OpenDesign
Officially listedOpen-source, local-first AI design workbench that turns coding agents into design engines.
OpenDesign
OpenDesign (open-design.ai) is an open-source, local-first AI design workbench officially positioned as the open-source Claude Design. It trains no models itself; instead, it turns the coding agents already installed on your machine (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, DeepSeek Harness, and more) into design engines that produce prototypes, web pages, decks, images, and videos. Disambiguation note: this entry refers to open-design.ai built by Shanghai's Powerformer, Inc., which is entirely unrelated to the same-named older product opendesign.dev (Avocode's design-file parsing SDK) and to a separate project called Open CoDesign.
Core Capabilities
- Coding agents as engines: auto-detects locally installed CLIs and dispatches design tasks via SKILL.md + DESIGN.md instead of rebuilding agents
- Multi-format real artifacts: single-page HTML prototypes, interactive dashboards, decks (exported as HTML/PDF/PPTX), images, and HyperFrames-rendered MP4 videos
- Local-first + BYOK: a Node 24 daemon and skills run on your own machine with your own keys, and prompts go straight to your model provider
- Portable asset library: the repo ships real directories of skills (163) and design-systems (153); Apache-2.0 and self-hostable
- One-command MCP setup: od mcp install covers Claude/Codex/Cursor/Copilot and more, compatible with OpenAI-style BYOK proxies
Use Cases Suited to independent developers, design engineers, and product managers who already use local coding agents daily, need to produce prototypes, landing pages, decks, or illustrations along the way, and value keeping data on their own machine with their own keys. Purely design-background users who want an out-of-the-box hosted SaaS are a poor fit.
Unique Advantages Very few solutions satisfy open source, local-first, multi-agent, and multi-format real artifacts at once. Apache-2.0 is verified in the LICENSE file, v0.23.0 shipped the day of research, 1,501 issues have been closed cumulatively, and an 11.6% fork-to-star ratio attests to real usage; the homepage countdown has real start and end dates and auto-hides when expired — not a permanently fake timer.
⚠️ Red Flags Worth Knowing (recorded as found)
- 'Free, no subscription' versus selling subscriptions: the homepage FAQ says there is no OpenDesign subscription and no seat fees, yet /pricing/ sells Plus $20 / Pro $100 / Max $200 plus a per-seat Team plan — the messaging contradicts itself
- SEO content-farm-style expansion: the sitemap tests at 2,678 indexable URLs, 10 languages, 132 /alternatives/ pages, and 595 plugin pages, and the careers page openly hires a 'Growth Engineer — produce content at scale'
- Conflicting refund policies: the text opens with no refunds ever, later gives region-specific windows (EU/UK/TR 14 days, KR 7 days, others 48 hours), and the pricing page says annual cancellations are not refunded
- Inconsistent marketing numbers: agent counts of 17/21/22/26, and '458+' plugins versus only 5 directories in the repo
- First-party Arena leaderboard: unaudited, and it ranks its own preferred DeepSeek first
- Domain only about 5 months old (registered 2026-04-29, WHOIS redacted), though the operating entity is traceable — Powerformer, Inc. is the overseas entity of Refly.AI, founded by Huang Wei / Tom Huang in Shanghai
China Relevance The team is in Shanghai with a Chinese founder; there is a full /zh/ Simplified Chinese site with Chinese README and tutorials, and the skill and model lists lean markedly toward DeepSeek / Qwen / Kimi / GLM / Hunyuan. But pricing is in USD with no RMB localization, and the key legal documents are governed by the English versions.
Editorial Review Genuinely open source, genuinely active, and a traceable operating entity are its hard merits — technical users already on local agents should trial and track it. But the contradictory marketing and 0.x maturity (an unsigned Windows installer, polish still short of Claude Design) mean it should not sit on a production-critical path.
Pricing
### 💰 定价模式：免费增值（开源本体免费 + 云订阅） **起步价**：$0（开源本体 Apache-2.0，BYOK 自带密钥） #### 主要方案 - **Free**：$0 - 开源本体 + BYOK + 本地编程 Agent，社区支持；**不含**按周期发放的「OpenDesign 托管模型额度」，只能用本地 CLI 或自带密钥 - **Plus**：$20/月（年付 $168）- 零配置托管设计 Agent、Skills 工作流、设计系统、邮件支持 - **Pro**：$100/月（年付 $720）- 含 Plus 全部 + 优先邮件支持 - **Max**：$200/月（年付 $1,176）- 含高峰优先算力（更低时延）+ 专属客户成功 - **Team**：$5–205/席/月 - 团队共享项目/设计系统/插件与角色权限；Enterprise 定制定价（SSO/SAML、实时协作） #### 试用/其他信息 开源本体完全免费、可自托管（Cloudflare/Vercel/Netlify）。付费档本质是「托管模型额度 + 云服务」订阅，BYOK 调用原厂模型不消耗额度，存在首月特惠。**注意口径冲突**：官网首页 FAQ 称「没有 OpenDesign 订阅、无席位费」，与定价页售卖订阅自相矛盾；退款政策亦不自洽（开头称一律不退款，后文又给分地区窗口）。 — Visit website
FAQ
Is OpenDesign free?
The open-source core is completely free (Apache-2.0, BYOK with your own keys), and the Free tier is $0 but limited to the local CLI or your own keys, with no hosted model quota. Cloud subscriptions are Plus $20 / Pro $100 / Max $200 per month, plus a per-seat Team tier.
What can OpenDesign do?
It turns locally installed coding agents into a design engine, generating single-page HTML prototypes, interactive dashboards, decks (exported as HTML/PDF/PPTX), illustrations, and MP4 motion videos rendered through HyperFrames from a brief.
Are OpenDesign (open-design.ai) and opendesign.dev the same product?
No. open-design.ai is built by Shanghai's Powerformer, Inc. as an open-source, local-first AI design workbench; opendesign.dev (formerly Avocode) is a closed-source design-file parsing SDK/API. They differ completely in entity, function, and launch date.
How does OpenDesign differ from Claude Design?
OpenDesign is open source (Apache-2.0), local-first, BYOK, works with any local agent, and its outputs are real files in your repo; Claude Design is closed-source, cloud-based, restricted to Anthropic models, and included in the subscription. The official site concedes the latter wins on zero-config and hosted UI.
Which coding agents and Chinese models does OpenDesign support?
It supports Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot, OpenCode, Kimi, DeepSeek Harness (dsh), and other local agents, with a marked preference for Chinese models like DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, and Hunyuan, including a full Simplified Chinese site.
Who should use OpenDesign, and what should they watch out for?
It suits developers, design engineers, and product managers already using local coding agents who value data staying on their machine with their own keys. Be aware that the site's 'free, no subscription' claim contradicts its pricing page, its refund policies conflict, its SEO expansion is content-farm-like, and it carries 0.x maturity risk.