Open CoDesign: An open-source, local-first AI design studio

Open CoDesign is an open-source, local-first desktop app built as a self-hosted alternative to tools like Claude Design, v0, Lovable, and Figma AI.

It takes plain text prompts, reference images, and raw assets, and turns them into functional UI prototypes, pitch decks, PDFs, or marketing materials right on your machine. You describe what you need, and an autonomous agent plans, writes, verifies, and renders the result in a live preview pane.

What you can do with it

The app runs entirely on your desktop under an MIT license. It does not lock you into a proprietary cloud workspace or a single AI provider.

You bring your own keys (BYOK) for whatever models you already use, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, and any OpenAI-compatible relay. If you prefer to stay offline, you can hook it directly up to Ollama. It also supports direct sign-in with ChatGPT Plus, Pro, or Team subscriptions to use Codex models, and can import your existing Claude Code configurations in under 90 seconds.

Instead of spitting out flat mockups, the agent builds interactive prototypes with working hover states, tabs, and empty states. It can read local CSV data, JSON, SVGs, and project-specific DESIGN.md guidelines to stay consistent with your design system.

The iteration flow is surprisingly practical. While the agent is working, you can queue up follow-up requests or steer its next step without killing the active process. When something looks off, click-to-edit lets you tweak individual sections, colors, or typography directly rather than re-rolling the entire prompt. Once you are done, you can export clean HTML, PDF, PPTX, Markdown, or a ZIP bundle.

Getting started

Open CoDesign runs on Windows 10+, macOS 12+, and Linux. Pre-built installers (exe, dmg, AppImage, deb, rpm) and package managers like Homebrew, winget, and Scoop are available on the OpenCoworkAI GitHub repository.

Hardware requirements are lightweight: any modern CPU and at least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended). The only dependency is your own API key or a local Ollama instance.

Why it matters

Proprietary design-to-code platforms are moving fast, but they keep pushing users deeper into subscription lock-in and closed cloud silos. Open CoDesign offers an escape hatch for developers and creators who want AI-speed prototyping without handing over their files or paying another monthly SaaS bill.

It treats UI design like a local coding companion. While some generations still look a bit rough around the edges, being able to plug in cheap frontier tokens, edit components granularly, and walk away with real exported source code makes it an easy tool to keep in your workflow.