Pencil is Cursor's Secret Weapon

like Figma inside of your cursor. You can prompt um you can write a prompt to make a design for you. You can change the design in a free form canvas just like Figma. You can move things around and then you can write a prompt to your cursor to develop what you've been designing. Uh and I genuinely find this interesting because you you have your designs there. It's not for every part of your product, but let's say you want to play with a few different versions of something. A canvas like Figma is amazing in that it can like multiple versions and you can play around with the designs manually. You can compare them at in one view and then continue with developing one of them. Uh, and I really love this idea. I I wish Web Flow would also adopt something like this. It's really interesting. So what I'm seeing is these are pen files. Pen. So it looks like it's a for lack of a better word a I frame into the pen tool. Sounds like Yeah. And you can see here it's got very basic tooling. It it's based on uh an open-source tool by the way. U mentioned it on Twitter. So that is also really cool. And we have like Figma competitors that are open source. So if you can take them and kind of like mix them with any IDE that you have, I do like the idea. So we'll get into who is this for, but like this makes me think now as I'm digesting it and I'm picking it apart. So, a couple of weeks ago, we didn't really cover it, but a couple of weeks ago, Figma made their MCP server remote, which means that uh you you used to have to run it locally on your machine and then you can MCP from cursor into the local instance of uh Figma. Now, with the remote one, you don't doesn't need to be local. Saying that, I wonder how long it will take Figma to build this tool. easy, right? Because I think the chat is just hooking into an MCP up to the remote and then this is this frame is displaying. I mean, this is a proper huge oversimplification, but I don't think it'll be long before Figma's done something like this. However, the page Yeah. and and see the features there. Yeah. Design right where you code, normal design, infinite canvas design. as you probably come to expect from design tools. Um, uh, multiplayer. So, look, you've got people floating around doing stuff. I'm presuming I'm presuming you can use this in the browser, though. Maybe you can't. Have you Have you requested access, by the way? No. No. But get on that. Get on that. I might as well. Might as well do that. I'll do it a bit. I'll do it. also really new five designing with precision. Yeah. Yeah. So I do I do wonder who's sitting in this in this world of I I I understand accessing the design, you know, converting the design into dev, but I don't quite understand who's who who wants an interface where they're designing very basic interfaces and then refining that interface with with AI prompts. Um or you can start with a basic interface that is created by AI and then you add your own touch of your design. You can as you see bring the designs from Figma. Mh. So but you're right, Figma might just do this. And I I see this clearly that a lot of companies are trying to own the whole vertical. You know, we've seen this with uh Figma. They have everything from ideiation that you you do all the way to the design and now Figma sites and the whatever that is with their vibe coding that you can create an app. They want to own the whole vertical of creating for the web. They just want to blur the line between all the different disciplines and say look we help you build this thing a product a website. Yes. and also not have competitors like they don't want you to design inside of Figma and then move it over to Webflow. They want you to do everything inside of Figma. Framer does the same. They have like their design now and you know with the development part. Yeah. I I you know and I understandable lovable is doing the same. Yeah. And there will be there will be areas that it makes sense, right? But I said it last week, interoperability, the choice to have to be able to like, well, you know what? Yes, it's good that lovable have their own database now, but I actually really like I already pay for Superbase. I like being able to do this. I like being able to integrate it with my N thing. I like to, you know what I mean? the it goes back to and I said this before the call it goes back to trying to be a designer and a developer like trying to sit in the middle you you're going to water down those experiences because it takes a lifetime or many many years to really become a good designer it takes many many years to become a developer to and to solely commit to those things and then once you've done that those industries are moving so fast anyway that the the moment you stop developing the moment you become a dinosaur. Yeah. um saying that tools are the same. You start you try you know you you try and build everything into one tool. It's it it starts to not become the best at the you know let's say for as a design tool. Figma will always be such an incredible design tool because they're laser focused on that. Well, they used to be they they they've spent a lifetime refining Figma as a design tool and only now they're sort of branching out into other tools. But the core foundations looking at the design tool of this. Oh I've just uh removed it. Uh looking at the design tool of this, as I said, it's a very basic design tool. So what designers are going to sacrifice auto layout um effects and things? Do you know what I mean? like our designers going to sacrifice a dedicated design tool for that. So yes, these these companies are going to capture a large portion of the audience because it is allin-one and some people like that and I get a certain satisfaction of things being maybe it's an OCD thing. I get a certain satisfaction there. But I wonder if they are also simultaneously risking diluting a core product because then they're all just offering everything. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Yes, I do. Um, but I'm not happy with the current state of things either because it's scattered like um I'm working with my designer inside of Figma and then with the my team inside of Webflow we quite literally have like Discord Figma and Web Flow open and we try to coordinate things. We do this all the time. All the time. uh and it's not you know the worst but hey we could we could have something like this what I see on the screen where we are doing the same thing we have still different roles you know I am the one who make the decision or like coordinates the entire thing uh the designer does you know the design the developer does the development but we are in the same place and we are talking about the same thing and changing something is not as big of you know changing it in Figma and then changing it in web flow but maybe even if it's still changing it in two places in this case it is changing it in two places but it's still kind of closer in a tool and a lot of this I guess it can be automated it can be get much easier um I see also like some time lost in translation and coordination like you see files as they know get big and you have like many projects people are people start asking what is that thing that I'm going to work on it where is it you know having it every having everything in one place that I agree that might not be good for everything but it probably will be good for some things yeah for sure if you can more power to you if you can find if that's enough for you and that solves your problems, then absolutely, like I say, this is going to be the perfect product for some people. Just as long as you're not you're not diluting the quality for convenience because it's like, like I said earlier, you might be taking from one area and then losing it from another area. So, it's like, yeah, you might have that convenience, but the output is just not quite there. So, it would be it'd be be an interesting um uh experiment to try and see if it does work for your people and and whatever. And it goes goes back to um Framer, you know, and their infinite design canvas and the fact that all of their tools, all of the design tools that they provide, you know, will work on a website because it's it is watered down by design. you well maybe not by design but like you know long story short is this might be the perfect tool for you and and absolutely if you can make this work goes back to me downgrading to GLM 4.5 or 4.6 Sorry, like downgrading, simplifying might actually work for me. You don't always need the best for everything, you know. So, this is part of a larger conversation on my show, Command AI, which we stream live every single week. We discuss the news and all things related to AI in the world of design and web. Catch us next week and join in