Open CoDesign

Open CoDesign: Your Prompts, Your Model, Your Laptop — A Local-First Design Studio

Introduction Open CoDesign is an ambitious open-source desktop tool that turns prompts into polished design artifacts entirely on your laptop. Built to be model-agnostic and local-first, it lets you work with Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint without cloud lock-in or vendor dependency. It’s an MIT-licensed desktop app that puts you in control: bring your own models, manage your own keys, and export real files—HTML, PDF, PPTX, ZIP, or Markdown—without forced cloud workflows. The project presents itself as a powerful alternative to cloud-only design suites, emphasizing speed, privacy, and flexibility.

[Hero image: Open CoDesign — prompt on the left, live artifact on the right]

What Open CoDesign Is

• A desktop-native, open-source design studio. It runs locally, keeping your data on-device and giving you control over how you work with AI.
• A bridge between prompts and polished artifacts. It plans, writes, self-checks, and ships designs that look like they came from a professional design tool.
• A multi-model platform. Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, and more are supported, with a dynamic model catalog rather than a fixed, hardcoded list.
• A toolkit for rapid prototyping and export. From HTML and CSS to PDFs, PPTX, ZIPs, and Markdown, you can export production-ready assets directly from your local workspace.

Why People Are Excited About It

• Runs on your laptop. There’s no mandatory cloud workspace, so you retain privacy and control.
• Works with your model. You’re not locked into a single provider; switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama, and other compatible endpoints.
• Exports real files. The pipeline ends with tangible deliverables that you can share or publish.
• Shows its work. The agent’s activity, tool calls, and progress are visible and interruptible, providing transparency into the generation process.

Key Highlights and Visual Dines

• Comment, don’t retype. Click any element, drop a pin, and let the model rewrite only that region. This makes precise edits faster and safer.
• Image: Comment mode in action
• AI-tuned tweaks. The tweaks panel surfaces the parameters worth tweaking—color, spacing, typography—so you refine without re-prompting.
• Image: Tweaks panel with color pickers
• Your Designs hub. Every iteration is kept locally, letting you switch between recent versions instantly.
• Image: Hub of designs
• Live agent visibility. A live agent panel shows todos, tool calls, and streaming progress, so you know exactly what the model is doing.
• Image: Live agent panel

What it Is Not

• It is not a single-vendor, cloud-only design studio. Open CoDesign emphasizes openness, local-first operation, and model-agnostic workflows.
• It is not a closed ecosystem. The project invites contributions, model integrations, and user-defined taste.

A Quick Tour: How It Works

• Turn prompts into prototypes locally. You provide a brief, and the agent plans, writes, self-checks, and ships a finish-ready artifact with hover states, tabs, and empty states already wired up.
• A design-first mindset. The system includes 12 built-in design skill modules to cover common design tasks, from landing pages to dashboards and pricing sections.
• No vendor-binding export. You export your work in standard formats (HTML with inlined CSS, PDF via local Chrome, PPTX, ZIP, Markdown) for immediate use in real projects.

The Quickstart Path: Time to First Artifact

• Time to first artifact: about 3 minutes.
• Requirements: one API key or a local Ollama instance.
• Operating systems: macOS 12+ (Monterey or later), Windows 10+, Linux with glibc ≥ 2.31.
• Install options:
• One-liner (recommended):
  • Windows: winget install OpenCoworkAI.OpenCoDesign
  • macOS: brew install --cask opencoworkai/tap/open-codesign
• Direct download (v0.1.x) from GitHub Releases (look for the appropriate package for your platform).
• Add your API key or local model:
• Anthropic (sk-ant-…)
• OpenAI (sk-…)
• Gemini
• Any OpenAI-compatible relay (OpenRouter, SiliconFlow, local Ollama) Credentials are stored locally in ~/.config/open-codesign/config.toml with restricted permissions.
• Type your first prompt. Choose from fifteen built-in demos (landing page, dashboard, pitch slide, pricing sections, mobile UI, event calendar, blog article, receipts, portfolio, settings panel, etc.) or describe your own. A sandboxed prototype appears in seconds.

Bringing Your Stack: Importing Your Existing Keys and Providers

• If you already use Claude Code or Codex, you can import your providers, models, and API keys in a single click—no re-entry of settings required.
• A single-click import reduces setup friction and enables you to hit the ground running with your accustomed tools.

Built-in Taste: Designing with Purpose

• Twelve built-in design skill modules. These cover slide decks, dashboards, landing pages, SVG charts, glassmorphism, editorial typography, hero sections, pricing blocks, footers, chat UIs, data tables, and calendars.
• A design taste layer guides the model toward better typography, thoughtful whitespace, and purposeful color choices. This is applied before any CSS is written, ensuring the design respects layout intent, design-system coherence, and contrast.
• Extendable taste. You can add a SKILL.md to any project to teach the model your own design preferences.

What You Get: Models, Generation, and Editing

• Unified provider model. Works with Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Silicon Flow, local Ollama, and more. Supports keyless proxies as needed.
• One-click import from Claude Code and Codex configurations. Bring your existing providers in without rekeying.
• Dynamic model picker. Each provider exposes its real catalog of models, rather than a fixed, short list.
• Prompt-to-prototype generation. The prototype is rendered in a sandboxed iframe (on-device React 18 + Babel).
• Demos and skill modules. Fifteen demos plus twelve design skill modules provide ready-to-edit starting points for common briefs.
• Live agent panel. Tool calls stream in real time so you can observe the model’s workflow as it edits files.
• AI image generation. Opt-in for bitmaps for heroes, product shots, backgrounds, and illustrations.
• AI-generated sliders. The model emits parameters worth tweaking—color, spacing, font—so fine-tuning is precise and efficient.
• Comment mode. Click an element, drop a pin, and have the model redo only that region.
• Generation cancellation. You can stop a generation mid-stream without losing prior turns.

Preview and Workflow: Seeing Is Believing

• Multi-device previews. True responsive frames for phone, tablet, and desktop; switch with one click.
• Files panel. Inspect multi-file artifacts (HTML, CSS, JS) before export.
• Instant design switching. The last five designs keep their preview iframes alive, preserving context and enabling seamless Hub ↔ Workspace navigation.
• Connection diagnostic panel. One-click tests for any provider with actionable error messages.
• Per-generation token counter. See exactly how many tokens a given generation consumes, in the workspace sidebar.
• Comprehensive Settings. Four tabs—Models, Appearance, Storage, and Advanced. Includes light and dark themes and EN + 简体中文 UI with live toggle.
• Local-first export. All exports are designed to be production-ready and easy to integrate into existing workflows.

Export and Packaging: Ready for Real Projects

• Five export formats:
• HTML (with inlined CSS)
• PDF (via local Chrome)
• PPTX
• ZIP
• Markdown
• GitHub release pipeline. Generates unsigned DMG for macOS, EXE for Windows, and AppImage for Linux. Future releases will include signed builds and auto-update features.
• Roadmap alignment. The current v0.1.4 focuses on AI image generation, OAuth login for ChatGPT Plus/Codex users, CLIProxyAPI import, and improved API diagnostics. v0.2.0 will introduce Agentic Design, turning Open CoDesign into a working workspace with session history and design tools on demand.

Roadmap: From Generator to Design Agent

• Current release: v0.1.4. Now shipping AI image generation, OAuth login for ChatGPT Plus/Codex, and fortified API diagnostics.
• Next: v0.2.0 (Agentic Design). Aims to transform Open CoDesign from a one-shot generator into a true local design agent with:
• Design as a session. Each design is a JSONL-backed session with a persistent workspace on disk.
• Permissioned agent loop. A pi-based internal loop for read, write, edit, bash, grep, find, and ls—guarded by a robust permission UI.
• On-demand design tools. Ask, scaffold, skill, preview, gen_image, tweaks, todos, and done for flexible workflow control.
• DESIGN.md as shared memory. Brand tokens and design-system decisions become editable files rather than model memory.
• Migration path. Existing SQLite designs can migrate into workspaces and session histories.
• Later: v0.2.x and beyond
• Renderer improvements for new tools and process-management surfaces.
• Cost transparency with pre-generation estimates and weekly budgets.
• Version snapshots and side-by-side diffs for design comparisons.
• Three-style parallel exploration to broaden design exploration.
• Codebase-to-design system work (token extraction) and a path toward code-signing with a future auto-update feature.
• Figma layer export and other evolving features.

Built On: The Foundation

• Technologies: Electron, React 19, Vite 6, Tailwind v4.
• Core primitives: @mariozechner/pi-ai and pi-coding-agent for model/provider integration and the agent loop.
• Database and packaging: better-sqlite3, electron-builder.
• The architecture is designed to be extendable, with room to incorporate new providers and evolving design modules.

Community and Collaboration: Getting Involved

• Community channels
• GitHub Discussions for show-and-tell, Q&A, and ideas.
• Linux Do community for Chinese-speaking users and feedback.
• GitHub Issues for bug reports and reproducible problems.
• WeChat group for Chinese-speaking users
• QR code is posted in the project repository. Note that the QR rotates every 7 days and is valid for a limited window.
• If the code expires, you can request a refresh via GitHub Issues.
• Contributing
• See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidance.
• Open an issue before writing code and run lint, typecheck, and tests before a PR.
• Licensing
• MIT license. You’re free to fork, ship, and modify the project, with third-party notices preserved in NOTICE.

WeChat Group QR Code

• For the Chinese-speaking community, the WeChat group QR code is provided in the repository.
• Image: WeChat QR code
• Important note: The QR code rotates weekly and is valid until the stated date. If you encounter expiration, reach out via GitHub Issues to refresh the image.

Star History and Popularity

• A visual star-history chart traces the project’s popularity over time.
• Image: Star history
• This dynamic visualization provides a tangible measure of community interest and ongoing development momentum.

Community Voice: Why It Matters

• The project emphasizes privacy and autonomy. By keeping design processing local, it reduces dependency on cloud services and subscription models.
• It champions openness and collaboration. The MIT license and open development model invite researchers, designers, and developers to contribute improvements, plugins, and integrations.
• It fosters practical design production. Not just prompts, but production-ready assets—exported files ready for real-world usage.

Citing Open CoDesign in Your Work

• If you reference Open CoDesign in papers or articles, a recommended citation is provided in the repository’s CITATION.cff and the BibTeX entry:
• bibtex entry is provided in the README, including author, title, year, and URL.

Caveats and Practical Tips

• Dependency on local hardware: because the tool runs locally and supports multiple providers, your experience depends on your machine’s resources and available models.
• Verifying builds: for users seeking verified builds, compiling from source is an option. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.
• macOS Gatekeeper notes: early builds may require running commands to bypass Gatekeeper on macOS Sequoia 15+ systems. The one-liner xattr approach is included in the quickstart notes for a smoother install.

Accessibility and Language Support

• The UI is designed to be bilingual with English and 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese) UI options, with a live toggle between languages. This makes the tool accessible to a broader audience and supports teams with mixed-language workflows.

Notes on Documentation and Release History

• The main repository pages include a changelog and a detailed release history. The “What’s New” section highlights changes across versions, including v0.2.0 preparations and v0.1.4 release notes.
• Documentation is accessible via the Docs section of the project website, a Quickstart guide, and a changelog with entry-by-entry notes.

Conclusion: A New Path for Desktop AI Design Tools Open CoDesign represents a thoughtful convergence of prompts, models, and production-ready design artifacts, all operating locally. It’s designed for designers and developers who want speed, privacy, and control without sacrificing quality or collaboration. With an emphasis on multi-model flexibility, a rich kit of design skills, and a transparent, live-diagnostic workflow, it invites users to shape their own design processes rather than conform to a single cloud-based paradigm.

Gallery: Images from the Input

• Hero showcase: Open CoDesign — prompt on the left, live artifact on the right
• Comment mode: Click, pin, and rewrite a region
• AI tweaks: Sliders for color and typography
• Hub of designs: Your iterations, kept locally
• Live agent activity: Todos and tool calls streaming
• WeChat community: QR code for the Chinese-speaking group

Appendix: Quick Reference Commands and Links

• Quickstart install (one-liner):
• Windows: winget install OpenCoworkAI.OpenCoDesign
• macOS: brew install --cask opencoworkai/tap/open-codesign
• Quickstart manual install references:
• macOS arm64: open-codesign-*-arm64.dmg
• macOS x64: open-codesign-*-x64.dmg
• Windows x64: open-codesign-*-x64-setup.exe
• Windows ARM64: open-codesign-*-arm64-setup.exe
• Linux AppImage: open-codesign-*-x64.AppImage
• Linux Debian/Ubuntu: open-codesign-*-x64.deb
• Linux Fedora/RHEL: open-codesign-*-x64.rpm
• API key adding:
• Anthropic: sk-ant-…
• OpenAI: sk-…
• Gemini
• OpenAI-compatible relays (OpenRouter, SiliconFlow, Ollama)
• Documentation and community:
• Website: https://opencoworkai.github.io/open-codesign/
• Quickstart: #quickstart
• Discussions: https://github.com/OpenCoworkAI/open-codesign/discussions
• Contributing: ./CONTRIBUTING.md
• Security: ./SECURITY.md

Coda: The Vision Ahead Open CoDesign is not merely a tool; it’s a design philosophy for AI-assisted product creation. It foregrounds local-first operation, model-agnostic workflows, and an extensible design system that evolves with the user’s taste and project needs. By blending prompt-driven generation with structured design skill modules, it aims to make high-quality design artifacts accessible directly from your laptop—without mandatory cloud subscriptions or vendor lock-ins. As the project moves toward Agentic Design, you can expect a more integrated workspace, richer collaboration capabilities, and deeper control over the design process—while keeping the authenticity and privacy that local-first design tools promise.