What is open-design?

Open Design is a free, open-source desktop application for macOS and Windows that positions itself as an alternative to Anthropic's Claude Design. It turns your existing coding assistant, such as Cursor, Claude Code, or Gemini, into a design engine. Instead of manually arranging pixels on a canvas like you would in a traditional design tool, you describe what you want and the app generates real, functional design files in formats like HTML, PDF, PowerPoint, and MP4. The core idea is that your command-line coding agent reads and writes design files on your local computer. Open Design provides a set of composable skills, design templates, and plugins that these agents can use. You write a brief, the agent generates prototypes, dashboards, slides, or even short videos, and the result is a real file you can export and share. The app keeps everything local first, meaning your files stay on your machine unless you choose otherwise. A central feature is the design system, stored in a file called DESIGN.md. This acts as a brand contract that shapes every piece of generated content, keeping colors, fonts, and styles consistent across all your outputs. The app also includes an automation page where you can set up repetitive design tasks to run on a schedule, and a plugin system to add new capabilities. This particular repository is a personal fork of the main project. The owner used it for a short trial, wiring Open Design into Cursor and generating mobile mockups for a separate project called Color Books AI. The owner found that short, simple prompts were enough to produce usable screens for coloring, settings, and daily challenge features. The project supports a large number of coding agents, over 25 distinct command-line tools, or any service that speaks the OpenAI API format. It also offers a paid cloud service that bundles access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek in one place. The full README is longer than what was shown.