VectorCraft
Vector illustration, reimagined in pure Rust.
(formerly DrawCraft; the rename is in progress)
A fast, open-source, clean-room take on the Adobe Illustrator workflow. It runs natively on macOS, Windows and Linux, and in the browser via WebAssembly. Built by the ArtCraft team.
VectorCraft on getartcraft.com · ArtCraft · All Crafting Apps
Neon Drive: a Pathfinder-cut sun, live Outer Glow on the type and grid, and clipping masks · examples/neon-drive.vectorcraft
Note
ArtCraft is a community of artists from all walks of life. Digital, generative, music, games — if you make things, you're one of us. Come say hi on Discord.
A look around · Made in VectorCraft · Why VectorCraft · Quick start · Status · The Crafting Apps · License
A look around
Live Blends: editable key paths and smooth colour, clipped to the artboard |
Pen and Direct Selection: real Bézier anchors and handles, plus a contextual task bar |
Multiple artboards, light theme: Pathfinder · Gradient Mesh · live radial Repeat · Envelope Distort · |
|
Made in VectorCraft
Every piece below was built entirely through VectorCraft's command API, the same one the MCP server
exposes to agents, and exported by VectorCraft's own renderer. The source files are in
examples/.
Neon Drive: synthwave poster with glowing type and grid |
Dusk: gradient sky, glowing sun, layered mountains |
Live Blends: 70 steps, smooth colour, editable spines |
|
Radial Repeat: a live mandala |
Envelope Distort: striped type warped into a flag |
Gradient Mesh: shaded spheres |
Pathfinder: a crescent and stars from exact booleans |
Why VectorCraft
- Familiar. Illustrator's layout, tools, menus, panels and shortcuts: the Pen, Direct Selection, Pathfinder, Smart Guides, Appearance, Swatches, Layers and more. You already know how to use it.
- Fast. Multithreaded SIMD rendering off the UI thread. 20,000 shapes render in about 27 ms at full retina resolution while the interface stays at 120 fps.
- Robust. Exact curve booleans (no "cannot perform operation"), unlimited undo via structural sharing, and property-tested file round trips.
- Open. A documented native format (
.vectorcraft, JSON), first-class SVG, PDF (and PDF-compatible.ai) import and export, PNG/JPEG/WebP, and Export for Screens. - Agent-native. Every menu item, tool gesture, panel and dialog can be driven over a JSON control channel and an MCP server, so Claude and other agents can draw, edit and export the way a person does.
- Everywhere. One codebase for the desktop apps and the same UI in the browser.
Quick start
cargo run --release -p vectorcraft # desktop app
cargo run --release -p vectorcraft -- examples/dusk-poster.vectorcraft
cargo run --release -p vectorcraft -- --control 7979 # + JSON control channel
cargo run --release -p vectorcraft-cli -- mcp # MCP server (stdio)
cargo run --release -p vectorcraft-cli -- run --in examples/ribbons.vectorcraft --export out.pdf # headless batch
cargo run --release -p vectorcraft-cli -- bench examples/neon-drive.vectorcraft # render timing
cargo xtask bundle # dist/VectorCraft.app (macOS)
cd apps/vectorcraft-web && trunk build --release # web build → dist/web
cargo xtask ci # fmt, clippy, tests, layering, wasm
Use it from Claude Code and other agents
Register the MCP server with Claude Code:
claude mcp add vectorcraft -- /path/to/vectorcraft-cli mcp
The details are in docs/mcp.md and docs/control-protocol.md.
Status
VectorCraft is under active development. ROADMAP.md covers what ships today, the milestones, and honest time-to-parity estimates.
Workspace: crates/{geom, color, doc, pathops, text, effects, trace, brush, render, svg, pdf, format, tools, engine, ui-egui, mcp, testkit}
and apps/{vectorcraft, vectorcraft-cli, vectorcraft-web}. The egui frontend is its own crate, so
the UI can be swapped without touching the engine.
Agent and contributor rules (clean-room, the asset policy, quality gates) are in
AGENTS.md. Every bundled asset is listed with its licence in ASSETS.md.
The Crafting Apps
VectorCraft is one of the Crafting Apps: free, open-source creative tools from the ArtCraft team, each written from scratch in Rust and each able to stand on its own.
| App | What it's for | Code | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Image editing: layers, masks, type and real PSD files | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
 |
Vector illustration (formerly DrawCraft) · you are here | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
 |
Video editing, color and sound | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
 |
Photo library and raw development | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
 |
Reading, organizing and protecting PDFs | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
 |
Motion graphics and visual effects | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
 |
Page layout and publishing | GitHub | getartcraft.com |
And ArtCraft itself, our AI image and video studio for artists who want real control.
Come make things with us
Our Discord is where artists of every kind hang out: people who paint, shoot, draw, cut film, set type, and people still figuring out what they like to make. Share what you're working on, ask for help, tell us what's broken, or tell us what you wish these tools could do. Whatever your medium and however long you've been at it, you're welcome here.
discord.gg/artcraft · getartcraft.com · The Crafting Apps · VectorCraft
License and credits
MIT OR Apache-2.0. Bundled fonts are OFL, Lucide icons are ISC, and all other icons and art are
original. Per-asset attribution is in ASSETS.md (see also NOTICE).
The app icon (an engraved dragon on VectorCraft red, #e8573f) is the owner's original artwork; its
palette and files are in assets/app-icon/.
VectorCraft is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe. "Adobe", "Illustrator", "Photoshop", "Premiere Pro", "Lightroom" and "Acrobat" are trademarks of Adobe Inc., used here only to describe compatibility and workflow familiarity.
Made by the ArtCraft team and community.