LucentEdit

<div align="center"> <picture> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="docs/brand/lockup-dark.png" /> <img src="docs/brand/lockup-light.png" alt="LucentEdit" width="520" /> </picture>

The free, lightweight, open-source Photoshop + Illustrator alternative, built for humans and AI agents.

Layers, pen paths, filters, Photoshop (PSD) and Illustrator (AI) files, and a built-in MCP server so Claude, Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Gemini and any other AI coding agent can design for you. No signup. No login. No subscription. A 2 MB Linux package and a 4 MB app binary.

Try online · Install · Use with AI agents · Shortcuts · Build from source · Roadmap

<br /> <img src="docs/screenshots/editor.png" alt="LucentEdit editor with a coffee poster open: layers, properties and rulers" width="960" />

_{A poster built entirely by an AI agent through the built-in MCP server, open in the LucentEdit editor.}

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Table of contents

• Screenshots
• Why LucentEdit
• Features
• Online demo
• Install
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Manual downloads
  • Uninstall
• Use with AI agents (MCP)
  • Client setup
  • MCP tools
  • Example prompts
• Coming from Photoshop / Illustrator
• Build from source
• Project structure
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License

Screenshots

<table> <tr> <td width="50%"><img src="docs/screenshots/brand-training.png" alt="Brand Training panel: training examples, a 100 brand-fit score and a design recreated from a learned layout" /></td> <td width="50%"><img src="docs/screenshots/menus.png" alt="Photoshop-style Filter menu with the Blur submenu open" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><b>Brand Training.</b> LucentEdit learns a brand's style from its past designs. This poster was rebuilt from one of the brand's own layouts, and it scores 100 for brand fit.</td> <td><b>Photoshop-style menus and shortcuts.</b> 50+ filters, adjustment layers, Liquify, Warp and Content-Aware Fill, where Photoshop users expect them.</td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="docs/screenshots/home.png" alt="LucentEdit home screen with document presets" /></td> <td><img src="docs/screenshots/mcp.png" alt="Connect AI Agents dialog with setup for Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and stdio clients" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><b>Start in seconds.</b> Presets for every social, video and print size. No account, works offline.</td> <td><b>Connect any AI agent.</b> One command for Claude Code, a config snippet for Cursor, VS Code, Codex and other MCP clients.</td> </tr> </table>

Why LucentEdit

• Free forever. MIT licensed, no account, no paywalled features.
• Light. Native Tauri shell with the system webview: the .deb/.rpm packages are about 2 MB, the app uses a fraction of the memory of Electron apps and runs on low-spec PCs. (The portable AppImage is ~110 MB because it bundles its own WebKit.)
• One app for pixels and vectors. Raster painting and Illustrator-style pen paths live in the same layer stack.
• AI-native. A local MCP server is built in. Any agent can create documents, draw, apply filters, look at a rendered preview and export, while you watch it happen live.
• Familiar. Photoshop keyboard shortcuts and terminology. Opens and saves Photoshop .psd and Illustrator .ai files with editable layers and text.

Features

| Area | What you get in v0.1 | | --- | --- | | Documents | Multi-document tabs, 12 size presets, native .lucentedit format, open PNG/JPG/WebP/GIF/SVG/PSD/AI/EPS/PDF, drag & drop and paste images from the clipboard, Image Size, Canvas Size, rotate/flip canvas, trim | | Layers | Raster, vector shapes, pen paths, text, groups, Smart Objects (scale without quality loss, Edit Contents in a new tab, changes sync back), adjustment layers and fill layers (solid, gradient). Blend modes, opacity, lock, visibility, drag to reorder, Layer via Copy/Cut, Merge Down/Visible, Stamp Visible, Flatten | | Selection & transform | Move with free transform (resize, rotate), snapping and smart guides, Rectangular/Elliptical/Single Row/Single Column Marquee, Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, Magnetic Lasso, Magic Wand, Quick Selection, Crop. Select > Color Range, Modify (Border, Smooth, Expand, Contract, Feather), Grow, Similar, Reselect, Save/Load Selection, Quick Mask | | Painting & retouching | Brush, Pencil, Color Replacement, Eraser, Background Eraser, Magic Eraser, Paint Bucket, Gradient, Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Spot Healing Brush, Red Eye, History Brush, Blur, Sharpen, Smudge, Dodge, Burn, Sponge | | Vector | Pen, Freeform Pen, Add/Delete Anchor Point, Convert Point, Path Selection, Direct Selection, Rectangle, Ellipse, Triangle, Polygon, Star, Line, Custom Shapes | | Measure & view | Eyedropper, Color Sampler (Info panel readouts), Ruler with Straighten, Rotate View, guides (drag from rulers, snapping, lock, New Guide, Guides From Shape), screen modes, Navigator, Info and Histogram panels | | Text | Point and paragraph text edited directly on the canvas, font family/weight/size, line height, tracking, alignment, gradient and stroked text | | Fill & stroke | Solid, linear and radial gradient fills. Strokes with dash, cap and join | | Effects | Drop shadow, outer glow | | Transform & distort | Free Transform plus Edit > Transform > Skew, Distort, Perspective (straight lines stay straight) and Warp (Bezier mesh with Arc, Bulge, Flag, Wave, Fish, Rise, Inflate, Twist presets), and Filter > Liquify (Forward Warp, Reconstruct, Pucker, Bloat, Twirl) | | Content-aware | Edit > Content-Aware Fill (PatchMatch inpainting in a background worker), Select > Subject and Select > Sky. All run on your machine with no AI model downloads, so they are estimates rather than Photoshop's cloud ML | | Assets library | Pick any folder on your computer: each subfolder is a category (Logos, Icons, Photos, Backgrounds, Textures, Illustrations, Templates, Fonts by default). Browse, search by name or tag, click or drag to place, save layers as PNG/SVG/layered assets, keep brand color palettes. Fonts in the folder show up in the Type tool. Everything is plain files plus a library.json, so it syncs with Dropbox/Drive/git | | Brands | Manage any number of brands. Each brand has its own asset categories (Logos, Icons, Photos, Graphics, Templates, Fonts), named colors with roles (primary, secondary, accent, text, background), heading/body/accent fonts with weights, a tagline, website and written guidelines. Set an active brand, apply brand fonts and colors to selected layers in one click. Stored as Brands/<name>/brand.json in your Assets folder | | Brand Training | Teach LucentEdit how each brand designs. Every brand gets a training library: Approved past designs, Inspiration (references: only layout ideas are learned, never their colors or fonts) and Avoid (don'ts, with a note). LucentEdit analyzes them into a Brand Style Profile: palette and its proportions, light or dark grounds, headline size and type hierarchy, fonts per role, margins, empty space, logo and headline placement, and the brand's recurring layouts. Start a new document from a learned layout, filled with the brand's own fonts, colors and logo, and score any design for brand fit (0-100, with fixes). Works per brand, fully offline, no model training: the profile is plain JSON at Brands/<name>/Training/style.json | | Fonts | Every font installed on your computer is available (read directly from the system on Windows, macOS and Linux), plus fonts from your Assets folder and brands, in a searchable picker that previews each typeface | | Automation | Actions panel: record, play, edit steps, assign F-keys, play on all open documents, saved between sessions | | Masks | Non-destructive layer masks (reveal/hide all, from selection; paint black to hide, white to reveal; enable, apply, delete) and clipping masks (Ctrl+Alt+G) | | Adjustments | Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Black & White, Photo Filter, Channel Mixer, Gradient Map, Selective Color, Shadows/Highlights, Invert, Posterize, Threshold, Desaturate, Equalize, Replace Color, Sepia, Auto Tone/Contrast/Color. 19 of them also work as non-destructive adjustment layers | | Filters | 50+ filters in Photoshop's submenus: Blur (Average, Blur, Blur More, Box, Gaussian, Motion, Radial, Surface), Distort (Pinch, Polar Coordinates, Ripple, Spherize, Twirl, Wave, ZigZag), Noise (Add Noise, Despeckle, Dust & Scratches, Median, Reduce Noise), Pixelate (Color Halftone, Crystallize, Facet, Fragment, Mezzotint, Mosaic, Pointillize), Render (Clouds, Difference Clouds, Fibers, Lens Flare, Vignette), Sharpen (Sharpen, Sharpen More, Sharpen Edges, Smart Sharpen, Unsharp Mask), Stylize (Diffuse, Emboss, Find Edges, Oil Paint, Solarize, Tiles, Trace Contour, Wind), Other (High Pass, Maximum, Minimum, Offset). Live preview, limited to the selection, Last Filter | | Layout | Align and distribute | | History | History panel with undo/redo | | Import / export | Photoshop .psd, layer by layer both ways: groups, pixel layers, layer masks, blend modes, opacity, clipping, editable text layers, shape layers as editable vectors (fill and stroke), adjustment layers (Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Black & White, Invert, Posterize, Threshold) and drop shadow / outer glow effects. Illustrator .ai, .ait and .eps, any version: modern (PDF-based) and older (PostScript) Illustrator files and Illustrator EPS open with their layers as named groups, groups, clip groups and compound paths nested inside, every path an editable vector, every text live text with its font and color, and embedded photos as pixel layers you can retouch. Other EPS/PostScript files open through Ghostscript on the desktop when it's installed. Saves .ai files Illustrator opens as editable artwork. Also PDF in and out, SVG as editable vectors, PNG / JPG / WebP (0.25× to 4×), and .lucentedit | | Navigation | Hand (or hold Space), Zoom, Ctrl+wheel zoom at cursor, fit to screen, 100% view, rulers, grid | | UX | Premium dark UI with Photoshop's menus, toolbar groups and default keyboard shortcuts, Edit > Fill and Stroke dialogs, command search (Ctrl+F), scrubbable number fields that accept math (120*2), color picker with recent colors | | AI | Built-in MCP server (Streamable HTTP) plus a stdio bridge for every MCP client |

Install

All installers download the latest release from GitHub Releases. Nothing else is installed, and there is nothing to sign up for.

macOS

Apple Silicon and Intel are both supported (macOS 10.15+).

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubuserco