Bygga turns confusing IKEA paper manuals into interactive 3D guides

Bygga is an open-source web app that turns confusing, flat IKEA paper instructions into interactive, manual-style 3D animations you can rotate, inspect, and flip through entirely hands-free.

Anyone who has assembled flat-pack furniture knows the pain of squinting at tiny black-and-white drawings, second-guessing hole alignments, and realizing ten screws too late that a shelf was upside down. Bygga fixes that. You just type in the furniture name or the article number from the box, and it generates step-by-step 3D guides rendered in the signature IKEA visual style.

What it does

The app comes preloaded with procedural plans for 1,171 IKEA products across 2,180 sizes, covering both UK and US ranges. Because the 3D line-art engine and parametric generator run locally in the browser, these builds work offline with zero API calls. With its built-in service worker, you can pull up a guide in a basement or an empty apartment with spotty reception and never lose your spot.

More importantly, you do not have to put down your drill to flip a page. Bygga includes 1,476 pre-recorded Kokoro voice clips that read steps aloud with no API key needed, alongside a Whisper-powered listening loop through an echo-cancelled microphone. Just say "next" and the camera glides to the upcoming step automatically.

For oddball items not yet in the offline catalog, users can provide their own Together AI key. The tool can scan paper manuals or photos to draft interactive steps, and features an integrated AI help chat that responds by drawing the exact panel, fitting, or sub-assembly you are stuck on.

How to run it

Built by developer Nutlope, Bygga is open-sourced under the MIT license. The tech stack is lean and modern: Next.js 16 App Router, React 19, TypeScript, vanilla CSS with Motion, and Three.js for rendering, completely free of bulky UI kits.

To run it locally, clone the repo, run npm install, and fire up npm run dev to access the local server. You can jump directly to specific steps via URL, print an A4 backup sheet, or browse a virtual room of all your completed builds displayed side by side at true scale. The web app is also live at usebygga.com for anyone who wants to use it immediately without touching code.

There are still a few rough edges. The generator currently skips a handful of odd shapes, including three-cornered shelves and certain corner PAX configurations. The voice commands are currently English-only, and the experimental manual scanner is still being refined against physical paper stacks.

Why it matters

Bygga is a brilliant example of building software around a real human physical problem instead of tech hype. Instead of relying on a massive cloud pipeline, it combines lightweight procedural 3D graphics, local caching, and voice prompts into something genuinely handy when your hands are covered in sawdust.

If you buy flat-pack furniture or help friends move, this is an instant bookmark. It eliminates the frustration of backwards panels and turns a notoriously annoying weekend chore into a smooth, interactive experience.