Anthropic has introduced an early preview of the /design command in Claude Code, enabling developers to create UI mockups directly within the terminal or desktop application. The feature allows users to generate multiple design drafts as artboards, which can then be edited and developed further. A sample command is '/design a few options for {feature}', and the system generates several variations for the user to choose from. According to developer Nate Parrott, the tool reads the existing codebase to match the current UI style and creates shareable mockups as Artifacts. The editor and prompting features are derived from Claude Design and are now integrated directly into Claude Code. The designs can be carried over into the build step, but they still need to be saved manually for now. To access the new feature, users can run 'claude update.'
The /design command streamlines the development process by allowing developers to visualize and refine UI elements before writing code. This integration of design and coding tools aims to improve efficiency and consistency in the development workflow. By generating mockups based on the existing codebase, the tool ensures that the design aligns with the current UI style, reducing the need for iterative adjustments later in the development cycle. However, the manual saving of designs remains a current limitation, which the team is likely addressing in future updates.
Source: thedecoder
