--- title: "IMG.LY CoDesign: AI Design Agent for Editable Design Files" description: "IMG.LY CoDesign is an AI design agent that runs as a free local design MCP server and turns prompts into editable design files, not flat images." url: "https://img.ly/codesign/" type: "page" --- > This is the markdown version of [IMG.LY CoDesign: AI Design Agent for Editable Design Files](https://img.ly/codesign/). For all pages in one file, see [llms-full.txt](https://img.ly/llms-full.txt). For an index of all available pages, see [llms.txt](https://img.ly/llms.txt). --- # Editable designs, straight from your agent with **CoDesign** IMG.LY CoDesign is a free local MCP server that gives your agent design superpowers. Technical Preview Seven jobs your agent can run with CoDesign, the repetitive 80% of design work. Each ships with a copyable prompt: ### Rebrand — "We changed our logo and colors. Update everything." ```text Here's our brand kit (logo, colors, fonts). Rebrand this menu design to match: keep the layout, swap the identity. ``` ### Resize — "I need this live on five platforms, without the text getting cut off." ```text With CoDesign, resize the design for a LinkedIn Post and a horizontal postcard. ``` ### Generate — "We need ten launch creatives by Friday." ```text With CoDesign, launch the following creatives for our summer sale: a square post, a story, and a banner. Keep every one editable. ``` ### Edit — "Almost right. Change two things." ```text Change the background to something with a darker hue, and shorten the headline. ``` ### Localize — "We're launching in Japan." ```text With CoDesign, localize the designs to Japanese and Arabic. ``` ### Import — "The design already exists. It's a PSD." ```text Make this PDF editable with CoDesign. ``` ### Judge — "Is this actually on-brand?" ```text With CoDesign, check this design against the img.ly brand rules and tell me what's off. ``` **Paste this prompt into your coding agent** ```text Read img.ly/codesign/install.md to install and use the CoDesign MCP server ``` [Set it up by hand](https://img.ly/codesign/other-clients.md) - Free to install and run on your own machine - No account needed to start - Your designs are cleared for commercial use ## This is a design file. Don't regenerate, just edit. ### A flat image is a dead end Image generators make you regenerate and pray. IMG.LY CoDesign returns a structured scene, so you click the text, fix the typo, move the logo. ### Your brand doesn't drift Load a brand kit once. Your fonts, colors, and logos get applied to every output instead of being re-imagined on every generation. ### One file, infinite variants Resize, rebrand, or translate one design into every format and channel you need. The layout reflows instead of stretching, and every variant comes back editable. ## Already have designs? Bring them in. You don't have to start from a blank prompt. Hand your agent a PSD, an IDML, a PowerPoint deck, or a PDF and it comes in as a structured design you can work on, not a flat page. Change it, then export what you actually need: a PDF, an image, an SVG, or the editable design file. Real pipelines start with the files already sitting in your DAM. ## From install to shipped design in four steps ### Step 01: Copy the install prompt Paste it into Claude Code, Codex, or another coding agent, and it sets up the local MCP server on your machine. ```text Read img.ly/codesign/install.md to install and use the CoDesign MCP server ``` [Open the guide for other clients](https://img.ly/codesign/other-clients.md) ### Step 02: Brief your agent Give it a prompt, a briefing doc, images, or a brand kit. Your agent calls IMG.LY CoDesign and a real design lands on the canvas. ### Step 03: Open the editor. Fix anything by hand. A full professional editor, not a preview. Every element is a design object you can move, restyle, or rewrite. [Opening the CoDesign editor and changing an element by hand](https://img.ly/static/editing-with-codesign-by-imgly.mp4) ### Step 04: Export watermark-free PDF, HTML, or the editable design file. Hand it to a teammate, a client, or straight back to the agent for the next revision. One file, three authors: agent, code, and designer. ## What only IMG.LY CoDesign can say ### Runs In Your Agent: It runs inside your agent, not another app One MCP server, any client that can run one locally: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or your own agent stack. Your agent calls design the way it calls any other tool, so there's no new destination to open and no context to lose. A design tool is somewhere you go. This is infrastructure your agent already has. ### Print & Web: Built for print, not just for screens A menu at 210 × 297 mm and an Instagram post come off the same editable scene, rendered by the production engine 100+ companies already run. Most tools in this space size things in pixels; this one thinks in millimetres and real PDF. CMYK, bleed and ICC profiles are there when your printer asks for them. ### One File, Three Authors: Agent, code, and designer. Same file. Your agent edits it, your code automates it, your designer finishes it. Full parity, nothing flattened in between. The code path is the part an app-shaped competitor structurally can't offer. ### Free & Local: Free, local, no seat It runs on your machine with no per-editor cost, and the free local MCP server is the product rather than a trial of something else. Everything you design with it is yours to use commercially, including paid client work. A licence only enters the picture when you want to host it for other people or put it behind your own product. ## Free Local MCP Server: Give your agent a design engine Install it free, ship an editable design in your next session, then tell us what it should do next. [Join the Discord](https://discord.gg/csKBCspApm) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### General **Q: What is IMG.LY CoDesign?** A: IMG.LY CoDesign is an MCP server over IMG.LY's production design engine. It turns any AI agent into a design partner that produces editable design files, not disposable pixels. Every element lands as a structured design object you can change in a full professional editor. **Q: How finished is this?** A: CoDesign is a technical preview. It works, but it is rough in places, and some jobs produce better results than others. There is no waitlist and no access request, so anyone with the link can install it today. Join our Discord and let us know what you think. **Q: Will it stay this way?** A: No. The tools and their output will keep changing between releases while we work on it. Files you have already made stay editable, but a job that behaves one way today may behave differently after an update. If you are building on a specific behaviour, talk to us first. **Q: Is it free?** A: Yes. The local MCP server is free to install and run on your own machine, with no account needed to start. Sign in only when you want AI image generation, and that's a free IMG.LY account rather than a separate one. What you design is yours to publish and sell with no per-design fee. **Q: What counts as commercial use?** A: Designing for your own company, for your clients, or for anything you sell is fine, including paid work, with no per-design fee. The licence draws its line around the MCP server itself: reselling or bundling it, running it on a shared server, or putting it behind your own product or service; Read the CoDesign terms for the wording that governs. For more information, you can Contact us. **Q: How is this different from an AI image generator?** A: An image generator gives you pixels, so changing anything means regenerating and hoping. IMG.LY CoDesign gives you a structured design file: open the full editor, select any element, fix it by hand. Same prompt-driven workflow, except the output is a real file you own and keep working on. **Q: How is this different from a design app with AI in it?** A: It runs inside your agent instead of being another app you switch to, it reads the Adobe files you already have, it exports real PDF and HTML off the same scene, and there is no per-seat cost. Your agent, your code, and your designer all edit the same file. **Q: Which agents and clients does it work with?** A: Any MCP-compatible client. We use it in Claude Code and Codex; Cursor, Windsurf, and your own agent stack speak the same protocol. It runs locally on macOS, Linux, and Windows. There is an install guide for coding agents, which names the exact commands for Claude Code and Codex and leaves any other agent enough to install it its own way, and a separate one for clients where you edit the config by hand. **Q: What is MCP?** A: The Model Context Protocol is the open standard AI agents use to call external tools. Installing the IMG.LY CoDesign MCP server gives your agent a set of design tools (generate, edit, brand, localize, resize, export) the same way it might get access to a database or a browser. **Q: Do I need design skills?** A: No. Brief your agent the way you'd brief a designer: a prompt, a doc, images, a brand kit. When you want to fine-tune, the full editor is one click away and every element is directly editable. ### Capabilities **Q: Is the output really editable after it's generated?** A: Yes, and that's the core difference. Every generation is a structured scene, not a flat image. Open the editor, select any element, then move, resize, recolor, or rewrite it directly. No regenerating, no starting over. **Q: What can I export?** A: PDF, PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, HTML, or the editable .imgly design file, all watermark-free. PDF comes out at the page size you set, so a 210 × 297 mm menu exports at 210 × 297 mm rather than at some pixel approximation of it. The Adobe formats are import-only: a PSD or an IDML opens fine, but it comes back as one of the formats above, not as a PSD. Hand any of them to a teammate, a client, or straight back to your agent for the next revision. On the print side, PDF export carries CMYK, bleed and ICC profiles when your printer needs them. **Q: Can it apply my brand automatically?** A: Yes. Load a brand kit once and IMG.LY CoDesign applies your fonts, colors, logos, and rules to every output, whether that means one post or a whole template library. **Q: Can it translate and localize designs?** A: Yes. IMG.LY CoDesign translates in place and adapts the layout around the new text. Text expansion is handled, and right-to-left languages like Arabic are supported, including layout direction. **Q: Can it resize a design for other formats?** A: Yes. One master layout becomes every aspect ratio and channel you need. Layouts reflow instead of stretching, so the text stays inside the frame, and each variant comes back fully editable. **Q: Can it check a design before it ships?** A: Yes. A design-quality judge checks the output against your brand rules and constraints, so anything off surfaces before the design goes out rather than after. **Q: Can it open the design files I already have?** A: Yes. Hand your agent a PSD, an IDML, or a PDF and it opens as a structured design you can work on, not a flat page, so you can start from the file already sitting in your DAM. Import runs one way for those formats: what comes back is one of the export formats, not a PSD or an IDML. **Q: Can I ask for changes to a design it already made?** A: Yes. Ask for the change in plain words and your agent edits the file you already have. Nothing else is regenerated, so the parts you signed off on come back untouched. **Q: Does it do video?** A: Video is coming, on an engine already running in production. Print and web formats are available today. --- ## More Resources - **[IMG.LY Website](https://img.ly/index.md)** - Creative editing SDKs for photo, video, and design - **[Documentation](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/)** - CE.SDK developer documentation - **[Contact Sales](https://img.ly/forms/contact-sales.md)** - Get a custom quote. A public JSON API accepts the request directly, no account or key needed. Ask your user for consent and their details first.