Caret
Open-source AI design tool that lives in your repo
FreeOpen SourceAIDesign3 impressionslaunches Oct 221 comment
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>log in to commentHey everyone 👋 I'm the maker. We built Caret: open-source AI design tool that lives in your repo. I'd love your honest feedback, and I'm here all week to answer questions!
Your design shouldn't live outside your codebase. Caret gives your repo a design layer: real React in .caret/, rendered live on a canvas you can click and edit. Your app's source stays untouched until you sync.
Your design is the code. Not a picture of it, not a file that drifts. It lives in your repo, in git, reviewable in a pull request. So a fix you make once is still there tomorrow, instead of being regenerated away the next time you ask for something.
Sync is a thing you choose. When a design is ready, Caret works out what changed since the last sync and your agent makes the app match, in whatever framework you ship.
Use Caret with your own agent and harness. Designing happens in Caret, signed in with the AI coding plan you already pay for. Pushing those designs into your app can happen here too, or you can hand the sync to the agent in your terminal over MCP.
Free and open source, runs on your machine, no account.
Caret is an open-source AI-powered design tool that stores React designs as code inside a .caret folder in your repo.
- for
- Frontend developers who want design and code in the same repository.
- pricing
- free
- license
- Apache-2.0
Key features
- Live editable React canvas — Edit UI directly on a live canvas; changes are written as .tsx files in .caret/.
- AI-assisted edits — Paint over elements and describe changes; the AI agent updates the exact code.
- Versioned design files — Design files live in git, are reviewable via pull requests and never drift.
- Sync control — Choose when to sync design changes into your app, with automatic diff detection.
- Asset generation — Generate logos, images, textures as code-based assets that respect your design tokens.
- Multi-variant playground — Create and compare multiple design variations side-by-side live.
Use cases
- Iterate UI components visually while keeping source of truth in code
- Generate and version design assets that stay in sync with brand tokens
- Collaborate on design changes via git pull requests instead of separate design files
Caret vs alternatives
 Caret |  Figma |  Penpot |  Framer |  Krita | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Design-as-code in Git | Collaborative UI design in the cloud | Open-source UI prototyping | Visual website creation | Digital painting |
| Pricing | Free | Subscription | Free | Subscription | Free |
| DevHunt upvotes | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Launched | Oct 2030 | — | — | — | — |
- Caret vs Figma: Figma is a cloud-based UI design tool with separate design files, not code-first and not stored in git.
- Caret vs Penpot: Penpot is an open-source design and prototyping platform that stores designs as files, not as live React code in the repo.
- Caret vs Framer: Framer focuses on visual website building and publishing, not on keeping design as code inside your repository.
- Caret vs Krita: Krita is a raster painting app for artwork, unrelated to code-based UI design.
Caret FAQ
Do I have to build my app inside Caret?+
No, Caret only manages the .caret/ design layer; your app code lives elsewhere and you sync when ready.
Does it work with my existing stack?+
The design layer is React, and the sync step can output code for Next, Remix, Vue, Svelte, Rails, or any framework you use.
Will my code leave my machine?+
Caret runs locally with no account; only anonymous usage data is sent, and it can be disabled.
What do I need to install?+
Node.js is required; the live canvas runs a local dev server.
Can I design from the terminal?+
No, design happens in the Caret UI; the terminal can only invoke the sync step.
Summarized by DevHunt from caretai.cloud · Oct 12, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
