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HYPE OR FACT? · CHECKED 2 NOVEMBER 2026

Craft Anything: from the team that reverse engineered Adobe and Microsoft, and you still need an LLM

OUR VERDICT

Partly fact

Our original verdict: “Fact or hype: partly fact. The tool is real, free and open source, and you do need your own AI model to build with it. But the maker is ArtCraft, not "Craft Software", "reverse engineered" overstates what they did, and the "freedom from Anthropic" pitch doesn't hold, because it runs on your own Claude Code account.”

THE CLAIM

“"Craft Anything comes from Craft Software, the team that reverse engineered Adobe and Microsoft products, and you still need an LLM to use it." Craft Anything launched on X with: "We believe that you should have the final say in what you do with your property, and not @AnthropicAI."”

@get_artcraft · Original post ↗

What’s actually true

  • Holds: the tool is real, free and open source. The code is on GitHub (storytold/craft-anything) under MIT or Apache-2.0, released on 31 Oct 2026 and marked early alpha.
  • Holds: you still need an AI model. Building runs your own Claude Code program, signed in with your own Anthropic account and billed to you. A Codex adapter exists but the team says it is unverified. Other model providers can be used only for questions and analysis.
  • Holds: the same team built open-source look-alike rebuilds of Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat (Ars Technica), and of Word, Excel and PowerPoint (Decrypt). Those apps are rough and early: their own roadmaps rate them roughly 43% to 63% ready.
  • Doesn't hold: the maker isn't "Craft Software". It's ArtCraft (GitHub organisation storytold), run by developer Brandon Thomas (@echelon), which started as an open-source AI image and video studio.
  • Overstated: "reverse engineered". ArtCraft describes the Adobe and Office apps as clean-room rebuilds, written from public file formats and by watching how the originals behave. No copied code has been claimed or shown. Craft Anything defaults to the same clean-room mode, though an opt-in Deep mode does read a program's code for private use.
  • Marketing: the "final say… and not Anthropic" pitch. On the day of the launch post, Engadget reported that Anthropic had told Claude not to recreate specific existing games. But Craft Anything runs on your own Claude Code, so Anthropic's usage policy still applies to everything it builds.
  • Legal: no lawsuit or takedown has been reported, and Adobe and Microsoft haven't commented (Calipzo, 27 Oct). Rebuilding features from scratch is generally lawful, but commentators flag trade-dress, trademark and terms-of-use risks for look-alike clones.

Sources

Cost

Free and open source. You pay for your own Claude Code use (an Anthropic subscription or API usage). A paid managed tier is planned, with no price yet.

USE IT IF

Developers and tinkerers who want to prototype their own version of a site, app or game, or study how software works, and who are comfortable with alpha software and Claude Code.

SKIP IT IF

Anyone hoping to escape Anthropic's rules, wanting a finished drop-in replacement for commercial software, or planning to sell look-alike copies of other companies' products.

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How we knowChecked on 2 November 2026. Verdicts: Fact = the claim holds up; Partly fact = real, but with caveats or overstated parts; Hype = the headline claim isn't supported. Products change quickly, so check the maker's site before you buy. Our methods & sources ↗