Open Design
Local-First, Agent-Native Design-as-Code — The Open-Source AI Design Alternative
Copyright © 2026 Mehran Mozaffari.
First edition · September 2026 · Version 0.2.1
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Mehran Mozaffari. Personal and noncommercial use: the prose of this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. You may share the unadapted work with attribution for noncommercial purposes. You may not sell this book, redistribute adapted editions, or use it primarily for commercial advantage without a separate commercial license. Commercial and organizational use (including company or team distribution, paid training, and resale on any storefront) requires a commercial license from the copyright holder — https://piazr.github.io/open-design/. The copyright holder retains the exclusive right to sell editions via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (normal KDP, non-exclusive) and other retailers. All included code snippets, schemas, and lab scripts in this work are licensed under the Apache License 2.0 or MIT License for unrestricted engineering reuse, as noted in context. Third-party trademarks, brand systems, templates, and assets retain their original licenses and rights.
Written with AI Assistance
This publication was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by the author. The author directed, reviewed, and approved all content. All opinions and analyses are the author's own.
All tool references, feature counts, and code examples reflect Open Design and its ecosystem as of the publication date on the cover. Open Design is open source and evolves rapidly; check the official product repository (github.com/nexu-io/open-design) for the latest features, skills, brand systems, and plugin counts.
Trademarks
All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners. Open Design is licensed under Apache-2.0; bundled templates retain their original licenses. References in this book are for identification and educational purposes only and do not imply endorsement.
Claude and Claude Design are products of Anthropic. OpenAI, Codex, and ChatGPT are products of OpenAI. Gemini and Antigravity are products of Google. Figma is a product of Figma, Inc. Cursor is a product of Anysphere. GitHub Copilot is a product of GitHub, Inc. OpenCode is a product of OpenCode AI. HyperFrames is a product of HeyGen. Named brand design systems (including Linear, Stripe, Apple, and Tesla) are the property of their respective owners.
This book and Open Design are independent of, and not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by, any of those trademark owners.
Disclaimer
This publication is for informational purposes only and is not legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. The author makes no warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information.
Tool capabilities, pricing, API availability, plugin counts, and feature sets described in this book may have changed since publication. Always consult the official documentation for each tool or platform for current information.
Code examples are provided for educational purposes and should be tested in your own environment before use in production.
Edition and Publisher Details
Published by Piazr
Applied AI Field Guides · Sydney, Australia
Published: September 2026
Version: 0.2.1
Book repository: imehr/open-design
Website: piazr.github.io/open-design/
Releases: Releases (v0.2.1)
Credits
Author: Mehran Mozaffari
Editorial review: Multi-model AI review pipeline
Technical reviewers: Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini 3.1 Pro
Design and production: Agentic publishing pipeline (OpenCode)
Open Source Acknowledgments
This book references and describes the following open-source and source-available projects. The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of their maintainers and communities:
- Open Design (nexu-io) — Apache License 2.0
- OpenPencil (ZSeven-W) — MIT License
- Huashu Design (alchaincyf) — MIT License
- HyperFrames (heygen-com) — Apache-2.0
- OpenCode (anomalyco) — MIT License
This book does not distribute source code from any of these projects. References are descriptive and educational.
Contact the Author
Blog: https://piazr.github.io/applied-ai/
GitHub: https://github.com/imehr
Book issues: imehr/open-design
For corrections, errata, or licensing inquiries, please open an issue on the book's repository or contact the author through the channels above.
This Edition
First edition · September 2026 · Version 0.2.1
Version: 0.2.1
Published: September 2026
- Book repository: imehr/open-design
- Website: piazr.github.io/open-design/
- Release page: Releases (v0.2.1)
- Website repository: Piazr/open-design
What’s new in this release
- Full legal re-review (publication-counsel, 2026-09-05): inception + all 16 chapters + 4 appendices re-reviewed against the September content — no release-blocking findings; appendix-D received its first dedicated legal review.
- HyperFrames license corrected to Apache-2.0 in Chapter 7 and the front-matter OSS register (verified against the upstream repository).
- Figure D.21 home-directory path redacted to a generic username; Figure 3.2 provenance statement corrected to "composite frame"; Figure 4.2/5.2 alt texts aligned with the shipped images; three Chapter 16 figures relabeled as v0.11-era historical illustrations.
- Version stamps unified to v0.21.1 / September 2026 across appendices A-C; TOC and outline case-study count corrected to five; CLI count framing in Appendix A made current (26+ live roster vs the appendix's verified 17-slug table).
- Security and claims phrasing softened to design-intent language (Chapter 8), the Google sunset claim attributed (Chapter 10), vendor economics tagged self-reported (Chapter 13), MCP status dated (Chapter 15).
- Screenshot attribution inventory completed: 14 new entries (ch-02 v0.21.1 settings series, ch-03 composite, ch-11, ch-13 Case-5 captures), appendix-D manifest renumbered to D.1-D.26, rights register refreshed to the managed CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0 and now counting all 32 third-party assets.
- Internal workflow markers removed from shipped prose (70 TODO-VERIFY comments stripped); front-matter changelog now renders markdown properly; author contact path added to book metadata.