overview
What is open-design?
open-design is a local-first, open-source AI design platform developed by the open-source community that enables developers using coding agents, small business owners, and designers to generate complete design systems and visual artifacts from prompts. It functions as an alternative to proprietary AI design tools by allowing users to connect their own models and run everything locally or deploy it as a web application. The platform delegates AI agent execution to Command Line Interface (CLI) tools already installed on a user's machine, such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor Agent, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Qwen, and GitHub Copilot CLI. It supports offline workflows through local runtime functionality and SQL Lite for project persistence at .od/app.sqlite. Released as an open-source alternative to Anthropic's Claude Design, which launched on April 17, 2026, open-design emphasizes user control and local deployment.