What it does

Open CoDesign is an Electron desktop app that takes a text prompt and generates polished prototypes, slide decks, or marketing assets using whichever LLM you already pay for. It supports Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, Ollama, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. You bring your own API key or sign in with an existing ChatGPT subscription; the app itself is free and MIT-licensed.

The interesting bit

The “local-first” pitch is more than posture. Design iterations, version history, and app state stay on your machine. The agent exposes its todo list and tool calls in real time, and you can interrupt generation mid-stream. The tweak panel is a nice touch: instead of reprompting for color or spacing changes, the model surfaces adjustable sliders and RGB inputs you can manipulate directly.

Key highlights

• One-click import of existing Claude Code or Codex provider configs; claims under-90-second setup
• Exports to HTML, PDF, PPTX, ZIP, and Markdown — not just screenshots
• Comment-pin editing: click any element, drop a pin, and have the model rewrite only that region
• Packaged for Homebrew, Scoop, winget (in review), and direct download with SHA256SUMS + CycloneDX SBOMs
• v0.2.0 added workspace-backed agentic sessions, permissioned local tools, and DESIGN.md design-system support

Caveats

• Installers are unsigned: macOS Sequoia 15+ requires xattr -cr to bypass Gatekeeper, and Windows SmartScreen will flag the executable
• The project is young (v0.2.0 as of May 2026); some package-manager channels like Flathub are deferred pending signed builds and AppStream metadata
• Electron-based, so expect the usual memory footprint of a Chromium wrapper

Verdict

Worth a spin if you want AI-generated UI without renting yet another SaaS seat or surrendering your work to someone else’s cloud. Skip it if you need team collaboration features, mature design-system governance, or are allergic to unsigned binaries and terminal workarounds.