compose-ai-tools

See your Compose UI without opening Android Studio.

compose-ai-tools renders your @Preview composables to PNG from the command line — so your AI coding agent can actually look at the screen it just changed, and so can you. Works with Jetpack Compose (Android, via Robolectric) and Compose Multiplatform Desktop (via ImageComposeScene).

That's the whole idea. Everything else on this page is optional.

📖 Documentation · Install · Reference

Get started

Start here: https://yschimke.github.io/compose-ai-tools/ — rendering and inspecting your project's previews with the CLI, an agent, VS Code or the Gradle plugin. Designing a new screen with an agent in the UI Builder? That flow starts at https://ui.coo.ee/start.

🤖 With an AI coding agent

One command installs the compose-preview CLI and the default agent skills:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yschimke/skills/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Then ask your agent to preview a composable. The compose-preview skill is the playbook — you don't have to learn the commands; the agent reads the skill.

• Other install routes (npx skills, flags, opt-in skills, updating): setup.
• Plugins and MCP wiring for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini/Antigravity and OpenCode: host setup.
• The hosted catalog MCP server is https://preview.coo.ee/mcp; configure it once. Local vs hosted MCP: Agents & MCP.

🧩 In VS Code (or Cursor / Windsurf / VSCodium)

Open the Extensions view (⇧⌘X / Ctrl+Shift+X), search Compose Preview, click Install. It renders previews inline and needs no project changes. (Marketplace · Open VSX)

⌨️ From the command line

Install the CLI (same one-liner as above), then point it at any Compose project — no build edits required:

compose-preview render    # render every @Preview to PNG
compose-preview browse    # open the streamlined component browser

The CLI injects itself into your build at runtime, so projects that already apply com.android.application / com.android.library / org.jetbrains.compose just work.

Prefer a version-pinned Gradle plugin? It's on Maven Central (no auth, no token). See the Install page for that, CI recipes, and the full requirements (Java 17+, Gradle 8.13+, AGP 8.13.0+, Kotlin 2.0.21+).

What else it can do

None of this is required to get value from the tool — it's there when you want more than a PNG.