OpenDesigner is a free, open-source (MIT) add-on for the AI tool you already use. It asks a few plain questions about your product and suggests an answer for each, with its reason. Then it checks that text is easy to read and saves the answers as your design system (the rules for how your app looks), in files that your code, your team and your next AI chat all follow.
Quickstart
- Add OpenDesigner to your AI tool. Pick yours below.
- Open your project and say: "Create a design system for this project."
- Answer up to five short questions. You get a complete first version right away, and you can zoom into color, type, spacing or motion whenever you like.
Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add ckryptickunal/OpenDesigner
/plugin install opendesigner@opendesigner
Build the skill zip, then upload dist/opendesigner.zip under Customize > Skills. Code execution must be on.
git clone https://github.com/ckryptickunal/OpenDesigner && cd OpenDesigner
python3 tools/build_dist.py # writes the zip files into dist/
These tools read skills from .agents/skills/. Copy the OpenDesigner skills into your project. Tools that support Agent Plugins can also read the root plugin.json.
git clone https://github.com/ckryptickunal/OpenDesigner
mkdir -p your-project/.agents/skills
cp -R OpenDesigner/.agents/skills/opendesigner* your-project/.agents/skills/
- Create a Project.
- Paste
chatgpt-project/instructions.md (the part below its line) into the Project instructions.
- Upload the five files in
chatgpt-project/knowledge/.
The engine is one Python file (Python 3.10 or newer, nothing to install). It writes DESIGN.md, PRODUCT.md and an opendesigner/ folder with tokens, exports and an overview page.
python3 path/to/OpenDesigner/skills/opendesigner/scripts/engine.py sketch --name "Acme" --feel friendly,minimal
You need your own AI tool and Python 3.10 or newer. The engine makes no network calls; your chat still goes to your AI provider, as with any prompt (privacy). Step-by-step help for each tool is in the install guide.
How it works
A real example for Billerwick, a made-up finance tool: five answers, the rules the engine wrote from them, and a card that uses only those rules. Photo: Sean Fahrenbruch on Unsplash.
- It reads your project first, so it doesn't ask what your files already answer.
- It checks its own work: text contrast against WCAG 2.2 AA, tap targets of at least 24 px, visible keyboard focus and reduced motion. Errors stop the build.
- It writes everything down:
DESIGN.md, design tokens in the open DTCG format, CSS variables, a Tailwind theme, Figma variables, Swift and Jetpack Compose, and a log of every choice with its reason.
- It asks you for what only you can make, like a logo, photos or a brand typeface. Show it a site you like and it borrows the structure, never the brand.
More: How it works · FAQ · Glossary · Research
Fix a page you already built
A real run of the review skill on Merriweft, a made-up invoicing app: it measured the page, marked each problem, and fixed it with the app's own design system. Photo: Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
Watch it run on the website, or open the full report with every measurement.
Examples
B2B screens that AI agents built through OpenDesigner, reviewed by the maintainer. Every brand is made up, and much of the identity work was done outside the tokens. Photos: Photoholgic, Annie Spratt and Harshal Tandel on Unsplash.
See every piece in the showcase. Three worked example systems are in examples/; their DESIGN.md files are out of date with the current engine (#51).
Component library
Six of its 42 parts, shown in Billerwick, one of the ten looks the engine makes. Every part uses only design tokens, so it takes on your look.
When you want finished parts, your AI can add any of them to your project. It's optional. Browse the library.
Why trust its advice
Its defaults come from research in this repo that anyone can check: 25 public design systems compared side by side (including Material, Apple's HIG, Carbon, Fluent, Polaris, Primer and shadcn/ui), and Decision Cards that each cover one decision with its options, a recommended default and its sources. Start with docs/RESEARCH.md.
Status and roadmap
OpenDesigner is early.
- The repository was created on 2026-09-23, and one person maintains it. There is no tagged release yet; 0.1.0 is planned.
- The engine's tests pass on the maintainer's computer. No CI runs and no watched user trials have happened yet, and a recorded run in every AI tool is still on the list.
- Planned next: choices you can click inside your AI tool, through an MCP server (#20).
What has shipped is in CHANGELOG.md. The full plan is in docs/SPEC.md.
Report a problem or suggest an improvement
-
While you use it: tell your AI what went wrong. It saves the note in your project and gives you a ready-to-file GitHub link. Nothing is posted until you open the link and submit it. You can also run it yourself:
python3 path/to/OpenDesigner/skills/opendesigner/scripts/engine.py feedback "the spacing question was confusing" --kind confusing
-
On GitHub: open an issue or ask in Discussions.
Contributing
All kinds of help are welcome: research corrections, better questions, support for more AI tools, translations and examples. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md and the good first issues. Questions go to Discussions (SUPPORT.md). Everyone follows the Code of Conduct. For security issues, see SECURITY.md.
Want to try it with your team? Book a free 20-minute intro call with Kunal, who maintains OpenDesigner.
Sponsors
OpenDesigner is free and open source. Sponsorship pays for maintenance and for model credits to test it across AI tools. Sponsor OpenDesigner
Star history
License
Code, skills, templates and data files are under the MIT license. Written research and documentation are under CC BY 4.0, so you can reuse them with credit. That covers research/, benchmarks/, sources/, traces/, synthesis/ Markdown and docs/. Product and design-system names in the research belong to their owners. The tool marks in the "works in" row belong to their owners and only show where OpenDesigner runs (from Simple Icons, CC0). Photos in the README images are from Unsplash: Philipp Hubert (banner), Sean Fahrenbruch (how it works), and Photoholgic, Annie Spratt and Harshal Tandel (examples).
To cite OpenDesigner or its research, use CITATION.cff (GitHub's "Cite this repository" button).
