skisso
About · FAQ
Why Skisso exists.
The concept behind the tool, the mission it serves, the shoulders it stands on — and straight answers to the questions everyone asks.
The concept
Three ideas, stacked.
Skisso is built on one ladder of thought. Each rung answers a different question: how you interact, what the tool is, and what it produces.
Direct manipulation
You touch the object, not a form about the object. Drag the real element. Type into the real heading. Rotate the real guide. The interface is the input.
Point. Don't describe.
A visual sandbox
Every change is real CSS on the real page — and none of it ships. You can bend the interface all day; nothing leaves the browser until you decide to copy.
Play safely on the live thing.
The design patch
Your gestures compile into a diff an agent can act on: element refs, real property changes, moved and removed nodes, intent. A patch — not a prompt.
Gesture in, diff out.
Mission
Close the gap between seeing and shipping.
Everyone who can see what's wrong with an interface should be able to hand a machine the exact fix — without writing a paragraph about it.
— the one-sentence version of Skisso
Inspiration
Standing on good shoulders.
None of these ideas are ours. The work was choosing them, and saying no to everything else.
Design canvases
Figma and Framer proved that direct manipulation beats property forms — selection frames, drag handles, canvas controls. Skisso brings that grammar to the live DOM.
figma · framer
Shneiderman's golden rules
Informative feedback, easy reversal of actions, keeping users in control. Every Skisso action can be undone; every state change says so out loud.
designing the user interface, 1987
The humble screenshot markup
macOS screenshots, FigJam stickers, annotation bars — the fastest way humans have ever pointed at pixels. Skisso keeps that speed and adds structure underneath.
macos · figjam
The diff
Software's most trusted unit of change. Skisso's output is deliberately a patch — reviewable, minimal, honest — because that's the language agents and engineers already share.
unix · git
FAQ
Straight answers.
Q1What exactly is Skisso?›
A Chrome extension that puts a Figma-style design panel on any page — including localhost. You select an element, edit it live (spacing, color, type, layout, text, structure), and copy the result as an agent-ready design patch for your AI coding assistant.
Q2Does it change my source code?›
No. Everything happens in the browser as a sandbox. Your codebase changes only when you paste the patch to your agent (or apply it yourself) — Skisso never writes to your files.
Q3Which AI agents does it work with?›
Any. The patch is plain, structured text: Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, or a raw API call — if it can read a diff-like instruction, it can act on a Skisso patch. No lock-in, no partnership required.
Q4Is my data safe?›
Skisso collects nothing — no account, no analytics, no server. The only thing that ever leaves your browser is the fragment you explicitly send to the AI provider you connect, under your own key. Details in the privacy policy.
Q5What pages does it work on?›
Any page Chrome lets extensions run on — production sites, staging, and localhost dev servers (its natural habitat). Chrome blocks all extensions on its own chrome:// pages and the Web Store.
Q6What are the shortcuts?›
⌃⇧1 opens or hides the inspector, ⌃⇧2 opens annotate mode (draw, write, drop stickers), ⌃⇧3 jumps straight to an area screenshot — frame it and press Enter. Inside the panel, Enter copies the patch.
Q7What does it cost?›
Skisso is in alpha. Early access is free while the tool finds its shape; the plan is a simple flat price — no seats, no meters, no subscription arithmetic.
Q8Why the wizard hat?›
Because pointing at a thing and having it change is the closest software gets to a spell. Also, "skiss" is Swedish for sketch — Skisso is where you sketch on the real thing.
Early access