This is awesome!
I’ve tried other visual AI dev tools like Bolt or Lovable, but I feel like the walled-garden approach they’ve taken is a bit limiting in terms of how I personally want to work. As someone who comes from design but is actively using Cursor and Windsurf, I’ve very much been missing that Webflow-like ability to just click, edit, and see things getting updated in real-time, while always knowing I can drop into the code for more complex stuff.
It looks like you’ve nailed this intersection. The fact that you’re taking what is basically a visual layer on top of the code, plus the inclusion of the in-browser code editor (and I assume terminal access for the sandbox eventually?), is a huge step in the right direction and feels like it could really cover some of that gap I want between design and dev.
I’m definitely keeping an eye on this, and when you’re able to allow import existing projects I'll be onboard.
Congrats on the launch!
Thanks so much!
It's been a challenge to find the right balance for this – on one hand you want to give people who know what code is an easy way to navigate their codebases and be more effective, and on the other hand you want to help people who have never coded before create something they really love.
The visual layer has a lot of polish left to do to be a perfect design tool experience, but we're getting there.
I think for most designers they don't love being limited by traditional web "structures" like flexbox, but that's also how things can get built and scale properly. AI is very good at generating flexbox styled websites but when a designer jumps-in to an AI generated website it's like picking up a complex project someone else has architected. If you know how websites work it isn't super intimidating, but if you don't then it can feel very overwhelming.
One of the main reasons we decided to not have layers and styles immediately visible on the left and right sides of the app was because people who have never jumped into a design tool mentioned they were overwhelmed with the UI. Moving these tools into a "secondary" interaction layer cleared up the interface but made it easy for pro-users to still find them.
I'm excited to keep refining this editor experience so when you're able to import projects you have all of the tools you'd expect from a visual editor for your codebase.
Thanks for the kind words! We definitely want to restore the ability to use Cursor/Windsurf through SSH as soon as possible.
There is terminal access on the right of the bottom bar. It just has 1 CLI connection right now, along with the long runner server but you can run commands through there or through the AI.
Just merged a PR for that should be live in a few mins https://github.com/onlook-dev/onlook/pull/1963