Onlook September Recap

[itsNintu]

This month has been about bringing rapid design experimentation to Onlook.

The highlight: Branching. A feature that was previously reserved to developers now brought to designers, exclusive to Onlook. This allows you to visually experiment with multiple design prototypes in parallel on a single canvas.

Onlook’s AI now also plans, applies, and verifies changes on its own – Maintaining context and catching issues early. Plus: faster visual design tools with multi-select + snap guides and so much more.

Let’s dive in:

Branching

This update empowers Onlookers to experiment on live designs side-by-side, prototype multiple directions at once, compare them in one view, and carry the best ideas forward - all on a live canvas where the prototype is production ready code, not a mockup.

• View and prototype side-by-side on the same canvas
• Collaborate with AI to (or humans) across branches
• Invite teammates for instant, side-by-side reviews

Visual editing workflow

Lay out windows in fewer moves with cleaner alignment. Multi-select + snap guides speed placement, and a one-click sandbox restart clears bad state so you keep building instead of resetting projects.

• Drag-to-select multiple frames on the canvas.
• Snap/alignment guidelines for frames.
• Restart the sandbox button in the toolbar.

AI workflow improvements

Onlook’s AI now plans, applies, and verifies changes on its own. It reasons before editing, preserves context, proactively checks its code output, and self-recovers from errors—keeping sessions stable without you needing to do anything.

• The Onlook AI now has reasoning capabilities
• New tools for the AI to edit your project, including running multiple edits simultaneously
• AI now runs code checks (type check) on its own after each major edit.
• Improved system prompts for better responses.

Upcoming in October — Hacktoberfest 🎃🔧

We’re gearing up for another Hacktoberfest! It’s a month-long open-source sprint where you can earn the official badge by contributing to community projects like Onlook. Last year tons of new folks jumped in and many stuck around in our Discord open-source squad—so we’re extra excited this time.
Want in? Register at https://hacktoberfest.com/ and keep an eye on our repo. We’ll have everything from tiny 🪱 fixes to bigger 💡 explorations—perfect if you’re keen to roll up your sleeves and build with us. 🙌

That’s all for the last month, we’re right around the corner from shipping the github integration, stay tuned for more on this via the community.