A text format for UI wireframes
comparing token costs across 4 format
Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.
Want to reach these readers? Sponsor an issue.
I've been exploring how to describe UI layouts to LLMs efficiently.The problem: When you ask an AI to generate or modify UI, how do you describe the current state? - Natural language ("header on top, form below") is ambiguous - ASCII art breaks when edited (alignment issues) - HTML is precise but verboseI ran some measurements. For a simple login form: - Natural language: 102 tokens - ASCII art: 84 tokens - HTML: 330 tokensI experimented with a grid-based text format using Excel-like cell references: grid: 4x3 A1..D1: { type: txt, value: "Login" } A2..D2: { type: input, label: "Email" } D3: { type: btn, value: "Submit" } This came out to 120 tokens – less than HTML, more precise than natural language.Built a CLI to render it to SVG/PNG: npx ktr input.kui -o output.pngCurious what approaches others have tried for this problem. Is there something I'm missing that already solves this well?Code: https://github.com/enlinks-llc/katsuragi
HN · launched Feb 5, 2026 · 5 upvotes (top 89%) · 1 view
Niche: ui components and design tools · 168 launches, 10 in the last 7 days ▼ -23% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- AI feature
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 168 launches in ui components and design tools →
Could you build this?
Yes Designing a compact text-based DSL or layout schema for wireframes and benchmarking token usage across LLMs can easily be built with an AI coding assistant.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 82 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #82 of 83 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 77 days after the earliest competitor.
- ISON · hn · 2025-12-26 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- Tokens by UI Colors · ph · 2026-11-10 · 61 upvotes · similarity 0.44
- ascii-magic-art · github · 2026-10-19 · 286 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- ASCII Character Table · ph · 2026-10-29 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- Blockframe · ph · 2026-09-21 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.41
- OpenUI · hn · 2026-03-11 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.39
- ascii-fold · github · 2026-11-09 · 23 upvotes · similarity 0.39
- ascii · github · 2026-10-07 · 750 upvotes · similarity 0.39
The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.