The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2024–2026
Onlook's visual-editor bet: HN front page, GitHub #1 trending, 26.6k stars
YC W25 open-source visual IDE that edits React apps in the browser and writes changes back to code; HN front page twice, 26.6k GitHub stars
Onlook
What the business is
Onlook builds an open-source 'visual IDE' (Cursor for Designers): edit a running React/Next.js/Tailwind app like a design tool, with AI chat, and every change is written back to the actual codebase.
How it started
Kiet Ho (ex-Amazon/ServiceNow engineer) started the company in January 2024 and reached out to Daniel Farrell (decade-long designer, ex-Bird) on YC's cofounder-matching platform; both had lived the design-to-code handoff gap. The repo was posted to HN when it was two weeks old.
What happened
The Electron app grew through HN (Aug 2024: 227 pts) to 1,000+ stars within weeks; in 2025 the team rewrote everything for the browser to kill download and setup friction (May 2025 Show HN: 408 pts, 81 comments); joined YC W25; was ranked GitHub's #1 trending repo with 6.8k stars by launch-page time; open-sourced under Apache-2.0.
How it ended up
Still running. As of 2026-09-01 the repo has 26.6k stars and 2.1k forks; Onlook is now building a hosted product, a 'design tool for AI-native designers' in early access behind a waitlist, hiring in SF, and naming Bolt.new/Lovable/V0/Figma Make as the alternatives it targets.
Background
Onlook is an open-source visual IDE for React/Next.js/Tailwind apps, marketed as 'the Cursor for Designers'. Instead of Figma handoff or a no-code silo, it runs the user's real app in the browser, lets designers drag, style, and prompt changes with an AI chat, and writes every edit back into the actual codebase — no export step, no lock-in.
Founders Daniel Farrell, a designer with a decade of consulting plus stints at Bird and DIMO, and Kiet Ho, an ex-Amazon/ServiceNow engineer, started in January 2024; Ho found Farrell on YC's cofounder-matching platform. They posted the repo to HN when it was two weeks old, and the open-source community carried it: the August 2024 Show HN scored 227 points and the project passed 1,000 stars within weeks.
In 2025 the team rewrote the Electron app for the browser to remove download and setup friction; that Show HN (May 2025) drew 408 points and 81 comments. Onlook joined YC's W25 batch, was ranked GitHub's #1 trending repository, and reached 26.6k stars with 2.1k forks by September 2026.
The company is still live and has pivoted the open-source editor into a hosted product for 'AI-native designers', currently in early access behind a waitlist, hiring engineers in San Francisco.
What has to be true
- The bet that code is no longer the barrier repositions design tools: the user's own codebase, not a proprietary document, is the source of truth.
- Open sourcing the editor made HN and GitHub the launch channel; community stars and contributions validated demand before any marketing spend.
- Going browser-first removed the Electron download and setup hurdle, re-accelerating adoption ahead of the 2025 web rewrite.
- Early design/dev teams (Paratus Health, SalesPatriot, Calltree.ai, others) used Onlook to build real products, showing the wedge converted into paying-style usage.
What can be applied
Open-source wedge: a free tool writing into the user's own code removes the lock-in objection, and HN/GitHub momentum substitutes for paid marketing while the community tests the bet.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-01, onlook-dev/onlook sits at 26.6k GitHub stars and 2.1k forks (star-history global rank #1469) and keeps trending in TypeScript rankings. The open-source editor remains Apache-2.0 and the company is hiring engineers in SF; the README now frames it as the 'visual editor that started Onlook', with the hosted product for AI-native designers in early access behind a waitlist. No shutdown, acquisition, or major funding round has been announced; the company is betting the hosted layer can monetize the community the open-source tool built.
Sources
- Show HN: An open-source, local-first Webflow for your own app
- Show HN: Onlook – Open-source, visual-first Cursor for designers
- Launch YC: Onlook – Cursor for Designers
- onlook-dev/onlook
- onlook-dev/onlook – 26.6k Stars
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