How it works
AgentDesign has three parts: the app you look at, a local MCP server your agent talks to, and a folder of plain files on your Mac.
Three parts
- Your agentClaude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client
- MCP serverA local program on your Mac, started by your agent
- Folder on your MacPlain files, in a place you choose
- AgentDesign appWhere you look, comment and compare
The three parts are the app, the local MCP server and the folder.
Connect your agent
Pick your agent and copy the text. The app shows the exact text for your Mac, with your folder in it.
Claude Code
Run this line in a terminal. Then restart Claude Code and ask it to call project_list.
claude mcp add --scope user agentdesign -- "/Applications/AgentDesign.app/Contents/MacOS/agentdesign" mcp
Claude Desktop
Add this to the mcpServers section of Claude Desktop's configuration file, then quit and reopen Claude Desktop. The app shows the exact text for Claude Desktop in Settings.
{"mcpServers": {"agentdesign": {"command": "/Applications/AgentDesign.app/Contents/MacOS/agentdesign", "args": ["mcp"]}}}
Codex
Add this to ~/.codex/config.toml, then restart Codex.
[mcp_servers.agentdesign] command = "/Applications/AgentDesign.app/Contents/MacOS/agentdesign" args = ["mcp"]
Cursor
Add this to the mcpServers section of Cursor's MCP configuration file, then restart Cursor. The app shows the exact text for Cursor in Settings.
{"mcpServers": {"agentdesign": {"command": "/Applications/AgentDesign.app/Contents/MacOS/agentdesign", "args": ["mcp"]}}}
Other MCP client
Any client that starts a local server over stdio can use this command.
"/Applications/AgentDesign.app/Contents/MacOS/agentdesign" mcp
What your agent can do
- Screens
- Draw a screen and change it. Every change is a new revision, and the earlier ones stay.
- Components, colours and type
- Keep shared components, colours and text styles in one place, so every screen uses the same ones.
- Flows
- Lay screens out in order on one board and label each step.
- Versions
- Group the screens of a release as a version: live, in progress or planned.
- Options
- Show several options side by side under one question, and record which one is picked and why.
- Captures
- Take a screenshot from the iOS simulator or the Android emulator and store it with its build, next to the design.
- Comments
- Read your comments, change the design and mark each comment addressed with the new revision.
- Notes and search
- Keep notes beside any screen, flow or option, and search across a whole project.
What you do
- Review
- Look at the screens your agent draws, in the app.
- Comment
- Write what is wrong on a screen. Your agent reads it.
- Pick a version
- Choose which release you are looking at: live, in progress or planned.
- Compare
- Put two versions side by side and see which screens are new, changed or removed.
- Resolve
- Close a comment when the change is right.
Where your files are
A project is a folder inside the folder you choose. This is the shape of one, with the Reader sample project.
~/Designs/reader/
project.json
items/
screens/
home/
item.json
comments.json
notes.md
revisions/
r0001.json
r0002.json
versions/
ios-1.4.json
ios-1.5.json
Every revision is one file, numbered in order: r0001.json is revision 1. Earlier revisions never change. Put the folder in git, or back it up like any other folder.
What 1.0 does not do
- Nobody draws by hand in AgentDesign 1.0: your agent draws and you review.
- It runs on macOS only.
- Captures come from the iOS simulator or the Android emulator, not from a physical device.