey + model for OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Per-target SSRF guard blocks internal IPs / link-local / CGNAT at the daemon edge.

Adapter contracts and stream parsers live in apps/daemon/src/agents.ts. Adding a new CLI is one entry — see docs/agent-adapters.md.

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Demo

Four core product categories, all rendered by a coding agent running on your laptop. Click any thumbnail for the live example.

1 · Prototype — web · desktop · mobile

The default surface. Single-page HTML artifacts that read your DESIGN.md and render in a sandboxed iframe.

Entry view — pick a Skill, pick a Design System, type the brief. One surface for prototypes, dashboards, decks, mobile apps, magazine pages.	Mobile prototype — pixel-accurate iPhone 15 Pro chrome, multi-screen flow. The agent never re-draws a phone; shared device frames under assets/frames/.
Web prototype — editorial dashboards with ticker bars, KPIs, charts. Renders straight from skills/dating-web/.	Mobile app prototype — three-frame gamified flow with XP ribbons, quest detail. Hand-off ready for Cursor / Codex / Claude Code to wire as React/Next/Vue.

2 · Live Artifacts & Dashboards

Real-time dashboards, decision rooms, KPI walls — single-page artifacts that pull data through the tweaks panel and stay editable in place.

Live dashboard — editable KPI wall, tweaks panel surfaces the parameters worth nudging. The agent emits a manifest the iframe re-renders without a reload.	Decision room — multi-source briefing artifact for product / research / ops calls.
GitHub-flavored dashboard — repo metrics laid out as a real-time artifact.	Flow live dashboard template — domain-specific KPI template, branded via active DESIGN.md.

3 · Slides — magazine decks, weekly updates, pitch

Deck mode (guizang-ppt) — magazine layouts, WebGL hero, P0/P1/P2 checklist. Bundled from op7418/guizang-ppt-skill with license preserved.

Swiss International deck — grid-anchored, single-color accent. One of 15 deck templates and 36 themes shipped under skills/html-ppt-*/.

Export every deck as HTML (one file, inline assets), PDF (browser print, deck-aware), PPTX (agent-driven via skill), ZIP (archive) or Markdown.

4 · Images — gpt-image-2, ImageRouter, Custom API

Illustrated City Food Map Editorial hand-drawn travel poster

Cinematic Elevator Single-frame editorial still

Cyberpunk Portrait Profile avatar — neon face text

3D Stone Staircase Hewn-stone infographic

Glamorous Portrait Editorial studio shot

93 ready-to-replicate prompts ship under prompt-templates/ — preview thumbnails, the prompt verbatim, target model, aspect ratio, and source attribution. One click drops the brief into the composer.

5 · Videos & HyperFrames — agent-native motion graphics

HyperFrames is HeyGen's open-source agent-native video framework, shipped first-class in Open Design. The agent writes HTML + CSS + GSAP, HyperFrames renders it to a deterministic MP4 via headless Chrome + FFmpeg. Pair it with Seedance 2.0 for cinematic t2v / i2v, Veo 3 / Sora 2 / Kling 2 for routed model variants, and Suno v5 / Lyria 2 for the audio bed.

30s SaaS product promo · 16:9 · UI 3D reveals	TikTok karaoke talking-head · 9:16 · TTS + word-synced captions	30s brand sizzle reel · 16:9 · audio-reactive kinetic type	Bar-chart race · 16:9 · NYT-style data infographic
Flight map · 16:9 · Apple-style route reveal	4s cinematic logo outro · 16:9 · piece-by-piece + bloom	$0 → $10K money counter · 9:16 · Apple-style hype	Website-to-video · 16:9 · captures site at 3 viewports

11 HyperFrames templates + 39 Seedance prompts ship in-tree. Catalog block thumbnails © HeyGen, framework Apache-2.0. See skills/hyperframes/ for the OD-specific render workflow (composition cache, sandbox-exec workaround, MP4-as-chip).

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Why Open Design

2026-04, Anthropic shipped Claude Design — the first time an LLM stopped writing prose and started shipping design artifacts. It went viral. It also stayed closed-source, paid-only, cloud-only, locked to Anthropic's model, Anthropic's skills, Anthropic's surface. No checkout, no self-host, no Vercel deploy, no swap-in-your-own-agent.

Open Design (OD) is the open-source alternative. Same loop, same artifact-first mental model, none of the lock-in:

• 🤖 Agent-native, not model-bound. We don't ship an agent. Your claude / codex / cursor-agent / copilot / hermes / kimi already on PATH becomes the design engine. Swap with one click.
• 🧠 Brand-grade by default. Every render reads the active DESIGN.md — 9-section schema with palette, typography, motion, voice, anti-patterns. 129 systems ship in-tree (Linear, Stripe, Vercel, Airbnb, Apple, Tesla, Notion, Anthropic, Cursor, Supabase, Figma…). Drop a folder, the picker picks it up.
• 🖥️ Local-first, BYOK at every layer. Native desktop app for macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows (x64). Linux AppImage in the optional release lane. SQLite at .od/app.sqlite, files in .od/projects/<id>/, no telemetry, no cloud round-trip.
• 🌍 Composable on three planes. Plugins carry runnable workflows · Skills carry the agent's design taste · Design Systems carry the brand. All three are plain files anyone can author, version, and ship.
• 🔁 Refresh existing codebases. Hand the agent a git repo + a DESIGN.md and it can refactor your real components to the brand. Plugins exist specifically to migrate Figma / Pencil workflows into React / Next.js / Vue code.
• 🔒 Privacy mantra. Everything runs in the environment that holds your data — your laptop, your team's box, your Vercel project. SSRF-guarded BYOK proxy when you do need the network.

Comparison

	Claude Design	Figma	Lovable / v0 / Bolt	Open Design
Open source	❌	❌	❌	✅ Apache-2.0
Self-host / desktop	❌	❌	❌	✅ macOS + Windows + Vercel
Agent-native (runs in your CLI)	Anthropic only	❌	Cloud agent only	✅ 16 CLIs + BYOK
Brand-grade DESIGN.md	Proprietary	Theme JSON	Limited tokens	✅ 129 systems shipped
Skills / Plugins / Templates	Closed	Plugin store	Closed	✅ 100+ Skills · 400+ Plugins
HyperFrames (HTML→MP4)	❌	❌	❌	✅ first-class
Refresh existing repo to brand	❌	❌	❌	✅ via agent + DESIGN.md
Min. billing	Pro / Max / Team	Pro / Org	Pro / Team	BYOK · any compatible endpoint

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Quick start

🖥️ Download the desktop app (recommended — zero config)

The fastest way to use Open Design. No Node, no pnpm, no clone.

• macOS (Apple Silicon · Intel x64) → open-design.ai or GitHub releases
• Windows (x64) → open-design.ai or GitHub releases
• Linux (AppImage, optional lane) → GitHub releases

Once installed: the app auto-detects every coding-agent CLI on your PATH, loads 100+ Skills and 129 Design Systems, and opens with the entry view ready to type a brief into.

🤖 Install into your coding agent (zero-UI)

You can use Open Design without ever opening the GUI — invoke it as a Skill, Plugin, or MCP server inside Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, OpenClaw, Antigravity, Hermes, Kimi…

# Install OD into whichever agent you're already using:
curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s <agent>
# <agent> = claude | codex | cursor | copilot | openclaw | antigravity | gemini
#         | pi | vibe | hermes | cline | kimi | trae | opencode

Then, inside the agent:

> Use open-design to generate a landing page with the Linear design system

The agent reads skills/, picks the right SKILL.md, binds the DESIGN.md you named, and emits a single <artifact> you can preview at http://localhost:7456.

🐳 Run with Docker

git clone https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design.git
cd open-design/deploy
cp .env.example .env
echo "OD_API_TOKEN=$(openssl rand -hex 32)" >> .env
docker compose up -d
# open http://localhost:7456

🧑‍💻 Run from source

git clone https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design.git
cd open-design
corepack enable && pnpm install
pnpm tools-dev run web

Node ~24 and pnpm 10.33.x. Windows users: see docs/windows-troubleshooting.md. Full quickstart, env vars, Nix flake, and packaged build flow → QUICKSTART.md.

One full workflow — from brief to artifact

Brief → Plugin → Direction → Design System → Artifact → Handoff → Memory

1. PM drops a brief. Plugin picker offers landing page · pitch deck · dashboard · social post · PM spec · OKR scorecard…
2. Designer (or agent) locks the direction. No brand? Pick one of 5 curated directions. Have a brand? Drop a screenshot / URL → agent connects GitHub, imports Figma, codifies a reusable DESIGN.md.
3. Agent emits the first <artifact>. Plugin + Skill + DESIGN.md are bound. Streamed into a sandboxed iframe, editable in place, not "regenerate from scratch."
4. Handoff to engineering. The artifact is real HTML/CSS — drop into Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code and continue as code. Or export PPTX / PDF / MP4 directly to marketing.
5. Open Design gets smarter every time. Your screenshots, fonts, palettes, and OK-ed artifacts compound into the next session's defaults. Less repeat work, less drift.

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Use Open Design from your coding agent

Open Design ships a stdio MCP server plus per-agent install scripts. Any MCP-compatible agent in another repo can read files from your local Open Design projects directly — tokens CSS, JSX components, entry HTML — as a structured API queryable by name. The agent always sees the live file, not a stale export.

# One-line agent install (any of 16+ supported CLIs):
curl -fsSL https://open-design.ai/install.sh | sh -s <agent>

# Then, the agent can:
od search-files "primary button"      # search across project files
od get-file design-systems/linear-app/DESIGN.md
od get-artifact <slug>                # latest rendered artifact
od plugin run web-prototype --brief "..."
od skill list --scenario marketing

Why MCP? Exporting and re-attaching a zip every iteration breaks flow. MCP exposes the design source directly — the agent always sees the live file.

For agents starting from scratch, the installer drops a ~/.config/<agent>/open-design.json (or platform equivalent) plus a copy-paste MCP snippet. Cursor gets a one-click deeplink; Claude Code gets a claude mcp add-json one-liner; everyone else gets the JSON in the schema their config expects. Full per-agent flow → Settings → MCP server in the desktop app, or docs/agent-adapters.md.

Security model. Read-only by default, daemon binds to 127.0.0.1, SSRF blocked at the proxy edge. LAN exposure requires OD_BIND_HOST opt-in plus OD_ALLOWED_ORIGINS. Connector-credentials and live-artifact preview routes stay loopback-only regardless.

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Skills

100+ skills ship in the box — each is a folder under skills/ following the Claude Code SKILL.md convention with an extended od: frontmatter (mode, platform, scenario, preview.type, design_system.requires, default_for, fidelity, example_prompt). Drop a folder, restart the daemon, it appears in the picker.

Two modes anchor the catalog: prototype (web/mobile/desktop single-page artifacts) and deck (horizontal-swipe presentations). Plus image, video, audio, template, design-system, and utility modes. The scenario field groups them by audience: design · marketing · operation · engineering · product · finance · hr · sale · personal.

Skill	Mode	Scenario	What it produces
web-prototype	prototype	design	Default landing / hero page
saas-landing	prototype	marketing	Hero / features / pricing / CTA
dashboard	prototype	operation	Admin / analytics with sidebar
mobile-app	prototype	design	iPhone 15 Pro / Pixel framed app
mobile-onboarding	prototype	design	Splash · value-prop · sign-in flow
social-carousel	prototype	marketing	3-card 1080×1080 carousel
email-marketing	prototype	marketing	Table-fallback safe brand email
magazine-poster	prototype	marketing	Single-page magazine layout
motion-frames	prototype	marketing	Looping CSS motion hero
sprite-animation	prototype	marketing	8-bit pixel animated explainer
pm-spec	prototype	product	PM spec doc with TOC + decision log
team-okrs	prototype	product	OKR scoresheet
eng-runbook	prototype	engineering	Incident runbook
finance-report	prototype	finance	Exec finance summary
hr-onboarding	prototype	hr	Role onboarding plan
guizang-ppt	deck	marketing	Magazine-style web PPT (default for deck)
html-ppt-*	deck	marketing	15 deck templates × 36 themes (master in skills/html-ppt/)
hyperframes	video	marketing	HTML → MP4 motion graphics (HeyGen OSS framework)
critique	utility	design	Five-dim self-critique scoresheet
tweaks	utility	design	AI-emitted tweaks panel manifest

Full skills protocol → docs/skills-protocol.md. Skills registry endpoint: GET /api/skills.

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Design Systems

129 brand-grade DESIGN.md systems ship in-tree — every system is a single Markdown file with a 9-section schema (color, typography, spacing, layout, components, motion, voice, brand, anti-patterns) from VoltAgent/awesome-design-md. Switch system → next render uses the new tokens. Zero theme JSON.

Full catalog (click to expand)

AI & LLM — claude · cohere · mistral-ai · minimax · together-ai · replicate · runwayml · elevenlabs · ollama · x-ai

Developer Tools — cursor · vercel · linear-app · framer · expo · clickhouse · mongodb · supabase · hashicorp · posthog · sentry · warp · webflow · sanity · mintlify · lovable · composio · opencode-ai · voltagent

Productivity — notion · figma · miro · airtable · superhuman · intercom · zapier · cal · clay · raycast

Fintech — stripe · coinbase · binance · kraken · mastercard · revolut · wise

E-Commerce — shopify · airbnb · uber · nike · starbucks · pinterest

Media — spotify · playstation · wired · theverge · meta

Automotive — tesla · bmw · ferrari · lamborghini · bugatti · renault

Other — apple · ibm · nvidia · vodafone · resend · spacex

Starters — default (Neutral Modern) · warm-editorial

Re-import the library via scripts/sync-design-systems.ts. Add your own brand → drop a DESIGN.md into design-systems/<brand>/. Full guide → design-systems/README.md.

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Plugins

400+ plugins ship under plugins/_official/. Each plugin is a folder with plugin.json + manifest + bundled assets — jump straight to a category to browse:

Category	Count	What's in it
scenarios/	11	Full design briefs — od-default, od-design-refine, od-figma-migration, od-code-migration, od-react-export, od-nextjs-export, od-vue-export, od-media-generation, od-new-generation, od-tune-collab, od-plugin-authoring
image-templates/	45	One-shot image prompts — editorial, cinematic, product, portrait
video-templates/	50	HyperFrames / Seedance / Veo motion templates
design-systems/	142	Brand DESIGN.md bundles wrapped as plugins
atoms/	13	Reusable UI fragments (button, hero, KPI tile)
examples/	140	Reference outputs to remix

Plus plugins/community/ for community-authored plugins and plugins/registry/ for the registry-publish flow.

What a plugin can do

• 🤖 Run inside any coding agent — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, OpenClaw, Antigravity, Hermes, Kimi… via the same Skill protocol the agent already knows.
• 🔁 Migrate Figma / Pencil workflows → React, Next.js, or Vue source. See od-figma-migration.
• 🛠️ Refresh an existing codebase to a brand — point the plugin at a git repo + DESIGN.md, get a PR. See od-code-migration.
• 💾 Persist custom workflows — your team's reusable templates live next to the shipped ones.

Author your own

Read these in order:

1. plugins/spec/SPEC.md — manifest schema, file layout, runtime contract.
2. plugins/spec/AGENT-DEVELOPMENT.md — building a plugin with a coding agent.
3. plugins/spec/CONTRIBUTING.md — the PR bar for a new plugin.
4. plugins/spec/PUBLISHING-REGISTRIES.md — publishing to the official / community registry.
5. plugins/spec/examples/ — minimum-viable templates to copy.

Then drop a folder under plugins/community/, open a PR. Plugin registry endpoint: GET /api/plugins. Plugin readme (catalog overview) → plugins/README.md (简体中文).

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Architecture

┌────────────────────── browser (Next.js 16) / Electron shell ─────────────┐
│  chat · file workspace · iframe preview · settings · imports · MCP       │
└──────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┘
               │ /api/*                              │
               ▼                                     ▼
   ┌─────────────────────────────────┐   /api/proxy/{provider}/stream (SSE)
   │  Local daemon (Express+SQLite)  │   ─→ any OpenAI-compatible BYOK,
   │                                  │       SSRF-guarded at the edge
   │  /api/skills    /api/plugins    │
   │  /api/design-systems            │
   │  /api/chat (SSE)   /api/proxy/* │
   │  /api/projects/:id/files/...    │
   │  /api/artifacts/{save,lint}     │
   │  /api/import/claude-design      │
   │  MCP stdio server               │
   └─────────┬───────────────────────┘
             │ spawn(cli, [...], { cwd: .od/projects/<id> })
             ▼
   ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │  claude · codex · cursor-agent · copilot · openclaw · antigravity ·  │
   │  gemini · opencode · qwen · qoder · hermes (ACP) · kimi (ACP) ·      │
   │  pi (RPC) · kiro · kilo · vibe (ACP) · cline · trae · deepseek       │
   │  reads SKILL.md + DESIGN.md, writes artifacts to disk                │
   └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Layer	Stack
Frontend	Next.js 16 App Router + React 18 + TypeScript
Daemon	Node 24 · Express · SSE streaming · better-sqlite3
Storage	Files in .od/projects/<id>/ + SQLite at .od/app.sqlite + media-config.json (gitignored, auto-created). OD_DATA_DIR relocates everything.
Preview	Sandboxed srcdoc iframe + streaming <artifact> parser
Export	HTML (inline) · PDF (browser print) · PPTX (agent-driven) · ZIP · Markdown · MP4 (HyperFrames)
Desktop	Electron shell with sandboxed renderer + sidecar IPC (STATUS · EVAL · SCREENSHOT · CONSOLE · CLICK · SHUTDOWN)
Lifecycle	One entry point: pnpm tools-dev (start / stop / run / status / logs / inspect / check)

Full architecture write-up → docs/architecture.md. Skills protocol → docs/skills-protocol.md. Agent adapter contract → docs/agent-adapters.md.

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Roadmap

• Daemon + 16 coding-agent CLI adapters + Skill registry + Design-system catalog
• Web app + chat + question form + 5-direction picker + todo progress + sandboxed preview
• 100+ Skills · 129 Design Systems · 5 visual directions · 5 device frames
• SQLite-backed projects · conversations · messages · tabs · templates
• Multi-provider BYOK proxy (/api/proxy/{anthropic,openai,azure,google,ollama,senseaudio}/stream) with SSRF guard
• Claude Design ZIP import (/api/import/claude-design)
• Sidecar protocol + Electron desktop with IPC automation
• Artifact lint API + 5-dim self-critique pre-emit gate
• 0.8.0 — Plugin marketplace foundation (400+ official plugins, manifest spec, per-agent install scripts)
• Packaged Electron build — macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel) + Windows (x64) + Linux AppImage (optional lane)
• Comment-mode surgical edits — partial shipped, reliable targeted patching in progress
• AI-emitted tweaks panel UX — not implemented yet
• npx od init to scaffold a project with DESIGN.md
• Plugin SDK + od plugin {add,list,remove,test,publish} CLI
• Figma / Pencil → React / Next / Vue migration plugins (alpha)
• Refresh-an-existing-codebase plugin (point at git repo + DESIGN.md)

Phased delivery → docs/roadmap.md.

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Community

Real people on the other end of every channel.

• 💬 Discord — daily chat, plugin shares, asks → discord.gg/qhbcCH8Am4
• 🐦 X / Twitter — release notes, milestones, behind-the-scenes → @nexudotio
• 🗣️ GitHub Discussions — long-form Qs, RFCs, "show your build" → Discussions
• 🐛 GitHub Issues — bug reports, feature requests → Issues

The good-first-issue and help-wanted labels are the easiest way in.

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Contributing

Open Design moves because contributors — designers, engineers, prompt authors — keep showing up. Many of the most-used Skills, Design Systems, and Plugins were authored by people outside the Core Team.

🎯 Where to start (highest-leverage, smallest diff)

Want to ship…	What to do	Where
A new Skill	Drop a folder with SKILL.md + assets/ + references/	skills/ · spec at docs/skills-protocol.md
A new Design System	Drop DESIGN.md using the 9-section schema	design-systems/<brand>/
A new Plugin	Drop plugin.json + manifest under a category folder	plugins/community/ · spec at plugins/spec/SPEC.md · agent-dev guide at plugins/spec/AGENT-DEVELOPMENT.md
Support a new coding-agent CLI	One adapter entry + stream parser	apps/daemon/src/agents.ts
Fix a bug or polish UI	Browse the good-first-issue label	Issues →
Translate the docs	Update one of the README.<lang>.md files	TRANSLATIONS.md

🤖 Contributing as an agent

If you are the agent reading this, the cheapest fast path is:

# 1. Spin up locally
git clone https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design.git
cd open-design && corepack enable && pnpm install
pnpm tools-dev run web

# 2. Find a good-first-issue and self-assign
gh issue list --label "good first issue" --state open --limit 20
gh issue develop <number>   # creates a branch and worktree

# 3. Make the change, run the gates
pnpm guard && pnpm typecheck
pnpm --filter @open-design/<package> test

# 4. Open the PR
gh pr create --fill

Full agent-friendly contribution loop, code style, and PR bar → CONTRIBUTING.md (Deutsch · Français · 简体中文 · 日本語 · Português).

🏅 Open Design Fellow program

We're recruiting Open Design Fellows around the world — paid maintainers, $1,000 / MR free LLM credits, official authorization to drive growth in your region, and a core-team review track. Details → MAINTAINERS.md and the announcement on Discord.

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Maintainers

External Maintainers run reviews, triage, and community work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Core Team. Their day-to-day work is a huge share of why this project ships.

Jinlong Yang External Maintainer · Review · Plugins

Joey Li External Maintainer · Review · Product

Maintainer rules, promotion criteria, and step-down protocol → MAINTAINERS.md (also in Deutsch · Français · 简体中文 · 日本語 · Português).

Contributors

Thanks to everyone — code, docs, feedback, a sharp issue, a new Skill, a new Design System.

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Repository activity

The SVG above is regenerated daily by .github/workflows/metrics.yml using lowlighter/metrics.

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Star us

If this saved you thirty minutes, give it a ★. Stars don't pay rent — they tell the next designer, agent, and contributor this experiment is worth their attention. One click, three seconds, real signal.

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References & lineage

Project	Role
Claude Design	The closed product this repo is the open-source alternative to.
alchaincyf/huashu-design	Design-philosophy compass — Junior-Designer workflow, brand-asset protocol, anti-AI-slop checklist, 5-dim critique.
op7418/guizang-ppt-skill	Magazine-web-PPT skill, bundled verbatim under skills/guizang-ppt/. Default for deck mode.
lewislulu/html-ppt-skill	HTML PPT Studio family — 15 deck templates, 36 themes, 31 page layouts, animation runtime, magnetic-card presenter mode.
OpenCoworkAI/open-codesign	First open-source Claude Design alternative; UX patterns we borrowed (streaming artifact loop, sandboxed iframe, live agent panel).
multica-ai/multica	Daemon + adapter architecture — PATH-scan agent detection, local daemon as the only privileged process.
VoltAgent/awesome-design-md	Source of the 9-section DESIGN.md schema and 70 product systems.
bergside/awesome-design-skills	Source of 57 design skills added under design-systems/.
heygen-com/hyperframes	The HTML→MP4 motion-graphics framework, first-class in Open Design as hyperframes-html.
Claude Code skills	The SKILL.md convention adopted verbatim.

Long-form provenance → docs/references.md.

License

Apache-2.0. The bundled skills/guizang-ppt/ retains its original LICENSE (MIT, @op7418). The bundled skills/html-ppt/ retains its original LICENSE (MIT, @lewislulu).