Getting started

Nagma is a free, open-source design suite: a design editor with prototyping, a whiteboard (Board), Slides, Campaign assets, Sites, Make (apps built with AI), Video and Document (PDF). It runs on your computer without an account, and connects to a Nagma server when you want to work with other people.

Download

Get the desktop app from nagma.app or the latest release:

The desktop app bundles a small Nagma server for your own files ("This computer"), so everything works offline. There's also the web app: any Nagma server serves it at its own address (see Self-hosting).

First run

Nagma opens on Home, the file browser. The first time, it shows three ways to start:

• Use Nagma on this computer (the default). Just closes the cards. Everything you make is a draft on this device. No account, no server, no limits.
• Connect to a server. Use Nagma hosted connects in one click to the free server the Nagma project runs, where you can share with anyone (it needs an account). Your own server… opens the server picker, to join your team's Nagma server or one you run yourself. See Connect to a server.
• Add an AI key. Opens Account settings › AI, where you add a key from Claude, OpenAI or an OpenAI-compatible server. See AI keys.

You can do any of these later. To see the cards again, choose Get started in the Help menu (the editor's main menu › Help and account, the desktop app's Help menu, or the account menu on Home).

The cards show once per device, not once per account or server: signing in, switching account or connecting to another server doesn't show them again.

Where your files live

There are three choices, and you can switch any time from the server picker:

• This computer: only you. Files stay on this computer. No account.
• Nagma (hosted): free, run by the Nagma project. Share and collaborate with anyone. Needs an account, with a verified email before you share.
• Your own server: run it yourself, or use your company's (Self-hosting).

Drafts

A file you create without a server is a draft. Drafts live on this device (in the desktop app, in its own storage; in a browser, in that browser's storage) and appear under Drafts on Home.

• Drafts save as you work. Close the app and they're there next time.
• Drafts are kept apart per account and per server, so nothing from one shows up in another.
• To work on a draft with someone, choose Share. On the hosted server or a team server, Share moves the file to the server (owned by you) and gives you links and invitations. On This computer, a link would only open on your machine, so Share offers Share through Nagma instead: it connects to the free hosted server, signs you in or up there, moves the file and gives you a link that works anywhere. Use your own server… and Export a copy are there too.
• Keep backups of what matters: File › Save local copy… downloads the file as .nagma.json.

Create

The buttons at the top of Home start a Design file, a Board, Slides or a Make app; More has a Document, a Video, a Campaign and a Site. New decks, campaigns and sites offer their templates as soon as they open, and Board has them under Templates. Home's Recommended resources has starter files to open and look around in.

Import your existing files

Drop files onto Home, or choose More › Import…. Each file becomes a Nagma file of its own kind:

• design files (.fig, .sketch), slide decks (.deck, .pptx) and campaign files (.buzz);
• page layouts (.idml), each page as a frame of editable layers;
• PDFs, each page as a frame;
• layered images (.psd, .psb), other pictures, SVG, and video (.mp4, .mov, .mkv, .webm, .mxf).

Imports use clean-room readers written for interoperability: Nagma contains no code from the tools that make these formats.

Next

• Connect to a server: the hosted server, your team's, or your own.
• AI keys: where keys go, which providers, what it costs.
• Self-hosting: run your own Nagma server in one command.

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