DesignCraft

Evidence key: [CLI] = designcraft-cli 0.12.0 help/run; [MCP] = live tools/list; [src]; [unverified].

Purpose and reference product

Page-layout and publishing app (Adobe InDesign clone; target InDesign 2026 / 21.6). Repo storytold/designcraft, MIT OR Apache-2.0. Git HEAD a930276fd7462f3d9abd2fbb38544c94c0c911c8 (2026-10-15). Workspace 0.8.0 vs installed CLI 0.12.0 (version skew, README.md).

Native file format

.designcraft [src: crates/format, file-format-parity.md]: ZIP with document.json plus embedded assets; versioned. Model (designcraft-doc): spreads, pages, parents (master pages), layers, frames, stories (text is separate from frames and can be threaded), styles, swatches. file.openBytes also accepts "DesignCraft JSON". Default Letter page 612x792 pt; coordinates are spread space, y down. Asset loading is indexed by content hash [src].

Readable / writable formats

• Open [CLI file.open/file.openIdml text]: .designcraft, IDML, and InDesign .indd/.indt (converted to IDML first; conversion warnings are returned). Conflict: docs/file-format-parity.md (reviewed 2026-10-10) still says .indd is unsupported (gap 2). The CLI help text is newer; I did not open a real .indd, so treat it as unverified.
• Place [CLI file.place]: PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, PSD, SVG; PDF pages (pdfPage, pdfCrop); .txt, .docx, .rtf, .md into text frames; .xlsx as a table; video/audio.
• Write [CLI command ids]: .designcraft (file.save/saveAs/saveACopy), IDML (file.exportIdml), PDF (file.exportPdf), EPUB 3 reflowable and fixed (file.exportEpub/exportFixedEpub), HTML (file.exportHtml), editable PPTX (file.exportPptx), text/RTF/tagged (file.exportText), XML (file.exportXml), PNG/JPEG via run --export x.png and MCP export_png/render_page [src: JPEG CLI only]. Book export: book.exportPdf.
• PDF [CLI file.exportPdf params]: pages range, flatten, spreads, bleed, marks, standard: none|x4|a2b, tagged, compressImages, interactive options. Text is real text with embedded font subsets; the param list has no outline-text option (verified). Ran designcraft-cli run --sample --export p.pdf --export p.png: 4-page 552 KB PDF and a 630x810 PNG of page 1 (use --page N / --all-pages DIR for others).
• No SVG export [src: file-format-parity.md].

CLI surface [CLI]

Subcommands: run, commands [FILTER], describe CMD, script [FILE|-], app, mcp, perf, bench, links, --version. - run [--in FILE | --sample] [--cmd ID[=JSON]]... [--page N] [--scale S] [--pdf-options JSON] [--export OUT] [--all-pages DIR]: --page/--scale/--pdf-options apply to the exports that follow them. Output is human text (wrote /tmp/p.pdf (4 pages, 552552 bytes)), not JSON per step. Failure: designcraft-cli: unknown command ..., exit 1 (verified). - script [FILE|-] [--in FILE | --sample] [--connect PORT] [--save OUT] [--export OUT] [--keep-going]: script of commands (format not inspected); --keep-going is the only CLI in the set with an explicit continue-on-error switch. - app [--port PORT] COMMAND [JSON]: send a command to a running GUI. mcp [--connect PORT] [--sample] [--automation-read-root DIR] [--automation-write-root DIR] (roots conflict with --connect).

Command catalogue [CLI commands, counted]

527 commands (JSON). Groups: object 59, type 43, table 40, file 35, style 28, layout 26, edit 18, text 16, path 14, swatch 13, transform 10, book 10, guide 10, xml 10, data 10. Key ids: - file.new {preset, pages, facingPages, margins, bleed, slug, columns, ...}, file.open, file.openIdml, file.save, file.exportPdf, file.exportIdml, file.exportPptx, file.package {dir, idml, pdf}, file.place {path|base64, frame, x, y, width, pdfPage, ...}. - Pages: layout.pages.insert {count, after, parent}, layout.pages.delete {pages}, layout.pages.move {from,to}, layout.pages.duplicateSpread, layout.pages.applyParent, layout.pageSize, layout.pages.toSpread, layout.parents.new/delete, layout.createAlternate (liquid layout copies at another size). - Frames/text: frame.create {rect:[x0,y0,x1,y1], shape, content: graphic|text|unassigned, text}, story.setText, story.replaceRange, story.placeAndLink, document.inspect. - Index base is mixed [CLI param docs]: file.exportPdf pages, layout.pageSize pages, layout.selectPage are 1-based; layout.removeOverrides page and layout.pages.duplicateSpread result are 0-based; layout.pages.insert/delete/move just say "page index" (base not stated, unverified). A unified API must normalise.

MCP surface [MCP]

designcraft-cli mcp (0.12.0), 26 tools: list_commands, execute, batch, inspect_document, get_story, set_story_text, new_document, open_document, save_document, place_image, render_page, export_png, plus GUI-driving tools (select_tool, pointer, key, type_text, ime, click, drag, menu_list, ui_inspect, ui_set, dialog_set/confirm/cancel, screenshot). No dedicated PDF export tool: PDF export goes through execute file.exportPdf. Source: crates/mcp.

Rust crates (17 in crates/)

crate	role	bindable as library?	notable deps
doc	model: spreads, pages, parents, frames, stories, styles	yes	serde
format	.designcraft zip + JSON	yes	zip
idml	IDML import/export	yes	quick-xml, zip
pdf	PDF export (krilla): subsets, CMYK/spot, bleed, marks, PDF/X-4, A-2b	yes (needs craft-libs craft-pdf)	craft-pdf, krilla-svg, hayro-syntax
render	page to pixels	yes	vello_cpu, hayro
compose	Knuth-Plass composer, hyphenation, columns, threading, wrap	yes	hypher, regex
fonts, images, color, geom	font db, placed-graphic decode (raster+SVG), colour, geometry	yes	skrifa, resvg, moxcms
epub, pptx, textimport	EPUB 3, PPTX export, txt/docx/rtf import	yes	zip, quick-xml
engine	session, history, command registry	yes, but heavy	craft-print (system spooler)
tools, mcp, ui-egui	pointer tools, MCP server, GUI	no	egui

No PyO3 in the repo.

Operations relevant to mcruft

operation	route
page add/remove/reorder	layout.pages.insert/delete/move/duplicateSpread (pages live in spreads; facing pages)
PDF with embedded fonts	file.exportPdf (always subsets)
PDF with outlined fonts	not offered (verified from param list)
export PNG	run --export x.png [--page N] [--scale S], --all-pages DIR, MCP export_png/render_page
export SVG	none
import PDF	not as a document; file.place places a PDF page as a graphic (pdfPage, pdfCrop)
place image	file.place, MCP place_image
text frame edit	frame.create {content:"text", text}, story.setText/replaceRange, MCP get_story/set_story_text
single-page PDF	file.exportPdf {pages:"2"}

Known gaps vs InDesign [src: docs/gaps.md]

Alpha blocker: primary text frame autoflow adds undeletable pages. Blocking: basic editing failures, .indd reliability, IDML round trip unproven on real files, composition not compared with InDesign, startup crashes on some GPUs, installed fonts not always found, no PR CI. High: PDF presets, printing, style editing, tables. Self-scored ~40% format readiness.