Vibe coding tools should enable agents and humans to edit designs together, allowing users to make changes mid-generation rather than waiting for the AI to complete its process.
My top 5 takeaways from @tomkrcha (CEO of Pencil) on how AI agents will change design: 1. Making the AI agents appear more human made all the difference Technically, swarm mode is just agents writing to a JSON file. But showing cursors move on screen made all the difference in helping Pencil reach 100K users 2 weeks after launch. 2. Agents and humans should be able to edit a design together Unlike vibe coding tools where you have to wait for AI, Pencil’s canvas lets you jump in and make changes mid-generation, which is a huge differentiator for me. 3. Make everything agent-readable by default The design canvas is powered by a simple JSON .pen file that any agent can edit. Tom built Pencil to be “agentic from the ground up” so .pen designs live in git just like your code. 4. Design is just code and vice versa You can add Pencil to Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex to edit a canvas inside your IDE/coding tool. This makes it easy for you to convert your designs to code without switching tools. 5. Delight and craft still matter very much Tom originally built visual agent cursors and names to help him find and fix bugs, but the experience was so delightful that it became the product's main differentiator. 📌 Watch now: https://t.co/swB61oLYoI