--- title: Vibe-coded Photoshop arrived, and it's in Rust | daily.dev description: ArtCraft is a suite of Rust clean-room reimplementations of proprietary creative and office software, including PhotoCraft (a Photoshop alternative),... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Vibe-coded Photoshop arrived, and it's in Rust | daily.dev og:description: ArtCraft is a suite of Rust clean-room reimplementations of proprietary creative and office software, including PhotoCraft (a Photoshop alternative),... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TdpE4nDAx.png og:image:alt: Vibe-coded Photoshop arrived, and it's in Rust og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Vibe-coded Photoshop arrived, and it's in Rust **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 3 min read · 33 upvotes · 10 comments ## Summary ArtCraft is a suite of Rust clean-room reimplementations of proprietary creative and office software, including PhotoCraft (a Photoshop alternative), VectorCraft, FilmCraft, LightCraft, and now Office tools like WordCraft and ExcelCraft. PhotoCraft runs cross-platform including WebAssembly, uses a wgpu GPU compositor, and exposes every action via CLI, JSON, and an MCP server so AI agents can drive it. Claude reportedly did most of the coding. PhotoCraft is early alpha with over 1,700 tests; the Office suite is pre-alpha, with WordCraft at an estimated 62 percent feature parity and no DOCX compatibility testing yet. The project raises both excitement about agent-assisted coding cloning proprietary software quickly and concern about potential legal action from Microsoft and Adobe despite a clean-room defense. ## Content Four months ago, @wesbos was asking "Where are all the vibe coded photoshops?" Today his follow-up is: "Entire Adobe suite clean-room ported to Rust." The internet has thoughts, and most of them are about whether any of this is real. ## The pitch The project is ArtCraft, led by Brandon Thomas, former CEO of storyteller.ai. PhotoCraft, its Photoshop clone, is pure Rust. It has layers, masks, smart objects, 34 tools, 27 blend modes and real PSD/PSB support. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and the web via WebAssembly, and it exposes every action through a CLI and an MCP server so agents can drive it. It has over 1,700 tests and about 17k GitHub stars. The README calls it early alpha. Then came the sprawl. A Reddit poster claimed seven Adobe alternatives built with Opus 5.5, promising full feature parity and long-term maintenance. They described themselves as a 15-year industry veteran with funded backing from a filmmaking software team. Next came WordCraft, ExcelCraft and a PowerPoint clone. WordCraft is estimated at 62 percent feature parity, DOCX compatibility testing hasn't started, and charts, SmartArt and OLE objects were dropped. All of it leans heavily on Claude and is pre-alpha. ## The pushback The sharpest criticism is that it only looks like Photoshop. One reviewer says it copies the UI, menus and shortcuts but not the exact algorithmic behavior professionals depend on. That makes it closer to Photopea than a replacement. Self-Host Weekly covered a separate row in which two open-source Adobe alternatives, PhotoSuite and PhotoCraft, were accused of being vibe-coded Photopea clones. The timeline is disputed and confusing, and nobody seems sure who copied whom. The Reddit poster's claims are also unverified. It's unclear how much of the code is AI-written versus hand-written. ## The legal cloud "Clean room" is carrying a lot of weight. The method is blackbox reverse engineering: agents study documentation, file formats and screenshots, then test outputs against the original without seeing source. The unresolved problem is that the models doing the work were trained on copyrighted material, which muddies the doctrine. Legal experts quoted on the Office clones say the clean-room argument could hold up, but Microsoft and Adobe have deep pockets, so the litigation risk stays real. ## The optimists The bullish read is that AI collapses the cost of copying complex commercial software, which favors open source and erodes proprietary moats. Weeks instead of years, reportedly 60-70% parity. The skeptical read is that the last 30-40% is where Photoshop's value lives. Both camps agree on one thing: the first 60% got a lot cheaper. ## Questions this post answers ### What is PhotoCraft and how complete is it compared to Photoshop? PhotoCraft is a Rust clean-room reimplementation of Photoshop built by the ArtCraft project, with layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, type, vector tools, a brush engine, and real PSD/PSB support. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and the web via WebAssembly using a wgpu GPU compositor. It is labeled early alpha, with over 1,700 tests and PSD round-trip fidelity checked against large corpora, but it still has gaps in AI and generative features, some tools, and plug-in compatibility. _Developers tracking how far AI-assisted coding can clone proprietary software follow projects like this on daily.dev._ ### How far along is WordCraft as a Microsoft Word alternative? WordCraft is pre-alpha and estimated at only 62 percent feature parity with Word. DOCX compatibility testing has not started, and charts, SmartArt, and OLE objects have been dropped entirely from the project, which is significant since DOCX compatibility is central to what a word processor replacement needs to deliver. _Anyone evaluating open-source office alternatives can keep tabs on progress like this through daily.dev._ ### What legal risk does a clean-room reimplementation of Photoshop or Office face from Adobe or Microsoft? Legal experts suggest a clean-room reimplementation defense could hold up in court, since clean-room techniques are a recognized way to avoid copying proprietary code. However, a legally defensible position is not the same as avoiding a lawsuit altogether, and Microsoft and Adobe have deep pockets, making even a winning legal defense costly for a small team to sustain. _Developers weighing the risk of cloning proprietary software track legal outcomes like this on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 3 discussions and 144 comments across lobsters, hackernews (as of 2026-10-11). **TL;DR:** Reaction is split between genuine excitement at an AI-assisted, cross-platform open-source Photoshop alternative and deep skepticism about whether it's truly 'clean-room', how complete/maintained it really is (no RAW support, missing features, incomplete UI), and what AI-driven reimplementation means for IP law and the software industry at large. **Sentiment:** 25% positive · 40% mixed · 35% skeptical **The case for** - Cross-platform, non-Electron, permissively-licensed suite with multiple apps (not just a single clone) impressed some as more ambitious than prior clones. - Several found it a promising free alternative to GIMP/Krita/Affinity despite rough edges. - Being open source means even if the original authors abandon it, it can be forked and continued. **The pushback** - The 'clean-room' label is disputed since the code was apparently generated with LLMs, raising doubts it was truly independently reverse-engineered. - RAW photo processing is missing or very rudimentary compared to Lightroom/Photoshop, a dealbreaker for photography workflows. - Basic features are incomplete or buggy (no clipboard paste, no live clone-stamp preview, flatpak packaging broken, PSD round-trip altering files). - Concern that LLM training data may have ingested leaked Adobe source, undermining the clean-room claim and inviting legal risk. - Worry that this sets a troubling precedent for copyright/IP law being enforced asymmetrically between big companies and individuals. **By community** - lobsters (skeptical): Centers on doubts about the 'clean-room' claim, fears about copyright law being applied unevenly, and amusement at the project's rough UI. - hackernews (heated): Heavy disagreement between those excited about AI-built software suites and those pointing out missing RAW support, incomplete features, and slop concerns, alongside a broader debate on AI's impact on software business models. **Hottest debate:** Whether this project represents a genuine 'clean-room' reimplementation or legally risky AI-generated code that may have ingested Adobe's actual source, versus dismissing such concerns as overblown. **Open questions** - Was any leaked Adobe source code present in the training data used to generate this code? - Will this project actually be maintained long-term, or will it be abandoned like other AI-generated clones? - How will Adobe or courts respond legally to AI-assisted reimplementations of proprietary software? - Which of the many Photoshop-clone projects will end up with the most functionality and contributor community? **Highlights** > > Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 Not so "clean-room", eh? > — [Halkcyon on lobsters · 12 points, 1 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/qn61ip/open_source_clean_room_reimplementation#c_eldmf1) > Want to bet that no leak of Adobe source code ended up in the training set? I'd be fascinated to see Adobe do an audit and see how much is just a straight translation from C to Rust of some of the actual Photoshop code. > — [david\_chisnall on lobsters · 4 points, 2 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/qn61ip/open_source_clean_room_reimplementation#c_grfruq) > Interesting but for photography at least, there's a massive hole: RAW support. What they've implemented is very limited and basic, nothing like parity with Lightroom or Photoshop. Just try loading a RAW photo into Lightroom/Photoshop and put the window next to Lightcraft/Photocraft - the results are completely different and not in a good way. Lightcraft's image looks like an amateur attempt at RAW processing from first principles, without any of the most basic colour profiles and adjustments that Lightroom applies. Photocraft doesn't even offer RAW processing, it just dumps the raster straight in. I'd treat this as completely new, far from complete software heavily inspired by the Adobe Suite, rather than a "port". But maybe folks who use workflows that don't involve RAW photos have better luck. > — [Youden on hackernews · 4 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49981942) > One of the highlights in this for me is that we are starting to see clean room ports of software that companies would actually sue to protect. Clearly the old "nobody would re-implement this" protection no longer works. I think we may stand on the brink of software losing a lot of it's magical DMCA protections, because it no longer matters. Or worse, the law becomes stricter. > — [petterroea on hackernews · 2 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982167) > In two of its test cases, it changes the PSD on save so much that an export render differs. No RAW support. No folder sync or plugins. Limited brush support. It’s like the author never actually used their vibe-coded output and just decided it looked good enough. > — [freeone3000 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982008) **Source threads** - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/qn61ip/open_source_clean_room_reimplementation) · 8 points · 10 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49981449) · 120 points · 132 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49960141) · 2 points · 2 comments ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jensroland** · 7 upvotes > For a different take on a modern image editor with stronger AI capabilities (and without the legal risk of incurring Adobe's wrath) I have been developing an editor over the last 7 months which is now ready for (free) beta testers. I originally called it [Photoslop.io](http://Photoslop.io) ;-) but after the first version worked pretty okay (similar to the one in the post) I decided I didn't want to build a clone of a pro photography tool, I wanted to build something for the rest of us who want genAI and a more intuitive UX. I'm looking for people who want to try it out and tell me if it's... **@fabooy961** · 4 upvotes > [https://www.photopea.com/](https://www.photopea.com/) > > [https://www.vectorpea.com/](https://www.vectorpea.com/) > >  **@yaireo** · 2 upvotes > Tons of already-existing photoshop-like free applications have been around for many years. No need for another **@andrei0x309** · 0 upvotes > I saw it in action, UI very similar but it misses a lot of features, also if you edit a PS file in it and save it it will not be compatible anymore with PS. > > > For basics is usable. > > > Two things it will be interesting, one if can reach like 95/100 parity at least and secondly what will Adobe do. > > > At this point in time we don't know if this project is just a blip in the news, more time is needed to actually determine if it will pose serious challenges to Adobe. **@scaredpanda** · 0 upvotes > It's a good thing that it exists. But I don't see myself using it anytime soon. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I ditched the Adobe Creative Cloud for open-source tools, and I haven't looked back](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-the-adobe-creative-cloud-for-open-source-tools-and-i-haven-t-looked-back-ltohpqnsl) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Adobe is debuting an AI assistant for Photoshop](https://daily.dev/posts/adobe-is-debuting-an-ai-assistant-for-photoshop-qth47axwh) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Someone Vibe-Coded Lightroom CC onto Linux, and I am Not Touching It](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-vibe-coded-lightroom-cc-onto-linux-and-i-am-not-touching-it-aegd5hfve) · It's Foss · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude), [#webassembly](https://daily.dev/tags/webassembly), [#vibe-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/vibe-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Vibe-coded Photoshop arrived, and it's in Rust","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax"},"datePublished":"2026-10-08T14:30:24.605Z","dateModified":"2026-10-11T12:37:48.178Z","description":"ArtCraft is a suite of Rust clean-room reimplementations of proprietary creative and office software, including PhotoCraft (a Photoshop alternative),...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d463f8b6030a4414862d07610a89cf8c?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d463f8b6030a4414862d07610a89cf8c?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":10,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":33},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}],"keywords":"rust,claude,webassembly,vibe-coding","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Vibe-coded Photoshop arrived, and it's in Rust"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"For a different take on a modern image editor with stronger AI capabilities (and without the legal risk of incurring Adobe’s wrath) I have been developing an editor over the last 7 months which is now ready for (free) beta testers. I originally called it Photoslop.io ;-) but after the first version worked pretty okay (similar to the one in the post) I decided I didn’t want to build a clone of a pro photography tool, I wanted to build something for the rest of us who want genAI and a more intuitive UX. I’m looking for people who want to try it out and tell me if it’s useful to them – take a look on https://depthfield.photo and let me know.","datePublished":"2026-10-09T07:27:56.892Z","dateModified":"2026-10-09T07:28:25.887Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TdpE4nDAx#c-9BoXu7Gwg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jens Roland","url":"https://daily.dev/jensroland","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/210009?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"https://www.photopea.com/\nhttps://www.vectorpea.com/","datePublished":"2026-10-09T09:39:26.255Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TdpE4nDAx#c-9kxyVKi4I","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Le Fä De Le Lö","url":"https://daily.dev/fabooy961","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1677218265/avatars/avatar_H6lLM2y9S4Yf8VCWicpd8.jpg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Tons of already-existing photoshop-like free applications have been around for many years. No need for another","datePublished":"2026-10-09T09:28:04.437Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TdpE4nDAx#c-UYJYw3qN7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yair Even Or","url":"https://daily.dev/yaireo","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/845031?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I saw it in action, UI very similar but it misses a lot of features, also if you edit a PS file in it and save it it will not be compatible anymore with PS.\nFor basics is usable.\nTwo things it will be interesting, one if can reach like 95/100 parity at least and secondly what will Adobe do.\nAt this point in time we don’t know if this project is just a blip in the news, more time is needed to actually determine if it will pose serious challenges to Adobe.","datePublished":"2026-10-11T19:57:44.013Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TdpE4nDAx#c-kPO660NzA","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrei O.","url":"https://daily.dev/andrei0x309","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto/v1632806353/avatars/1RDGCrVO9"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"It’s a good thing that it exists. But I don’t see myself using it anytime soon.","datePublished":"2026-10-09T07:59:30.986Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TdpE4nDAx#c-OUszUjGEy","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Panda","url":"https://daily.dev/scaredpanda"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/vibe-coded-photoshop-arrived-and-it-s-in-rust-tdpe4ndax#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is PhotoCraft and how complete is it compared to Photoshop?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"PhotoCraft is a Rust clean-room reimplementation of Photoshop built by the ArtCraft project, with layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, type, vector tools, a brush engine, and real PSD/PSB support. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and the web via WebAssembly using a wgpu GPU compositor. It is labeled early alpha, with over 1,700 tests and PSD round-trip fidelity checked against large corpora, but it still has gaps in AI and generative features, some tools, and plug-in compatibility. Developers tracking how far AI-assisted coding can clone proprietary software follow projects like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How far along is WordCraft as a Microsoft Word alternative?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"WordCraft is pre-alpha and estimated at only 62 percent feature parity with Word. DOCX compatibility testing has not started, and charts, SmartArt, and OLE objects have been dropped entirely from the project, which is significant since DOCX compatibility is central to what a word processor replacement needs to deliver. 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