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SafariHow they compare
Airship and Design Mode disagree about where the editor should live. Airship says: run `npx @airshiplabs/cli --target 3000`, open the canvas on localhost:3001, select an element, and the agent resolves it back to file and line and edits the source. Design Mode says: the page you already have open is the canvas, whichever origin it is on, and the extension streams what you changed to the agent over MCP.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | Design Mode | Airship |
|---|---|---|
| Visual editing on a scriptable webpage | Yes — typography, colour, layout, spacing, motion and effects on localhost, staging or production pages the extension can script. Browser-protected pages are excluded. | Yes, on your own local dev server only — the canvas proxies localhost and resolves selections to source |
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) handoff to AI agents | Yes — Cloud, Local, and Self-hosted modes; eight common session tools, plus Local feedback rounds | No MCP — drives Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode directly from the canvas |
| Persistent change history (Changes tab) | Yes — searchable, filterable, exportable | Keeps the previous version of each edited file for instant revert; no searchable edit log documented |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | CLI is published under MIT on npm (@airshiplabs/cli 0.3.0, August 2026); repository at github.com/0xnyn/airship |
| Price | Free MIT-licensed extension | Free; no account or hosted service |
| Markdown / JSON export of the diff | Yes | Not documented — edits land directly in source |
| Best fit for | Designers, developers, QA, PMs, content, indie hackers, agencies, vibe coders | Developers iterating on a local React/Next/Vite app with a terminal agent |
When to pick Design Mode
- You need to edit a staging or production page, or any site you don't run locally — Airship is localhost-only.
- You want to share a session or stream edits to an agent on another machine (Cloud mode).
- You want the native browser, DevTools and extensions you already use rather than a proxied canvas.
- Your agent is not Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode — Design Mode speaks MCP to any client.
When to pick Airship
- You want side-by-side real viewports (desktop, tablet, mobile) of the same local app.
- You want the tool to map a selection straight to a source file and line.
- You want built-in per-file revert without Git and a safe mode that blocks destructive agent commands.
- You value a fully local, no-account, no-telemetry setup.
Honest take
Airship's multi-viewport canvas and file:line resolution are things Design Mode does not do, and 'edit the source, revert the file' is a tighter loop than a diff handoff when everything is on one laptop. Design Mode's case is reach: it works on pages you don't host, in three browsers, and with any MCP client, and it keeps a persistent record of what changed.
Sources and scope
Sources checked 11 October 2026. Documentation review of the Airship homepage, how-it-works and FAQ sections, plus the @airshiplabs/cli npm registry entry for version and licence. The CLI was not run and no agent edit was tested. Capability claims are vendor-documented, not independently runtime-verified.