Lolly
Make graphics, documents and video from simple inputs.
Lolly is an open-source creative platform. Pick a tool, add your words, images or data, and download a finished file. Your design system supplies the colours, fonts and assets.
Build a layout once, choose what other people can change, and share it as a tool. They fill in the fields; the tool handles the layout and design rules.
Open Lolly · Make your first file · Downloads · Documentation
What can I make?
Start with a focused tool, or arrange your own text, images and shapes on the Design canvas.
Choose a tool, change its inputs, then use Export to download. The public app needs no account. Make your first file walks you through a QR code.
Why Lolly?
- Set the design rules once. Keep the layout and permitted choices consistent while people make the next version.
- Work on your device. Edit, render and transform files locally. Download the resources a tool needs, then render and export offline.
- Keep the inputs as well as the file. Save your work to edit later, or share a link that reopens its settings. Local uploads need to travel separately from a plain link.
- Make one or make many. Use the app for a single file, a table of values for a batch, or the command line for a repeatable workflow.
- Use and extend the source. Run your own copy and add tools. There is no per-seat software licence fee.
Optional network features, sharing, Sync and organisation services have their own data flows. The privacy guide explains what stays local and what uses a service. For offline preparation, see Available offline.
Bring your own design system
Add colours, fonts and logos in Design System Setup, or import design tokens from DTCG, Tokens Studio or Penpot. Community tools use your active design system. lolly.tools starts in Lolly Demo, Lolly's own sample design system.
Import supported Figma, Penpot, Illustrator, InDesign or PDF designs into the canvas. Check the converted layout and fonts, then use Share with rules to choose editable inputs and package a reusable tool.
Put your brand in · Import a design · Share a design with rules
Get the file you need
Export images, vectors, PDFs, editable PowerPoint decks, audio or video where the tool supports them. Print workflows include physical sizes, bleed, crop marks and CMYK output.
The format register covers 56 in, 63 out (42 round-trip). Availability depends on the tool, browser and export path; the format guide gives the details.
Authoring tools can attach Content Credentials, a signed record of how a file was made. Read about credentials and identity.
Run Lolly locally
Development uses Node 26 (.nvmrc) and pnpm 11.26.0 (package.json). The package minimum is Node 22.18.
git clone https://github.com/lolly-tools/lolly.git
cd lolly
npm install --global [email protected]
pnpm install
pnpm run dev:web
Open http://localhost:5173. The web app needs a browser with a working WebGPU adapter and graphics acceleration. See supported environments for the tested combinations.
A public clone includes community tools, Lolly Demo (the design system lolly.tools runs) and the neutral Lolly Starter design system. SUSE's private brand pack is optional.
On macOS or openSUSE, ./setup.sh can install prerequisites and dependencies. See INSTALL.md for setup help, or Releases for packaged apps.
Automate the repeat work
The CLI uses the same engine as the app. From your checkout, make a QR code as SVG:
pnpm run cli qr-code --url=https://example.com --output=./qr.svg
Use tool inputs in scripts, URLs and batch jobs, or let AI agents call tools through the optional MCP server. Fresh signatures, timestamps and browser encoders can change exported bytes; the determinism guide explains reproducibility and its limits.
CLI guide · URL inputs · MCP server
Use Lolly with a team
Lolly began at SUSE, where people needed to make on-brand files without sending their work to outside services. It is maintained as open source and runs independently of SUSE.
For organisation sign-in, shared assets and projects, approvals, work collaboration, audit records or server rendering, add Lolly Work, the organisation server of the same project. It is optional and maintained in its own repository, and hosting and operations have their own costs. Why Lolly is free tells the story of who builds it and why.
Organisation guide · Self-hosting and deployment · Current status and adoption
Build on Lolly
A tool is a manifest and template, with optional styles, assets and JavaScript hooks. Tools are distributed as content, so adding a tool does not require a new app release.
The engine loads tools and drives rendering. Each shell supplies the platform features it needs through a versioned bridge. That keeps brands and platform-specific code out of the engine.
Repository layout
| Path | What you will find |
|---|
engine/ | Rendering, inputs, templates and export logic |
shells/ | Web, desktop, mobile, command-line and terminal apps |
community/ | Tools that work with different design systems |
brands/ | Design systems, assets and brand-specific tools |
packages/ | The tool-author SDK and shared components |
schemas/ | Contracts for tool manifests and assets |
services/ | Optional MCP, certificate and Penpot services, and the server code they share |
docs/ | Guides, architecture and the documentation site |
Start with the tool-authoring guide, the architecture page or the glossary.
Contributing
Bug reports, documentation, tools and code improvements are welcome. CONTRIBUTING.md covers setup and checks. Open an issue with what you were trying to make and what happened.
Report security issues privately using SECURITY.md.
Licensing & structure
Code is MPL-2.0. Documentation content is CC BY-SA 4.0, with attribution to lolly.tools.
Brand packs and bundled assets carry their own licences and notices. SUSE's proprietary tools and assets stay in the optional private brands/suse submodule. Third-party software, fonts and other material retain their stated licences; see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
Current tools
The Lolly Start (blank brand) catalog ships 68 tools today - 66 listed in the gallery, plus 2 unlisted helpers (Asset Export, Theme swap). Generated from catalog/tools/index.json by pnpm run build:readme-tools:
| Tool | What it makes |
|---|
| 3D | Load a 3D model into a lit scene, orbit and pose the camera, and render a still or a turntable animation. |
| 3D Studio | Turn SVG artwork and 3D models into coordinated images, alone or arranged together in one scene. Shape materials, lighting, focus and transparent shadows with guided or expert controls. |
| Agenda | Turn one programme into branded screens, interactive web pages, animated overviews, PowerPoint slides and calendars. |
| Annotate | Mark up your own screenshot on your device - arrows, boxes, numbered steps, callouts, highlighter and a spotlight dim. |
| Audiogram | Turn a voice clip or song into a video in your design system's colours that actually moves with the sound - bars, spectrum, ring, ridgeline or scope, ready for social. |
| Backdrop | Living backdrops from your design system's colours: sixteen GPU effects - flowing silk, prismatic blooms, liquid contours, metaballs, god rays and more. Tune, freeze the exact moment you want, and export stills or motion loops for heroes, walls and meeting backgrounds. |
| Battlecards | Turn any table into a deck of cards - one card per row, ready as a multi-page PDF. Paste straight from your spreadsheet, doc, or chat. |
| Booklet | Build a multi-page PDF - a cover, flowing content blocks, and a back page. |
| Booth | Dress a 3D event booth with sponsor artwork. Click any panel to drop an image on it, pick a booth design, and render a still or a turntable for a sponsor pitch. |
| Calendar | Turn event details into a calendar (.ics) file for any calendar app. |
| Captions | Subtitles for a clip - turn its speech into text on device or drop in an SRT/VTT file, style the cues, and export burned-in frames plus clean .srt and .vtt sidecars. |
| Certificate | Completion and award certificates from the active design system - one name at a time, or a whole roster from a CSV in Bulk from rows. |
| Chart | Charts from first paste to advanced visualisation - explained data recommendations, explicit field mapping, 35 classic vector families including Pareto, bullet targets and range bars, sixteen statistical and editorial articulations, real-z 3-D scenes, cinematic flights, deterministic motion, accessible descriptions and styles compiled from the active design system. |
| Claim | Claim your name on any media you've already made - image, PDF, video or audio. Stamp your author, copyright and licence as Content Credentials (a durable raster Imprint too), preserving any credential already inside the file - all on your device, before you upload it anywhere. |
