02 · Install: the desktop app, or three commands

Two paths: download a packaged desktop app, or run from source. The first takes three minutes; the second needs the right Node on your machine. Functionally they're close — the desktop build is the same daemon and web runtime wrapped in Electron.

Path one: the desktop app

Go to open-design.ai/download and pick your build:

Platform	Package	Size	Requires
macOS · Apple Silicon	DMG	~367 MB	macOS 11 Big Sur or newer
macOS · Intel	DMG	~379 MB	macOS 11 Big Sur or newer
Windows	Installer (portable zip also available)	~400 MB	Windows 10 / 11, x64

Install and open it. It scans your PATH, finds the agent CLIs you already have, and needs no Node, no pnpm, and no config file.

The download page won't work on a phone

It's a desktop app, and the site says so rather than serving you a build. Bookmark the link and come back at a computer.

Path two: from source

Worth it for two groups: people who want to edit skills or add design systems, and people whose work machine won't install unsigned apps.

Check the environment first

Dependency	Version	Note
Node.js	24	Node 22 is not supported. This one is hard.
pnpm	10.33.2	Enabled through Corepack so the lockfile pin is used
git	anything recent
An agent	Claude Code / Codex / Cursor / Gemini CLI / OpenCode / Qwen	Without one, nothing generates

nvm install 24 && nvm use 24
corepack enable
node -v   # expect v24.x

The three commands

git clone https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design
cd open-design
pnpm install

Then start it. tools-dev is the only lifecycle entry point — don't work around it by starting node yourself:

pnpm tools-dev

A healthy start looks like this:

→ daemon listening on http://127.0.0.1:17456 (namespace tools-dev/main)
→ web listening on http://127.0.0.1:17573 (proxy → daemon)
→ sidecar /tmp/open-design/ipc/tools-dev-main/daemon.sock
→ ready in 1.4s

Open the web address it prints. The defaults are stable across runs, but don't hardcode them in scripts — --daemon-port and --web-port exist for a reason.

Commands you'll actually use

pnpm tools-dev check     # environment check; prints exactly what's missing
pnpm tools-dev status    # what's running
pnpm tools-dev stop      # stop everything
pnpm tools-dev run web   # just the web runtime

When the first run fails, run check before you start reading logs.

Skipping the UI entirely

There's also an od command that drives the daemon directly:

od skill run open-design-landing --output ./artifact.html

Useful in CI, or if you simply live in a terminal.

When it won't install

Symptom	Cause	Fix
EBADENGINE on pnpm install	Wrong Node major	Switch to Node 24
better-sqlite3 build hangs on Windows	Known on Node 24	Install Visual Studio Build Tools first, then retry
Port already in use	Previous run didn't stop	pnpm tools-dev stop, or pass --daemon-port / --web-port
No agent in the list	CLI not on PATH, or credentials unset	See 03 · Connect your agent
Permission prompts loop	Environment incomplete	pnpm tools-dev check names the missing piece

A longer list lives in Reference / Troubleshooting.

One note for Windows

A good share of the community runs the source build inside WSL, usually after better-sqlite3 refuses to compile natively. If you only want to use the thing rather than hack on it, the Windows installer saves a lot of that.

The lazy path

There's a third route: hand the repo URL to your agent and tell it to install OpenDesign in dev mode. Several community walkthroughs do exactly this — you do, after all, already have something that reads docs and runs commands.

Next

03 · Connect your agent — which adapter, where the keys go, and how to expose none of them.