Makepad started in 2019 as an independent effort to build a high-performance Rust UI system with live design at its core. It is now moving into a broader open source phase around Makepad 2.0, Splash, our live readable UI DSL, AI-assisted development, and multiplatform Rust apps.
Makepad was created in 2019 by Rik Arends, who currently maintains the project. Eddy Bruël and Sebastian Michailidis were part of Makepad's founding period, contributing core engineering and design work as the project took shape. The early work focused on a shader-based UI stack, fast iteration, and a design workflow that could run across native platforms and the web.
With Makepad 2.0, the project is expanding beyond its founding studio roots. The current direction is a wider open source project where contributors can build Rust UI tools, AI generation workflows, and production applications around Splash, our live readable UI DSL.
The next phase centers on AI-generation-friendly Rust UI. Splash is our live readable UI DSL: it describes interface structure, layout, styling, and state in a form that AI can stream and humans can review, while Rust provides compiler diagnostics that AI systems can use to produce better, faster, more maintainable code.