Coherent vs Starry

Coherent is an AI design method for building multi-page products whose pages share components and a growing design system. It generates a Next.js project using Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui, suitable as a prototype, developer handoff, or frontend. Shared components and editable design tokens propagate changes across pages, with design-system.config.ts as the editable configuration. Users can choose from 10 prebuilt atmospheres or define their own foundation. Coherent supplies context for Cursor, Claude Code, and other AI editors through.cursorrules and CLAUDE.md files. It supports Anthropic Claude or OpenAI GPT using the user’s own API key; typical model costs are estimated at $0.01–$0.03 per page. Its MCP server can validate code, read tokens, extract a design system from a URL, or apply a DESIGN.md file. It can import DESIGN.md and export tokens as W3C DTCG JSON, CSS variables, or Tailwind configuration. Full retrofit into an existing codebase is not supported yet, and direct Figma token import is also not supported. Coherent is open source under the MIT license and available on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Starry is an AI design editor that turns natural-language prompts into editable interface layers and exports code and design assets. Its canvas AI, powered by ACP, can create and modify auto-layout designs. Export formats include React JSX, HTML, SVG, design tokens, PNG, JPG, and WEBP. Starry reads native Figma.fig files and supports copying and pasting selections between the two editors. Users provide their own key for supported AI providers, and can use custom OpenAI- or Anthropic-format endpoints. Starry says keys are stored locally and prompts go directly to the selected provider. Designs are saved as local.pen and.fig files that can be committed to Git. Peer-to-peer collaboration runs over WebRTC without a server or account, and a headless CLI can export documents and automate design operations, including in CI workflows. Starry supports macOS 12 or later, Windows 10 or later, and Linux, with about 150 MB of free disk space required. The free plan requires users to supply an AI provider key for AI chat; Pro is listed at $29 a month.