open-design

Quickstart

Download the desktop app (no build required)

The fastest way to try Open Design is the prebuilt desktop app — no Node, no pnpm, no clone:

• **open-design.ai** — official download page
• **GitHub releases**

Run with Docker

Run Open Design without installing Node.js or pnpm locally.

Requirements

• Docker Desktop
• Docker Compose v2

Verify Docker:

docker compose version

Start Open Design

git clone https://github.com/nexu-io/open-design.git
cd open-design/deploy
docker compose up -d

Open in your browser:

http://localhost:7456

Common Commands

nexu-io/open-design contains 20 observed SKILL.md files. Treat it as a repository-level skill/template collection, not as only the sampled primary skill.

Sample SKILL.md paths: design-templates/audio-jingle/SKILL.md, design-templates/blog-post/SKILL.md, design-templates/clinical-case-report/SKILL.md, design-templates/critique/SKILL.md, design-templates/dashboard/SKILL.md, design-templates/dating-web/SKILL.md, design-templates/dcf-valuation/SKILL.md, design-templates/digital-eguide/SKILL.md, design-templates/docs-page/SKILL.md, design-templates/email-marketing/SKILL.md, design-templates/eng-runbook/SKILL.md, design-templates/finance-report/SKILL.md, design-templates/flowai-live-dashboard-template/SKILL.md, design-templates/gamified-app/SKILL.md, design-templates/github-dashboard/SKILL.md, design-templates/guizang-ppt/SKILL.md, design-templates/hr-onboarding/SKILL.md, design-templates/html-ppt-course-module/SKILL.md, design-templates/html-ppt-dir-key-nav-minimal/SKILL.md, design-templates/html-ppt-graphify-dark-graph/SKILL.md

Fetched primarySkillPath is only one sample: design-templates/audio-jingle/SKILL.md.

Sample primarySkillPath excerpt: # Audio Jingle Skill

Three sub-modes. The active project's audioKind decides which one runs:

Resource map

audio-jingle/
├── SKILL.md
└── example.html

Workflow

Step 0 — Read the project metadata

audioKind, audioModel, audioDuration (seconds), and (for speech) voice. Branch by audioKind and use the values verbatim — no clarifying form unless something is marked (unknown — ask).

Important: voice is provider-specific. For minimax-tts, --voice must be a valid MiniMax voice_id (for example male-qn-qingse), not a natural-language description. If you only have a prose voice brief ("warm female narrator", "neutral Mandarin"), keep that in your plan but omit --voice so the daemon's default voice id applies, or ask the user to choose a specific id.

Step 1 — Plan

Music

• Genre + reference artists (1-2)
• Tempo (BPM) + key
• Instrumentation (3-5 instruments max)
• Vocals: yes / no / hummed / choir
• Mood arc (intro → chorus → outro)

Speech

• Script (final, not draft — TTS runs verbatim)
• Voice target + pacing

For MiniMax this means a real voice_id, not prose in --voice

• Pronunciation hints for proper nouns / acronyms

SFX

• Texture (impact / whoosh / ambience / foley)
• Duration + envelope (sharp attack vs. gentle swell)
• Layering note (single hit vs. stacked)

State the plan in 2-3 sentences before dispatching.

Step 2 — Compose the prompt

Use the format the upstream model prefers. Bind audioDuration to the API parameter directly; never put "make it 30 seconds" in prose.

Step 3 — Dispatch via the media contract

Use the unified dispatcher — do not call provider APIs by hand:

"$OD_NODE_BIN" "$OD_BIN" media generate \
  --project "$OD_PROJECT_ID" \
  --surface audio \
  --audio-kind "<music|speech|sfx>" \
  --model "<audioModel from metadata>" \
  --duration <audioDuration seconds> \
  [--voice "<provider voice id (speech only)>"] \
  --output "<short-slug>-<duration>s.mp3" \
  --prompt "<assembled prompt from Step 2 — for speech, the literal script>"

The command prints one line of JSON: {"file": {"name": "...", ...}}. The bytes land in the project; the FileViewer renders the audio transport controls automatically.

Step 4 — Hand off

Reply with: plan summary, the filename returned by the dispatcher, and one sentence on what to try if the user wants a variation (e.g. "swap tempo from 92 to 108 BPM" rather than "make it different").

Hard rules

• TTS runs your script literally. Proof it before dispatching —

even one stray comma changes the cadence.

• MiniMax TTS rejects free-form voice prose in --voice. Use a real

MiniMax voice_id (for example male-qn-qingse) or omit the flag and let the daemon's default voice apply.

• Music: under 30s = single section; 30–90s = intro + body; 90s+ =

full arc. Don't try to fit a 3-act song into 15 seconds.

• SFX: prefer one well-described layer over a paragraph of "make it

cool" — generators reward specific texture words.

• Save the file every turn. The audio viewer shows transport controls

the moment the file lands.