Blog.
Notes to help you understand, explore, and build with Open Design.
- 01 Open Design 0.9.0: design for everyone Open Design 0.9.0 is the install-and-create release. No API-key scavenger hunt, no three-CLI setup — open the app, sign in once, pick a model, and start building. Plus a bigger agent bench, a real plugin library, and easier installs on Windows and Linux.
- 02 The open-source alternative to Figma Figma is excellent and it isn't going anywhere. But the file is proprietary, the seats are a subscription, and the canvas lives in someone else's cloud. Here's the honest read on when Figma is still the answer — and when owning an agent-native, local-first workflow wins.
- 03 Open Design 0.8.0: everything is a plugin Open Design 0.8.0 isn't a release, it's a rebuild. A small plugin engine, a headless-by-default CLI, packaged auto-update on macOS and Windows, and 149 design systems shipped in seven days.
- 04 The layout layer the canvas used to hide A community reply on the 0.8.0 preview named the real question behind agent-native design: if the canvas stops being the work unit, how do users still understand layout?
- 05 How to port a Figma workflow into an Open Design plugin The 0.8.0-preview thread asks contributors to port old design workflows one plugin at a time. Here is the concrete path for a Figma export, token sync, or brand kit.
- 06 BYOK reality check: 5 things that break in Open Design today We promised BYOK as first-class. Five open bug threads from this week — Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenCode, Windows — show where the seams are still rough, and what to use until each fix lands.
- 07 The open-source alternative to Claude Design Claude Design is good. It's also closed-source, hosted-only, and bundled with a Claude subscription. Here's the honest read on when to pick it — and when the open-source path wins.
- 08 31 skills, 72 systems: how the Open Design library works A walk through the four primitives that make Open Design composable: skills, systems, adapters, and the daemon. With concrete examples of how a Markdown file becomes a pixel-perfect deliverable.
- 09 BYOK design workflow: run Claude, Codex, or Qwen on your own key Most AI design tools quietly add a margin to every token you spend. Open Design takes the opposite stance — bring your own model key, pay the provider directly, and keep full control of where inference runs. Here's how the BYOK layer actually works.
- 10 Why we built Open Design as a skill layer, not a product Most AI design tools try to replace the agent already on your laptop. Open Design takes the opposite bet: ship a thin layer of skills, systems, and adapters that turn any coding agent into a design engine — without locking you into a new app.