Forge by UI8

Forge is a desktop application by UI8 that turns your existing Vite or Next.js project into an infinite, zoomable canvas where every route renders as a live frame. It bridges the gap between design and development by letting you see, interact with, and edit all your pages simultaneously — without leaving your existing toolchain. The product launched its open beta in June 2026 and has been shipping rapid weekly updates since.

What It Is

Forge is an agentic canvas environment for web developers and designers. Instead of switching between a browser, a code editor, and a design tool, Forge renders every route of your project as a frame on a single infinite canvas. You can scroll, click, and interact with pages in place, then invoke AI coding agents — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, or Grok — scoped to the specific file you're looking at. Edits land on disk as normal source changes and push to the same git branch you're already using.

How the Agentic Canvas Works

The core workflow centers on four pillars the product page describes explicitly:

• One canvas, every route — Drop in a Vite or Next.js project (and as of v0.15, Forge is framework-agnostic). Every route renders as a frame with no extra config or new build step.
• Your agents, in the loop — Forge calls whichever agent you have installed (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Grok Build, Kimi K3 via OpenCode) and scopes it to the file visible on the canvas. Forge ships thin bridges and stays out of the agent's way.
• Real files, real commits — Edits write back to disk as normal source changes. The same repo stays open in your editor; Forge doesn't touch git.
• Ship without leaving — Push any route to a preview URL straight from the canvas via Forge Cloud, with live deploy progress shown in a toast.

Agent Control and Inspection Tools

Forge gives developers fine-grained control over how much autonomy agents have. Permission modes — Plan Mode, Accept Edits, Bypass, and others — are remembered per project. Slash commands expose every agent command directly in the chat composer. A click-to-inspect runtime lets you click any element on the canvas to annotate it, stage numbered pins, and send them as context to the agent. Component props can be edited live from a canvas pane using sliders and scrubbable value chips, with values written back to source. A style editor with a breadcrumb walks your selection from an element up to its wrapping component.

Update: v0.17 and Rapid Beta Cadence

The changelog lists 84 updates since June 2026, with the most recent being v0.17 (26 Jul 2026). Notable recent milestones include:

• v0.17 — Public profiles with a drafting-board redesign, "Built with Forge" chip, plan visibility on workspace, and UI polish.
• v0.16 — Double-click to expand a frame full-bleed; frames auto-size to content; font weights match the real site pixel-for-pixel.
• v0.15 — Framework-agnostic support; Next.js pages and components render on canvas; public profiles debut on Forge Cloud.
• v0.12 — One-click publish to Forge Cloud with live progress; secure browser-handoff sign-in; Grok and Kimi K3 agent support.
• v0.9 — Component prop sliders on the canvas; inspect-click annotations as numbered pins; Forge Cloud dashboard for sites, teams, and billing.

The product is currently in early access, letting new users in weekly from a waitlist. The homepage notes an estimated launch date of August 1, 2026.

Who It's Built For

Forge targets designers and engineers who work on web projects together and want to close the loop between visual design and code. The beta page states it is "being built with a small group of designers and engineers." The tool assumes familiarity with Vite or Next.js projects, git workflows, and at least one AI coding agent CLI already installed locally. It is a macOS desktop app (notarized with Developer ID signing) with Forge Cloud as the companion hosting and dashboard service.