nexu-io/open-design open-design-v0.8.0

Open Design 0.8.0

on GitHub

✊ 305 PRs · 75 contributors · 7 days — This isn't a release. It's a starting gun. We rebuilt Open Design's core. Then we ported the old world into it.

Three things are different underneath now:

• 🧩 Everything is a plugin. The engine stays small and boring. Design systems, slices, prototypes, exports, and every legacy workflow — including Figma itself — all live in plugins. You write a plugin; you migrate a piece of the industry.
• 🌐 Headless by default. The desktop app is a thin wrapper around the CLI. The same engine runs in Claude Code, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, or straight inside a Lark / Discord / Slack chat. Design stops being a place you go and becomes a capability your agents have.
• ♻️ Plugins create plugins. OD CLI wraps GitHub CLI, so an agent can clone the repo, scaffold a plugin, and open a PR — for you, or for itself. The engine grows itself, in public, with you in the loop.

Two movements behind the rebuild:

• 🥊 #DeFigma — kill the canvas, keep the craft. Figma isn't broken. It's just the wrong unit of work in an agent-native world. A design system shouldn't be a file you maintain. A prototype shouldn't be 200 frames you nudge by hand. The canvas was a workaround for not having a real engine. We have an engine now.
• 🤖 Agent-Native Design — the designer becomes the director. Agent-driven design is no longer a demo. It's shipping production-grade design systems, world-class UI, decks, prototypes — for people who cannot draw a rectangle. The 10×–100× productivity jump people kept promising for AI tooling? It's here. The human gives intent, not coordinates.

This is the first release where both movements are real in the same engine. Full announcement and discussion thread →

🔥 Highlights

• 🧩 Plugin engine rebuild. Open Design's research-preview architecture has been replaced with a small, boring engine plus a plugin surface — every workflow from design-system templates and slices to prototypes, exports, and Figma itself is now a plugin. Engine stays small on purpose so the industry can be ported into it one plugin at a time. Thanks @bulai0408, @YUHAO-corn, @xxiaoxiong, and everyone who shaped the new shape.
• 🌐 Headless by default. The desktop app is now a thin wrapper around the OD CLI. The same engine runs from Claude Code, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and chat bots in Lark / Discord / Slack — design becomes a capability your agents have, not a place you visit. Custom CLI agent profiles ship in this release. (#378) Thanks @fuyizheng3120.
• ♻️ Plugins create plugins. OD CLI wraps GitHub CLI, so an agent can clone the repo, scaffold a plugin, and open a PR — for you, or for itself. The Publish-repo flow now correctly creates the author's GitHub repo (#2332, #2363) and CLI plugin publish reads the live manifest version (#1903). Thanks @lefarcen, @leessju.
• 🛒 Plugin Registry + marketplace surface. New plugin registry detail drawer with trust badges, GitHub rate-limit-aware marketplace fallback, polished publish footer, and unified plugin/integration nav. (#2087, #2064, #1806, #1849) Thanks @bulai0408, @zoeforfun, @mturac.
• 🎭 Critique Theater matures through Phase 16. What was Phase 7 in 0.7.0 is now a fully observable judge — Phase 9 web client wrapper with native de/ja/ko/zh-TW i18n, Phase 10 adapter conformance lab, Phase 11 Playwright stage suite, Phase 12 with 9 Prometheus metrics + 6 log events + OTel span + Grafana dashboard, Phase 13 reducer p99 bench, Phase 14 user guide, Phase 15 rollout resolver + Settings toggle, Phase 16 M-phase rollout ratchet + /api/critique/conformance — dark-launched M0 by default. (#1315–#1320, #1338, #1483–#1485, #1499) Thanks @Nagendhra-web.
• 🎨 149 design systems with structured tokens.css + components manifest. Brand-token fixtures landed for 60+ new brands (Apple, Stripe, Airbnb, Vercel, Notion, Linear, GitHub, Figma, Slack, Discord, OpenAI, Shopify, Spotify, Uber, Cursor, and 50 more across AI / SaaS / devtool / fintech / docs / consumer / hardware / cultural categories) — each ships tokens.css + components.html, served through the design-system token channel that's now default-on. Plus design-system project import. (#1544, #1652, #1794, #1841, #2023, #2028, #2029, #2033, #2037, #2040, #2043, #2049, #2051) Thanks @zoeforfun.
• 🤖 Three new media providers: Leonardo.ai, ElevenLabs, SenseAudio. Leonardo.ai image generation (#1123), ElevenLabs audio (#1384), SenseAudio TTS plus BYOK chat with image + video tools (#1633, #2065). Thanks @xxiaoxiong, @bulai0408, @Fl0rencess720, @mzl163.
• 🔄 Packaged auto-update — battle-hardened on both macOS and Windows. 0.8.0 is the first release where packaged installs self-update end-to-end on both platforms through the same R2 feed, with a refreshed in-app updater popup, validated download / install handoff, and recovery from interrupted applies. The whole flow was rebuilt and stress-tested through the preview cycle. (#2270, #2362, #2376, #2403, #2429, #2565, #2575, #2592, #2595, #2677, #2687, #2700) Thanks @PerishCode, @mturac.
• 🎨 Top-to-bottom visual refresh. New official Open Design app icons, brand glyphs, refreshed wordmark — wrapped together as one coordinated drop in time for 0.8.0. (#2436)
• 🌍 Italian (it) locale + CJK font fallback. Open Design now ships full UI in 19 languages including Italian (#1323), and Chinese / Japanese / Korean text falls back to platform-native CJK fonts so the UI reads natively instead of going through Latin substitution (#2227). Thanks @xxiaoxiong, @delamoer.
• 🧠 Quick-brief discovery overhaul. Freeform project clarification now collapses into a single form (#2226), plugin inputs are authoritative answers (#2243), brand-answer prompts stabilized (#1861), and the daemon surfaces form answers directly to agents (#2071). Thanks @lefarcen, @YUHAO-corn, @bulai0408.
• ✏️ Manual edit UX overhaul. Focus mode, inline upload, remove-element patch, history affordance — manual editing on artifacts finally feels like a real tool instead of a toggle. (#1448, #1516) Thanks @alchemistklk, @nombreregular.
• 📊 PostHog v2 event schema. Unified page_name + onboarding/design-system page_views, modernized event taxonomy so product analytics finally reflects the new plugin world. (#2285, #2390) Thanks @lefarcen.
• 🌐 HTML Anything page + tutorials channel on the landing site. New /html-anything evangelism page (#2452), rebuilt /templates catalog backed by design-templates (#2369), tutorials section (#2409). Thanks @Tuola-waj, @ashleyashli.

📥 Download: Tag open-design-v0.8.0. All assets below are live on GitHub Releases and releases.open-design.ai.

Platform	Architecture	Asset
macOS	Apple Silicon (arm64)	open-design-0.8.0-mac-arm64.dmg
macOS	Intel (x64)	open-design-0.8.0-mac-x64.dmg
macOS (auto-update feed)	Apple Silicon (arm64)	open-design-0.8.0-mac-arm64.zip
Windows	x64 (unsigned, auto-update 🆕)	open-design-0.8.0-win-x64-setup.exe

✨ What's New

🧩 Plugin engine, registry & publishing

• Plugin registry detail drawer. (#2087) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Plugin Publish repo creates the author's GitHub repo. (#2332, #2363) Thanks @lefarcen.
• CLI plugin publish reads manifest version when stored row is 0.0.0 sentinel. (#1903) Thanks @leessju.
• GitHub rate-limit fallback for marketplace plugins. (#2064) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Plugin trust badges unified. (#2331) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Demote Plugins + Integrations to nav rail footer so primary surface stays focused. (#1806, #2360, #2397) Thanks @zoeforfun, @lefarcen.
• Stop recommending raw publish CLIs from the authoring summary — keep agents on the OD publish path. (#2380) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Wire Open Design "Open Design PR" button end-to-end in plugin authoring. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Breathing room for plugin publish footer. (#1849) Thanks @mturac.

🎭 Critique Theater (Phases 9 – 16)

• Phase 9 — drop-in mount wrapper, native i18n for de / ja / ko / zh-TW. (#1315) Thanks @Nagendhra-web.
• Phase 10 — daemon adapter conformance lab + degraded registry. (#1316)
• Phase 11 — Playwright stage suite (happy path, interrupt, 3 viewports, a11y). (#1317, #1483)
• Phase 12 — 9 Prometheus metrics + 6 log events + OTel span + Grafana dashboard. (#1485)
• Phase 13 — reducer p99 benchmark + surface coverage walker. (#1318)
• Phase 14 — full user guide + 2 AGENTS module maps. (#1319)
• Phase 15 — rollout resolver + Settings toggle hook. (#1320)
• Phase 16 — M-phase rollout ratchet + /api/critique/conformance. (#1499)
• Wireup + M0 dark-launch by default. (#1338)
• Settings toggle with dedicated section + i18n. (#1484)

🎨 Design systems & tokens

• Token channel default-on (PR-D) so the new fixture pipeline is the default surface. (#1544) Thanks @zoeforfun.
• Structured tokens.css for 60+ brands across AI, devtool, SaaS, fintech, docs, consumer, hardware, cultural categories — Apple, Stripe, Airbnb, Vercel, Notion, Linear, GitHub, Figma, Slack, Discord, OpenAI, Shopify, Spotify, Uber, Cursor, and many more. (#1652, #1794, #1841, #2023, #2028, #2029, #2033) Thanks @zoeforfun.
• Token fixture catalog — 20 brand + 20 product + remaining style fixtures, component-fixture coverage reporting. (#2037, #2040, #2043, #2049)
• Component manifests — extract + consume manifests for design systems. (#2051, daemon side)
• Perplexity design system. (#1747) Thanks @MJ-thunder.
• Import design-system projects via the discovery flow. Thanks @zoeforfun.
• Synchronise README inventory badges — skills 31 → 131, design-systems 72 → 149. (#1899) Thanks @leessju.

🤖 Agents, providers & media

• Local custom CLI agent profiles so users can plug arbitrary CLI agents into the runtime. (#378) Thanks @fuyizheng3120.
• Leonardo.ai image provider. (#1123) Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• ElevenLabs audio support. (#1384) Thanks @bulai0408.
• SenseAudio TTS provider + BYOK chat with image / video generation tools. (#1633, #2065) Thanks @Fl0rencess720, @mzl163.
• OpenAI-compatible media providers for the dispatcher. Thanks @bulai0408.
• User-configurable model alias for the media dispatcher (#1277). Thanks @PerishCode.
• Cursor Agent live model id parsing. (#2228) Thanks @Derrick-xn.
• Cursor Agent auth diagnostics. (#1538) Thanks @alchemistklk.
• AskUserQuestion tool wired through Claude chat + TodoWrite pinning. Thanks @lefarcen.
• Discover Codex models from the installed CLI. Thanks @alchemistklk.
• CODEX_API_KEY support for the Codex CLI lane. Thanks @alchemistklk.
• Forward external MCP servers to OpenCode. Thanks @mutoe.

🖥️ Web UI

• Improve manual edit UX — focus mode, inline uploads, remove-element patch. (#1516) Thanks @nombreregular.
• Manual edit inspector. (#1448) Thanks @alchemistklk.
• Tweaks toolbar bound to the artifact panel. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Custom select primitive for cleaner dropdowns. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Collapsible comment side panel. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Export-as-image screenshot in the share menu. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Render GFM tables in markdown artifacts and chat. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Surface saved Project instructions for review and retrieval. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Copy-to-clipboard for user messages. Thanks @asim48-ctrl.
• Filter-by-kind dropdown on the design-files viewer. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Critique Theater drop-in mount + Settings toggle in the web client. (#1315, #1484) Thanks @Nagendhra-web.
• Discovery: collapse freeform clarification + plugin-inputs-authoritative. (#2226, #2243) Thanks @lefarcen.

🍎🪟 Desktop & packaging

• Packaged auto-update for both macOS and Windows. (#2362, #2270, #2403) Thanks @PerishCode, @mturac.
• Updater hardening through the preview cycle — release validation, deferred installer on Windows, applied-state clearing, download / install handoff hardening, smoke-recovery. (#2565, #2575, #2592, #2595, #2677, #2687, #2700) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Packaged update apply observations captured for telemetry / debugging. (#2429) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Keep the macOS Dock icon when the desktop-pet window opens. (#2413) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Forward proxy env vars to packaged sidecars so corporate networks work. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Detect mise-installed npm bins for the daemon's CLI discovery. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Refresh Open Design app visuals — new icons, logo, brand glyphs. (#2436) Thanks codex agent + @lefarcen.
• Support nightly + preview package identity so beta channel installs don't collide with stable. (#2437) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Linux packaged client parity smoke coverage. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Ensure node binary dir is on PATH for agent sub-processes on Windows. (#1989) Thanks @jiannanya.

🌍 Internationalization

• Italian (it) locale — full UI translation, brings supported languages to 19. (#1323) Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• CJK font fallback for Chinese / Japanese / Korean. (#2227) Thanks @delamoer.
• Refresh + polish French UI locale. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Translate template platform selection + Companion surfaces to Chinese. (#1491) Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Localize accent controls in settings. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Localize comment panel strings. (#1390, #1392) Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Localize skill validation messages. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Make de / fr / ru content i18n optional to unblock locale rollout. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• i18n coverage report script (pnpm i18n:coverage). Thanks @YUHAO-corn.

📊 Analytics, observability & infra

• PostHog v2 event schema. (#2285) Thanks @lefarcen.
• Unified page_name + onboarding / design-system page_views. (#2390) Thanks @lefarcen.
• Upgrade posthog-node 4 → 5 in the daemon. (#2309) Thanks @neogenix.
• One-click log export from Settings → About. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Visual regression PR workflow. Thanks @lefarcen.

📦 Templates, landing & tutorials

• HTML Anything page + responsive landing header. (#2452) Thanks @Tuola-waj.
• Rebuild /templates catalog from design-templates. (#2369) Thanks @ashleyashli.
• Refresh templates + add tutorials channel. (#2409) Thanks @ashleyashli.
• Add blog routes on the landing site. Thanks @ashleyashli.
• Search Console reporting workflows. Thanks @lefarcen.
• GSC report opportunities. (#2388) Thanks @lefarcen.
• Daily blog indexing / 3-day traffic digests. Thanks @lefarcen.
• WeRead year-in-review HyperFrames template. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Templates: design-system token channel + Refresh-Templates flow. Thanks @ashleyashli.

🐛 Selected fixes

Web

• Block pitch-deck placeholder publishes and unbreak framework decks. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Rename FileViewer "Share" button to "Export" to match the action. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Confirm before deleting a saved template in New Project. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Restore consistent app header layout on the entry view. (#1519) Thanks @Siri-Ray.
• Refine preview and project dropdown controls. (#1514) Thanks @Siri-Ray.
• Demote Plugins + Integrations to the nav rail footer. (#1806) Thanks @zoeforfun.
• Pin chat during content growth. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Auto-scroll feedback form. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Routines history rows deep-link to their specific conversation (Fixes #1505). Thanks @bulai0408.
• Hide resolved comments from preview overlays. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Keep filter pill hover labels readable. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Improve replace-modal button hover contrast. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Freeze completed run durations across conversations. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Align Home prompt overlay with textarea so caret lands on click. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Restore release-light background. (#1540)
• Allow downloads from preview iframes and fall back to srcDoc when the HTML preview needs sandbox shim. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Coalesce chokidar rewrite bursts before refreshing files. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Memory editor reveals after edit click + distinguish expanded memory preview action. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.
• Auto-annotate imported HTML elements for Tweaks selection. (#892) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Stable shared frame screen paths from referrer. Thanks @bulai0408.
• Daemon run recovery across reloads. (#2374) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Restore custom dropdown chevron for the timezone selector in dark mode. Thanks @xxiaoxiong.

Desktop & packaging

• macOS Dock icon stays put when desktop-pet window opens. (#2413) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Align Windows smoke update root with portable installs. (#2376) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Nightly release smoke identity. (#2446) Thanks @PerishCode.
• Improve desktop updater ready UI. (#2403) Thanks @mturac.
• Forward proxy env to sidecars. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Detect mise npm package bins. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Launch Windows updater fixture via Node. (#2364) Thanks @PerishCode.
• macOS close exits fullscreen before hiding. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Daemon's external-browser opener fixed on Windows. Thanks @PerishCode.

Daemon, runtime & connectivity

• Surface discovery form answers to agents. (#2071) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Stabilize discovery brand answers in prompts. (#1861) Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• ACP model detection timeout is configurable. Thanks @alchemistklk.
• Wrap Claude smoke test stdin as stream-json. Thanks @lefarcen.
• Preserve Claude tool inputs. (#1476) Thanks @lefarcen.
• Codex CLI path fallback UX. (#1205) Thanks @shangxinyu1.
• Treat Codex reconnect events as warnings, not fatal errors. (#1482) Thanks @alchemistklk.
• ACP config options used for model selection. (#1208) Thanks @bulai0408.
• Remove OpenCode stdin dash sentinel + soft empty API response. Thanks @PerishCode.

📚 Documentation

• Critique Theater Phase 14 user guide + 2 AGENTS module maps. (#1319) Thanks @Nagendhra-web.
• Windows native setup notes in AGENTS.md. Thanks @PerishCode.
• Comprehensive contributor guide in TRANSLATIONS.md. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• RTL_LOCALES UI guidance + es-ES alignment. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Sync zh-TW README with the English version. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Sync Windows troubleshooting link across locale READMEs. Thanks @YUHAO-corn.
• Refresh contributors wall + GitHub metrics SVG.
• Clarify Intel Mac ZIP packaging support. Thanks @PerishCode.
• README inventory badges sync (skills 31 → 131, design-systems 72 → 149). (#1899) Thanks @leessju.
• 0.8.0-preview banner + Discussion #1727 pointer. (#1781) Thanks @lefarcen.
• Active 0.8.0 contributors point at main. (#1846)

🔨 For Developers

✅ System requirements

• 🍎 macOS — Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x64), macOS 11 Big Sur or newer.
• 🪟 Windows — x64, Windows 10 / 11. Installer is unsigned but now ships packaged auto-update.
• 🐧 Linux — headless lifecycle (install / start / stop from CLI). Packaged GUI artifact is still deferred while the release lane is hardened.
• ❄️ Nix — official flake at flake.nix with home-manager and NixOS support.
• 🧑‍💻 From source — Node.js 24.x and pnpm 10.33.2+ (per engines in package.json).

⚠️ Known issues

• 🪟 Windows installer is unsigned. SmartScreen / antivirus warnings expected on first launch. Code signing is follow-up work.
• 🐧 No Linux desktop GUI package in 0.8.0 stable — use headless mode, the Nix flake, or run from source.
• 🐚 od CLI shadows POSIX od when installed globally. Use /usr/bin/od or command od for the system tool.
• 🧪 Several preview-period feedback issues (#1729, #2076, #2059, #1797, …) remain open for community follow-up — see the issue tracker.

🙏 Thanks to everyone who shipped 0.8.0

305 PRs by 75 contributors. The "everything is a plugin" thesis only works because so many of you came at it from so many different angles. Thank you to:

@Abepena, @Derrick-xn, @Fl0rencess720, @GHX5T-SOL, @Hetsavani, @Jeshua09090, @Lucky19112002, @MJ-thunder, @MetaAlms, @MrRockySL, @Nagendhra-web, @PerishCode, @Priyanshudotdev, @Romantin, @Sid-Qin, @Siri-Ray, @Tuola-waj, @YUHAO-corn, @ZZXX-bit, @aaronjmars, @abhid-007, @alchemistklk, @ashleyashli, @asim48-ctrl, @bankielewicz, @bluto447, @bulai0408, @davezfr, @delamoer, @digitalcr8tive, @enaktes9-hub, @epicsagas, @fancyboi999, @feliciaZH, @fuyizheng3120, @hahaplus, @heylakatos, @hobostay, @jeongjin0, @jiannanya, @laihenyi, @leessju, @lefarcen, @mar2181, @mrcfps, @mrzhangkris, @mturac, @mutoe, @mzl163, @mzl2233, @neogenix, @nettee, @ngoduybien, @nmsn, @nombreregular, @ojhendershot, @orbisai0security, @pftom, @portseif, @prantikmedhi, @quangdo126, @sakshyasinha, @samay-hash, @sasha1107, @shangxinyu1, @slamj1, @spurnout, @sukumarp2022, @toby-bridges, @whoughton, @xxiaoxiong, @yuhaoyuan, @zellux, @zhangdongming0607, @zoeforfun.

A movement doesn't ship from one team's laptops; it ships from the people who showed up early and built the missing pieces. We see you. 🫡

Full Changelog: open-design-v0.7.0...release/v0.8.0