Glue — No-Code AI Builders Platform
No-Code AI BuildersLayer 3Open SourceFounded 2025|San Francisco, CA|2-10
Visit websiteWhat is Glue?
Glue is an open-source design editor that gives AI coding agents an infinite canvas to create and iterate on UI components, then export production-ready code in real time. Part of YC W2026, it was founded by Perbhat Kumar (ex-Amazon Kindle, ex-Microsoft Copilot Studio) and Tejas Priyadarshi (ex-Microsoft, ex-Meta).
The tool addresses the design-to-code gap that coding agents struggle with. Developers hover and click on UI elements in the Glue desktop app, add specific visual annotations (colors, spacing, layout changes), and the tool exports those annotations with source file and line number data as readable specs for coding agents. The handoff command generates plugin files for Claude Code, with Codex and Gemini CLI support coming soon.
Glue integrates with existing React projects (Next.js 14+ and Vite 5+) as devDependencies with zero production impact. The founders position it as "the first design tool with AI as the primary user" — rather than bolting AI onto traditional design tools, Glue is built from the ground up for human-agent collaboration in the collapsing EPD (Engineering, Product, Design) workflow.
Key Features
- ✓Infinite design canvas
- ✓Agent-driven UI creation
- ✓Production code export
- ✓Claude Code & Codex integration
- ✓Open source
Pros & Cons
Pros
- +Novel approach as the first design tool built with AI agents as the primary user
- +Open source with zero-cost adoption and zero production impact (devDependencies only)
- +Visual annotation workflow provides higher fidelity than text prompting for UI changes
- +Strong founder backgrounds from Amazon, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and Meta
- +Non-destructive integration that works with existing React projects without modification
Cons
- -Very limited framework support — currently only Next.js 14+ and Vite 5+ React projects
- -Only Claude Code handoff works today — Codex and Gemini support coming soon
- -Extremely early stage with 2-person team and unclear monetization path
- -Annotation-based workflow may not scale for large redesigns requiring many UI changes
Glue Pricing
Free trial available
Open SourceFree
- ✓Full platform access
- ✓Desktop app and CLI
- ✓React project integration
- ✓Claude Code handoff
Common Use Cases
Designers and developers building UI with AI agents
- •UI component design
- •Visual prototyping with agents
- •Design-to-code workflow
- •Agent-assisted interface building
Using Glue with Respan
Glue helps coding agents create better UI components through visual annotations. Respan can monitor the LLM calls made by the coding agents that consume Glue specs, tracking cost and quality of AI-generated code.
- ✓Monitor LLM calls made by coding agents processing Glue design specs
- ✓Track the cost of AI-powered UI generation workflows
- ✓Evaluate quality of agent-generated code from Glue annotations
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Last verified: March 27, 2026