Open Design is a local-first, open-source design-to-code platform that serves as an alternative to Claude Design. It detects installed coding-agent CLIs (26+ supported), runs design skills against brand-grade DESIGN.md design systems, and streams artifacts (prototypes, decks, images, video, HyperFrames) into a sandboxed preview. The architecture is a monorepo with pnpm workspaces, comprising a Node.js daemon (Express + SQLite), a React/Next.js web SPA, an Electron desktop shell, and an Astro landing page. Core capabilities include a plugin system with 277 official plugins, design system management, AI-powered artifact generation, collaboration (workspace, team resource sharing, presence), critique/theater scoring, media generation, and research integration (Tavily). The daemon acts as a local server that manages projects, conversations, agent runtimes, and SSE event streaming. The web client provides a rich UI for chat, project management, design system browsing, plugin marketplace, and real-time collaboration. The desktop app wraps the web client with native features like folder pickers, deep-link handling, and auto-updater. The codebase demonstrates high craftsmanship with clean abstractions (HTTP adapter pattern, plugin architecture, agent runtime definitions, SWR cache, backoff controller, singleton registries) and extensive test coverage (Vitest unit tests, Playwright e2e). It is actively maintained with a rapid release cadence and modern dependency management.