Brilliant vs Lunacy

Lunacy is the closest thing in this comparison to Brilliant's own shape, and the page only works if it says so up front. It's a free, native desktop vector editor from Icons8 that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, opens and saves .sketch files natively, and stores its own work in .free, an open, MIT-licensed format with a public spec. It has a real pen tool, boolean operations, auto layout with hug, fill, and fixed sizing, components, prototyping, and, unusually for a free tool, a write-capable MCP server it shipped back in mid-2025. If you want a genuinely free, cross-platform desktop editor with a Sketch pipeline, Lunacy is an excellent answer, and this page is going to concede that generously before it draws any lines.

Brilliant's editor is free too: the full tool, on the free tier, with paid plans covering AI chat volume and private cloud work rather than editor features. Where it differs is the aim. It's built agent-native from the start: AI that runs on Brilliant AI out of the box or on your own key with a model you choose, a full design-token system rather than color presets, plain-text files that diff in Git without unzipping, and Figma interop that goes both ways. This is a comparison between two tools that respect the same values and split on a few specific ones, so we'll be precise about the splits.

Lunacy facts on this page are current as of August 2026, checked against Lunacy Version 14.

Two tools that share a lot

Lunacy and Brilliant overlap more than most pairs here: both are free, native desktop editors on Windows, macOS, and Linux, both keep an open file format, and both let an agent drive the canvas. Lunacy's real edge is its Sketch pipeline: it opens, edits, and saves .sketch natively on Windows and Linux where Sketch itself won't run, and its .free format is MIT-licensed with a public spec and a reference implementation. Brilliant answers with a full design-token system, Brilliant AI or your own, plain-text files that diff in git without unzipping, and Figma interop both ways; the honest gaps get one compact section near the end.

On price the two match, and Icons8 says it plainly: "there's no hidden charges, ads, or locked features," and Brilliant's full editor is free the same way, with paid touching only AI chat volume and private work. On cloud collaboration the free tiers tilt Brilliant's way: Lunacy's paid tiers meter cloud storage and team seats, while Brilliant's free tier includes unlimited public cloud projects with unlimited collaborators.

Agent access: the same idea, a different shape and safety story

Lunacy is unusually far ahead of most free tools here, and it earns credit for it. Its local MCP server shipped in June 2025 and became write-capable the next month, with a release note reading "Now LLM can edit Selection over MCP." It also exposes a local HTTP automation API with example plugins in five languages. For a free product, that's a serious agent surface, and it predates most of the competition.

The differences are about shape and safety rather than whether the capability exists. Lunacy documents its MCP client setup for Claude Desktop only, and it publishes no exact MCP tool names, so the surface can't be fully audited from the docs. Its HTTP automation API, by its own reference, runs on localhost with no authentication and no rate limiting ("Current implementation places no restrictions on request frequency"). Brilliant documents seven agent clients with step-by-step setup, from Claude Code and Cursor to Codex, Copilot, Windsurf, and Antigravity, publishes exactly what an agent can do, keeps MCP unlimited on every plan including Free, and drives the same hundred-plus canvas commands you use, each with full undo. Both tools let an agent write your canvas; they differ in how much of that surface is documented and gated. What an agent can do in Brilliant →

Brilliant AI or your own, and a real design-token system

Lunacy's built-in AI Chat is a nice convenience with a specific trade-off. It offers Claude, Gemini, OpenAI, and Grok with "No API keys required, free to use," which is friendly, but it means Icons8 sits between your prompt and the model, and the feature currently has no documentation page at all. Brilliant gives you both lanes: on Brilliant AI the request routes through Brilliant to Google, and on your own AI, across six providers plus any OpenAI-compatible or local endpoint with per-chat model and thinking-level selection, nothing sits between your prompt and the model. Brilliant takes no markup on either one.

The bigger gap is tokens, and Icons8 is candid about it. Lunacy's variables are "reusable solid color presets," with no number, string, or dimension variables and no modes or theme switching. Icons8 lists the fix as open roadmap: "We'll gradually implement full support for variables, including themes, groups, theme switching, field binding, and more." Brilliant compiles a Styles/*.ds source into a full system today: eleven-step OKLCH ramps from one seed, light and dark theming, modes as transforms, multi-brand overlays, a cascade across folders, and a resolved .gen.yaml that Style Dictionary and Tokens Studio read. Component reuse differs the same way: Lunacy's "component states" are a single-axis list, where Brilliant ships full component sets with variant properties and slots. How the token system works →

Two open formats, one that diffs without unzipping

This is the closest call on the page, and it needs careful wording, because Lunacy's format is genuinely open and Brilliant is not the only tool that can say so.

.free is open source under MIT, with a public spec and a reference implementation, and Icons8 designed it to be "compact, human-readable, back-compatible." That's real, and it's more than most tools offer. But the file as it sits on disk is a ZIP archive: pages, images, fonts, and metadata as JSON inside a compressed container. You can unzip it and read the JSON, but you can't git diff it in place, and no Icons8 page documents a Git or plain-text-on-disk workflow.

Brilliant's .bl files are plain, deterministic Blueprint text, one element per line, stable ordering, inline coordinates, hex colors, with nothing to unzip:

 c16fc75741feed85 fr p(80,80) s(480,320) rd(16) "Hero"
-  88625e475868c087 r p(24,24) s(160,100) f[(r1,#F8F8F8)] rd(8) "Panel"
+  88625e475868c087 r p(24,24) s(160,100) f[(r1,#0080FF)] rd(8) "Panel"

You can diff two versions and read the change, branch a design like a feature, and git blame a stray color, and a published Brilliant project is itself a real Git repository with a clone URL. Both formats are open. The narrow, honest difference is that one diffs in Git as it lives on disk and the other has to be unzipped first. Your designs live where your code lives →

Figma, and the way back

Lunacy's strongest interop is Sketch, which it reads and writes natively, and it offers an escape hatch outward by letting you take a .sketch file into Figma or XD. Figma itself is import-only: Lunacy imports .fig files, with Icons8's own caveat that component variants and complex vector shapes may display differently on import, and Figma variables that "won't be functional right away." There's no direct .fig export; the only way back to Figma is through .sketch.

Brilliant imports from Figma by URL, by page, or by node-id subtree, with a published carry-over list and a published list of what doesn't come across, and it also has Send to Figma, so a canvas can round-trip while a team is still deciding which tool to standardize on. It imports .sketch with page selection and SVG as native editable elements too. Coming from Figma →

What Brilliant has that Lunacy doesn't

• Brilliant AI included, or bring your own AI with model choice and zero markup. Six providers plus local endpoints, no vendor between your prompt and the model. Lunacy's AI Chat is hosted with no key of your own.

• A full design-token system. OKLCH ramps, modes, brands, and a resolved file external tools read, versus solid-color variables with no modes, which Icons8 lists as roadmap.

• Component sets with variant properties and slots, where Lunacy's "component states" are a single-axis list.

• Plain-text files that diff in Git without unzipping. .bl is line-oriented text; .free is an open but zipped container.

• Figma interop in both directions. Import by URL, page, or subtree, plus Send to Figma. Lunacy imports .fig only, with no export back.

• A documented, unlimited, write-capable agent surface across seven named clients, versus an MCP documented for Claude Desktop only with no published tool names.

The honest gaps

The places Lunacy is ahead, each with what Brilliant does instead. Lunacy reads and writes native .sketch on Windows and Linux where Sketch itself won't run; Brilliant imports Sketch, Figma, and SVG as native editable elements and can save as a Sketch file, without editing the .sketch in place. It ships interactive prototyping with ten triggers and seven actions; Brilliant is a fully editable static canvas today with prototyping on the roadmap. It also bundles Icons8's asset libraries in the editor and runs on a deliberately low hardware floor for older machines. If a native Sketch read-write pipeline or a clickable prototype is the piece your team turns on, that piece lives in Lunacy; on a real design-token system, Brilliant AI or your own, and git-diffable files, Brilliant is the fuller tool.

At a glance

A new dance

Lunacy and Brilliant share more than most pairs in this set: native desktop apps, an open file format, real vector editing, and an agent you can point at the canvas. They split on a short, specific list. Lunacy is the free, cross-platform editor with the strongest Sketch pipeline going, unmatched if that pipeline is your center of gravity. Brilliant is the agent-native tool with the model bill in your own name, a real design-token system, and files that diff in your Git history exactly as they sit on disk. The choice comes down to which of those two shapes fits the way you work.

Read the full manifesto to see the rest of the argument, or install Brilliant and try it for yourself.