Free · from Jessica at Dynamic Intuition
Free design apps your assistant can actually run.
Half of running an art business is file work. Resizing the same image five ways. Laying out a PDF. Cleaning up a photo. Exporting everything again because one thing changed. It's slow, and the software that does it is not cheap.
There's a free, open-source set of apps built to look and work like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and the rest. I connected them to Claude, so you can hand it the repetitive file work in plain English. This is the one-file setup, and it's free.
Get the free setup file
Drop your email and the download opens right here, with a copy in your inbox.
No spam, no daily emails. You'll hear from me when there's something worth your time.
What your assistant gets to work with
Twelve free, open-source apps in all. Each one has a command-line program built in, so Claude can open, edit and save real files with it.
PhotoCraftPhotoshop-styleLayers, masks, filters and real PSD files.
VectorCraftIllustrator-styleVector shapes and paths, with export.
DesignCraftInDesign-stylePage layout.
LightCraftLightroom-stylePhoto library and develop sliders.
PdfCraftAcrobat-styleEdit, combine, protect and fill out PDFs.
FilmCraftPremiere-styleVideo editing.
EffectCraftAfter Effects-styleMotion graphics.
WordCraftWord-styleDocuments.
GridCraftExcel-styleSpreadsheets.
DeckCraftPowerPoint-stylePresentations.
CADCraftAutoCAD-style2D and 3D drafting.
SoundCraftPro Tools-styleAudio sessions.
How it works
- 1
Download the setup file above.
One text file (it ends in .md). That's the whole download. You never have to open it yourself.
- 2
Open Claude Code and tell it to read the file.
Say something like: "Read CRAFT-SUITE-SETUP-ALL-IN-ONE.md in my Downloads folder and follow it." It installs and connects every app for you. About 15 minutes, mostly waiting on downloads. Mac or Windows.
- 3
Ask for what you need.
"Make me five sizes of this image." "Combine these into one PDF." You'll see exactly what it did.
What Claude does when you hand it the file
The file is written for Claude, but here it is in plain English so you know exactly what's happening on your computer.
- It checks your computer type (Mac or Windows) instead of guessing, then runs the matching installer. It can do a dry run first that shows what would happen and changes nothing.
- It downloads the apps from their makers' official page on GitHub, checks each download's checksum, and connects each one to Claude Code. No admin rights needed, and it's safe to run again later, which also updates the apps.
- It checks the connection. Every app should report as connected. If any don't, it retries just those.
- You restart Claude Code once. The new tools only load in a fresh session.
- It runs a small test on a throwaway file, never on your real art, and tells you plainly what worked and what didn't.
You don't have to install all twelve. Ask Claude for just one or two, like PhotoCraft and PdfCraft, and add the rest later.
Straight talk, and how your files stay safe
- These apps are early. Great for drafts, batch jobs and experiments. Not yet a full replacement for daily professional work, and their makers say so too.
- Your originals stay safe. The setup works on copies. Claude puts a copy in a folder called Craft Workspace (inside Documents), opens the copy, and saves results to a separate Output folder, so the master file you care about is never the one being edited.
- Some apps are fenced into that folder, and some can't be. Claude is told to treat the rule as absolute either way: touch only the copies, and write only to Output.
- You need Claude Code (the assistant the whole Stack runs on), a Mac or Windows computer, and up to 2 GB of free space if you install everything.
- The Windows installer is newer and has had less testing. If it hits an error, Claude will show you the exact message and fix it with you.
- It's free. No trial, no card. It's the doorway into the rest of the Stack.
Want the business side too?
Start with The Shortlist, the free checklist and the nine tools that do the work. When you want it done step by step, there's The System and The Command Center. You can also see the whole Artist AI Stack.
From Jessica at Dynamic Intuition. A working art business, 14 years in. Not theory.
The Craft Apps are free, open-source software made by their own developers. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe, Microsoft or ArtCraft. All product names belong to their owners and are used only to describe what each app is like. The twelve app icons are the apps' own artwork, by the ArtCraft team and the Craft Apps contributors, used under the MIT or Apache 2.0 open-source licenses. The ArtCraft name and logo are trademarks of the ArtCraft Team.