The handoff is not a process problem. It is a file problem.

For years, the standard advice for a design-to-development handoff has been to improve the process: better briefs, a shared vocabulary, a design system with a librarian, a plugin that generates code nobody uses. We tried all of it. Each one made the handoff smoother, and none of them made it go away.

The reason is simple once you see it. Every one of those fixes kept the second file. There was still a design file that was a picture of the product, and still a codebase that was the product, and still a person — sometimes several — whose job was to keep the two in step. That job is the handoff. As long as there are two files, somebody has to carry changes between them.

What we changed

Lindi removes the second file. It connects to your code — a repository or a folder on your machine — and puts your real screens on the canvas. You design on them, and a push writes the change back into the code: by Lindi Code, Lindi’s own agent, or by the coding agent you already use. Nobody redraws, respecifies or retypes anything — there is nothing to hand over, because there is nothing to hand.

Your screens come from your code, and a push puts the design back into it. That is the whole loop.

What that costs, and what it does not

It costs the picture. A team that wants a place to try things that will never ship still has one — the canvas is still a canvas. What it does not cost is your review. Designing never touches the code; only a push does, and it lands as ordinary changes your team reviews the way it reviews everything. Your rules for shipping are the only rules.

• One canvas, open to everyone who needs it
• Your real screens, straight from your code
• A push that changes the code, not a picture to rebuild
• A review that is your review, not ours

We are a small studio with a grudge against the handoff. This is what we are building instead. If your team has the same grudge, Lindi is open by request.