SirHound3d ago

Show HN: CSS Studio. Design by hand, code by agent

Hi HN! I've just released CSS Studio, a design tool that lives on your site, runs on your browser, sends updates to your existing AI agent, which edits any codebase. You can actually play around with the latest version directly on the site.

Technically, the way this works is you view your site in dev mode and start editing it. In your agent, you can run /studio which then polls (or uses Claude Channels) an MCP server. Changes are streamed as JSON via the MCP, along with some viewport and URL information, and the skill has some instructions on how best to implement them.

It contains a lot of the tools you'd expect from a visual editing tool, like text editing, styles and an animation timeline editor.

https://cssstudio.ai

CSS Studio. Design by hand. Code by agent.

A visual CSS editor in your browser. Adjust styles with sliders and pickers, and your AI agent writes the changes to source.

CSS Studio
Show threadtyleo

The landing page feels tacky to me. It has a similar style to what I’ve seen LLMs churn out across the internet. Unclear if it’s actually generated or not but it’s at least in that style.

For a design product, I’d expect it to have more personality.

I’d recommend reving the landing by hand. The sense I get is that this tool can make a site that looks like everyone else’s. It would be neat to see something unique.

Apr 9 at 12:02pmWeb
Show threadSirHound3d ago
I suspect its the color scheme? I wanted something to contrast with but pair with https://motion.dev but I know AIs pump out a lot of purple. I'm mostly a developer though so my design skills are a little rusty still!
Motion — JavaScript & React animation library

Motion (prev Framer Motion) is a fast, production-grade web animation library for React, JavaScript and Vue. Build smooth UI animations with examples, tutorials, and a tiny footprint.

Show threadBloondAndDoom3d ago
Motion page looks much better, but other than purple I’d focus on design more, even to suggest hire a designer on project basis, let them make a stunning landing page. If you are selling a design tool (arguably CSS is somewhere in between) then you have to show your mastery of the domain. —assuming you are serious and it’s not a weekend project
Show threadduskdozer3d ago
A big smell and my biggest pet peeve with them is the excessive, custom javascript animations that don't respect my settings to disable animations and which break through my own extra defenses, all tucked away in some webpack chunk I'd have to debug to get rid of. As soon as I see above-the-fold text fade and slide in I close the tab to spare my head, stomach, and CPU.
Show threadBloondAndDoom3d ago

This was my biggest take, when I see someone selling a design tool that’s looks very much like designed by LLM, that’s a red flag. I got the exact same vibe, no idea whether it was a prompt or a detailed design, but right now it looks like output of a prompt and not hand crafted.

Given the whole idea is selling a design tool that’s looks very gives user a sense of they can control details, this page doesn’t deliver that at all. I’d focus on the design, because that’s the biggest demo of your product maybe even bigger than the demo.

Imagine a unique website that users looks and feel like I wish this was my website. A rare instance visual design actually matters for a startup :)

Show threadSirHound3d ago
I think it's a good point. I'm going to spend a bit more time on the design - and if sales continue well then I can look at getting a designer.
Show threadCitizen_Lame3d ago
The irony.