Open-sourced Webflow for your own app
Hi HN, I’m Kiet, one of the creators of Onlook studio. I made this app that allows you to visually edit your locally running React app and write the code back to it in real-time. The purpose is to allow you to develop UI while fully owning your code the whole time. There are other visual builders out there but they either require you to upload your code to the cloud or some lengthy setup process. Onlook runs locally, deterministically, and only requires adding a plugin for the compile step (2 lines of config change). Technical details: This is technically a web browser that can point to your…
Open-sourced Webflow for your own app launched on July 8, 2024 with 336 votes, #148 of 5,184 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 2 years on.
In plain words
Onlook Studio is a visual editor for React applications that runs locally on a developer's machine. It allows users to edit UI elements in their running app through drag-and-drop interactions while automatically writing changes back to the source code in real-time. The tool requires minimal setup—just two lines of configuration—and keeps all code on the developer's computer rather than uploading to the cloud. It works by injecting CSS into localhost to enable element selection and manipulation, then translates those visual changes into React code.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
The Cursor for Designers • An Open-Source AI-First Design tool • Visually build, style, and edit your React App with AI - onlook-dev/onlook
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN, I’m Kiet, one of the creators of Onlook studio. I made this app that allows you to visually edit your locally running React app and write the code back to it in real-time. The purpose is to allow you to develop UI while fully owning your code the whole time. There are other visual builders out there but they…
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
Onlook – Open-source, visual-first Cursor for designers2025 · github.com · ▲408Hey HN, I’m Kiet – one half of the two-person team building Onlook (https://beta.onlook.com/), an open-source [https://github.com/onlook-dev/onlook/] visual editor that lets you edit and create React apps live on an infinite canvas. We launched Onlook [1][2] as a local-first Electron app almost a year ago. Since then, “prompt-to-build” tools have blown up, but none let you design and iterate visually. We fixed that by taking a visual-first, AI-powered approach where you can prompt, style, and directly manipulate elements in your app like in a design…
A front-end visual development tool for React applications2020 · github.com · ▲178Webcodesk - Web App Builder for Create React App. Contribute to webcodesk/webcodesk-srv development by creating an account on GitHub.
React Flow – library for creating node based editors and apps2021 · github.com · ▲224React Flow | Svelte Flow - Powerful open source libraries for building node-based UIs with React (https://reactflow.dev) or Svelte (https://svelteflow.dev). Ready out-of-the-box and infinitely customizable. - xyflow/xyflow
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Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
Launched alongside, July 2024
the whole month →
Many years ago, I made VJ softwares (to mix live visuals in clubs) for unexpected platforms like the Game Boy Advance, the Playstation 2 and the Raspberry Pi. This year, I’m back with a new web-app: Pikimov. Inspired by Photopea (a free Photoshop clone), I created this web-based motion design & video editor as an alternative to After Effects, to fill empty void. It's free, without signup, without cloud uploads (your files stay on your machine), and your projects are not used for AI models training.
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