Make it yours.

Saved 100 references. Can't decide on 5.

Alter builds the direction that makes the right ones obvious — through conversation, across sessions.

Join the Waitlist How it works

Coming soon for macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon

Runs locally. Your work stays on your Mac.
Kiln project home — direction thesis, five topics with ten positions, conversation list, reference strip.

The problem

Designers collect hundreds of inspirations but struggle to know which ones truly fit their project — and even when something feels right, they can't shake the anxiety of am I being inspired or am I copying?

— validated with 103 designers, Jan 2026 survey

Alter doesn't start from a blank chat.

Chat column — 'You: It's how much silence is around the headlines…' followed by Alter's structured extraction into Spatial hierarchy and Tone fit bullet lists.

Conversation

You can feel what works. Alter helps you say why.

You talk through your reactions, questions, half-formed instincts. Alter offers language for what you can't yet articulate and probes the why behind each preference. The design direction takes shape — in your own words.

Guidance

Alter watches the whole project — and asks the question that needs asking.

Tail of Alter's analytical response followed by a Guidance card asking: 'What's the function of the terracotta here — a pause, a gesture, or a signal?' — three specific framework options offered so the designer can articulate the principle they're committing to.

When you can't quite say why something works, Alter offers the language to pull it out — "a pause, a gesture, or a signal?" Across the whole project, it tracks the patterns you can't hold in your head.

Typography topic expanded — three positions (committed to Tiempos Text, exploring Söhne, rejected Playfair Display) with reasoning, followed by four matching reference thumbnails.

A topic, expanded

Every reference traces back to a principle you committed to.

Each position holds its own reasoning and the references that prompted it. When a client asks why, the chain is already there — reference to principle to commitment.

Export

The why behind every design decision, in writing.

One click, one document — your direction, every decision behind it, and the references that shaped each one. Typeset as an editorial artifact, ready to hold up the next time someone asks why.

Exported design-direction HTML — cover, thesis, topics, and positions rendered as a typeset editorial document.

Across sessions

The third conversation knows more than the first.

Every conversation feeds back into the project. Open it tomorrow and everything's still there — positions, references, reasoning. Nothing starts from zero again.

Before — 1 position, draft thesis
Kiln project before — direction thesis reads 'Restraint as the guiding principle'; Tone topic has one position ('Voice should feel knowledgeable, not academic').
After — 2 positions, sharpened thesis, new reference
Kiln project after — direction thesis refined to 'Restraint as a form of respect for the work'; Tone topic expanded to two positions plus a Minimal Identity reference thumbnail.

Library

Find a reference by what it was, not what you named it.

Other tools make you tag, add notes, organise into folders. Alter reads and understands every reference on import — style, mood, composition, use case — so you can find it later by describing what you're looking for.

Alter Library view — sidebar with Library selected, populated grid of 35-plus cross-discipline references (vintage type specimens, modern landing pages, editorial spreads, ceramic photography), inspector panel showing VLM-generated tag categories (use case, style, mood) on a selected reference. A status indicator reads 'Analysing 1 of 143' — the system is auto-tagging the imported library in real time.

Join the waitlist.

Be first to build your direction. We'll email you the moment early access opens.

Requires macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon · 16GB RAM

Runs 100% on your Mac. Your references, conversations, and direction stay local — nothing leaves your machine.