OpenDesign is an open-source, local-first desktop design application for macOS and Windows that turns the coding agent already installed on a developer's machine into the design engine, producing prototypes, dashboards, decks, images, and motion graphics as real files exported to HTML, PDF, PPTX, and MP4.

What it is

OpenDesign is the open-source Claude Design alternative, released under the Apache-2.0 licence and written in TypeScript. It ships as a local-first native desktop application for macOS and Windows, built around composable skills, brand-grade DESIGN.md design systems, and ready-to-use plugins. Its organising idea is that the agent-native loop — discover the brief, lock the direction, stream the artifact, critique, deliver — should not stay closed inside a single vendor's product. Instead, that loop becomes a filesystem of functional skills, rendering design templates, design systems, and plugins that the coding agents already sitting on a laptop can read, write, and remix. The CLI becomes the design engine, the laptop becomes the studio, and the team's DESIGN.md becomes the brand contract.

The concrete problem it solves is the gap between agent-driven code generation and design artefact production. Rather than pushing pixels on a proprietary canvas, OpenDesign delivers single-page artifacts written in real CSS, with real fonts and real components, already shaped by the project's design system and already runnable inside the agent the user works in every day. Generated output stays inside the OpenDesign workflow for live preview and delivery, and is inspected through a sandboxed iframe preview rather than a simulated mockup. Inside a project's Studio, conversation, generated files, and live preview stay together across six artifact types: Prototype, Deck, Mobile app, Image, Document, and HyperFrame.

Key capabilities

• Runs DeepSeek Harness (dsh) as a native runtime, with structured thinking, tool calls, model discovery, cancellation, and session resume.
• Connects to Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Qwen, Copilot, Amp, Hermes, Kimi, and Antigravity across 26 distinct local CLI executables, or to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint through BYOK.
• Generates six artifact types in Studio: Prototype, Deck, Mobile app, Image, Document, and HyperFrame motion graphics.
• Exports finished work to HTML, PDF, PPTX, and MP4, with sandboxed iframe preview for rendered pages.
• Builds reusable DESIGN.md design systems by extracting and refining a brand's visual language, previewing the result, and creating with it in the same workspace.
• Offers a searchable plugin catalog of official skills grouped by category, each launched with a "Try it" action.
• Supplies OpenDesign Cloud as an optional model service: one recharge covers GPT, Claude, and DeepSeek agent models alongside GPT Image 2.0, Seedream 5.0 Pro, and Nano Banana 2.0 image models, with DeepSeek V4 Flash and V4 Pro available.

Who uses it and how

• Developers who already run a CLI coding agent use OpenDesign so the laptop doubles as the studio, without adopting a separate design tool.
• Design teams standardise brand output by keeping a shared DESIGN.md as the contract every generated artifact is shaped by.
• Teams producing presentation and document deliverables work in the Deck and Document artifacts, reviewing thumbnails, speaker notes, and rendered layout before exporting to PPTX or PDF.
• Interface and mobile designers generate and polish mobile interfaces inside a device preview, with the conversation, output files, and next-step actions beside it.
• Groups without their own model keys, or wanting to avoid managing several provider accounts, use the OpenDesign Cloud recharge to run agent and image models in one place.

Getting started

Download the native desktop app for macOS or Windows from https://open-design.ai, then connect an agent by pointing OpenDesign at a local CLI harness such as dsh or another supported runtime, or by supplying an OpenAI-compatible endpoint through BYOK.

How it compares

Against Claude Design and Figma, the two products the README positions it against, OpenDesign is Apache-2.0 licensed rather than proprietary, runs as a local-first desktop app rather than a closed hosted service, and keeps generated artifacts on the user's own filesystem. Model access is bring-your-own-key, so inference is paid to whichever provider the user chooses, with OpenDesign Cloud offered only as an optional consolidated route rather than a required subscription.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must run the desktop application and at least one supported CLI agent locally, and must supply model access either through their own provider keys or an OpenDesign Cloud recharge. It is a poor fit for Linux users, since the build targets macOS and Windows only, and for teams that want a fully hosted browser tool with nothing installed. The repository also carries 1,090 open issues against 96,935 stars, so prospective adopters should weigh the size of the open backlog before standardising on it.