Claude Code /design: Editable UI Artboards From the Terminal
Claude CodeClaude Code shipped the /design skill as a research preview, bringing Claude Design's artboard workflow into the CLI and Claude Code Desktop. Give it a brief and Claude publishes a canvas of editable artboards as an Artifact, then you pick one, tweak it visually, and tell Claude to implement it. Because the output is a real design file rather than a screenshot, the pick-then-build loop stays in one place, and on Team and Enterprise plans anyone you make an editor can change the canvas and publish a new version. Available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise, and requires v2.1.234 or later.
Sources & Mentions
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Design Generation Moves Into the Terminal
Claude Code now ships a /design skill, released as a research preview alongside v2.1.234. It brings the artboard workflow from Claude Design into the CLI and Claude Code Desktop, built on top of Artifacts. Where the June release wired the two products together with /design-sync and a design-to-code handoff, /design goes a step further: the design itself is now created from the terminal.
How it works
You run the skill with a brief:
> /design redesign the composer based on what people actually use it for
Claude drafts several UI options as artboards laid out on a single pan/zoom canvas, publishes that canvas as an Artifact, and prints the link. You open it, compare the options side by side, edit elements directly (click-to-select, a properties panel, inline text editing, undo/redo), and then tell Claude which artboard to implement in code.
It also accepts a screenshot or an existing design as the starting point instead of a written brief, which makes it usable for reworking a screen you already have rather than only for greenfield UI.
Why the output format matters
The canvas is a real design file, not a rendered image. That is what makes the loop close: Claude can read back the artboard you picked and write the implementation from it, and on Team and Enterprise plans anyone you grant editor access can change the design and publish a new version for everyone. On accounts without saving enabled, you still get a view-and-export preview with PNG and PDF output.
Beyond app screens, the same canvas handles landing pages, marketing and social graphics, and print pieces such as posters and flyers as single-page artboards.
Availability
/design is available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans and requires Claude Code v2.1.234 or later. It is a research preview, so the behavior and the surface may still change.
Why it matters
Design has been the last handoff that still forced developers out of the terminal: describe a screen to a designer or a separate tool, wait for a mockup, then translate it back into code. Folding artboard generation into Claude Code collapses that into one session, and putting the result in an editable, shareable format rather than a throwaway image is what separates this from asking a model to "make me a mockup". It also puts Claude Code directly into territory that Figma, Cursor's design mode, and Lovable's design systems have been competing over all year.