Open Design
for AI Agents
An open-source design harness for AI coding agents
An open-source design harness for AI coding agents
An Inflection Point
16
Chapters covering the design-harness workflow
50
Figures, screenshots, and visual walkthroughs
About the Book
Open Design is an open-source design harness for AI coding agents. It runs locally across skills, DESIGN.md brand systems, plugins, MCP, and a sandboxed preview/export loop so agents can produce real design artifacts.
Written with AI assistance using an agentic publishing pipeline. The author directed, reviewed, and approved all content. Technical review by Claude Opus 4.6 and Gemini 3.1 Pro. Free for personal use under a personal use license.
The current edition features 16 chapters and 4 appendices, with practical guides for turning design intent into maintainable, production-ready interfaces without losing your designer sensibility.
“We must close the gap between visual thinking and syntax execution. Open Design is the bridge that lets designers write code like they design.”
Mehran Mozaffari →
Author, Sydney, Australia · AI Operator & Systems Designer
What the book covers:
Design is no longer just how it looks and feels. Design is how it builds, runs, and integrates directly into production.
Part I · Foundations & Core Skills
Understand the local-first design harness, install its desktop and daemon architecture, make your first artifact, and learn how the skills system turns design intent into executable work.
In this section:
Part II · System & Workflow Automation
Build a reusable design language with DESIGN.md brand systems, then turn it into web and mobile prototypes, decks, motion, images, and exportable artifacts.
In this section:
Part III · Production & Tool Landscape
Extend the harness with plugins and MCP, choose the right agent, and coordinate multi-agent design teams around a shared source of truth.
In this section:
Part IV · Practice & Your Pipeline
Study real adoption patterns, evaluate the stack for your organization, understand the future of local-first autonomous design, and build a pipeline that fits your own practice.
In this section:
Appendices
Appendix A
Every command, shortcut, configuration, and hidden switch
Appendix B
A practical index for the harness extension surface
Appendix C
Fixes for common errors, shell environment issues, and general QA
Appendix D
Screens, surfaces, and the working environment in context
Open Design
An open-source design harness for AI coding agents. By Mehran Mozaffari. First edition, July 2026. Version 0.1.2.
Front Matter
Chapter 01
Chapter 02
Chapter 03
Chapter 04
Chapter 05
Chapter 06
Chapter 07
Chapter 08
Chapter 09
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
