coralcraft

Status

Pre-release (active Phase V development). On 2026-10-21 CoralCraft re-based on a fork of storytold/vectorcraft (a466625) and is extending it with CorelDRAW format interoperability, multi-page layout, workspace presets, and CorelDRAW-specific tools. Progress is tracked in ROADMAP.md, docs/gaps.md, and docs/superpowers/plans/2026-10-21-vectorcraft-fork.md.

What works today (Phases V0–V4.1 complete):

• Native desktop & Web application (coralcraft, vectorcraft-web). Full eframe/egui GPU/CPU desktop shell with 89 interactive canvas tools, ~40 dockable panels, 125 dialogs, multi-column/docking workspace management, and a built-in CorelDRAW workspace preset (Window → Workspace → CorelDRAW) featuring a single-column left Toolbox, top Property Bar, right vertical Color Palette bar (Left-click sets Fill, Right-click sets Outline), bottom Page Navigator bar, and right-side Object Properties / Objects / Transform / Align dockers.
• Clean-room .cdr and .cmx read/write (coralcraft-cdr, corel-import).
  • Opens legacy WL (CDR 2), bare RIFF/RIFX (CDR 3–X3), modern ZIP+RIFF (content/riffData.cdr X4–X5 and content/root.dat X6+), and Corel Presentation Exchange .cmx files directly into the VectorCraft document model, preserving lossless CorelDRAW residuals under document.unknown["coralcraft"].
  • Verified against 65/65 valid real-world .cdr samples in refs/cdr-samples/ with exact page, layer, and object counts.
  • Writes spec-conformant CDR7 (RIFF....CDR7), CDRX (X4+ ZIP+RIFF), and CMX1 (RIFF....CMX1) files from Save As, Export, CLI convert, and MCP export/save_file, verified against libcdr's cdr2raw and cmx2raw differential oracles.
• 100% VectorCraft file format compatibility (27 formats / 34 open extensions). Opens and saves every format supported by VectorCraft (.vectorcraft, .drawcraft, .vctemplate, .svg, .svgz, .pdf, .eps, .ps, .ai, .dxf, .dwg, .emf, .wmf, .fig, .sketch, .afdesign, .png, .jpg, .webp, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .tga, .ico, .psd, .ase, .aco, .csv), plus .cdr, .cmx, and legacy pre-fork .coralcraft JSON/ZIP archives.See docs/file-format-parity.md.
• CorelDRAW multi-page & master-layer model.
  • Per-page dimensions, Portrait/Landscape orientation, and automatic horizontal spread reflow on insert, delete, resize, and drag-reorder.
  • Master layers (MasterAllPages, MasterOddPages, MasterEvenPages, configurable foreground/background) that repeat across matching pages, plus a shared non-printable Desktop (pasteboard) layer, rendered in CorelDRAW's 4-bucket layer order.
  • Bottom Page Navigator bar (1 of N counter, First/Previous/Insert Before/Page Tabs/Add After/Next/Last/Delete, double-click inline rename, drag-and-drop page reorder, right-click page context menu) and Layer Role badges (M:All, M:Odd, M:Even, Desk) in the Layers panel and Layer Options dialog.

Remaining Phase V roadmap (V4.2–V7.1; see docs/gaps.md):

• V4.2–V4.4: Public-documentation CorelDRAW shortcut preset (F5–F12, Ctrl+G/U/L/K/Q, Alt+F7–F10), CorelDRAW toolbox & context-sensitive Property Bar modes, and CorelDRAW docker refinements.
• V5.1–V5.4: PowerClip container workflow (Place Inside, Edit Contents, Extract, Lock Contents), interactive effects with on-canvas handles, Corel .cpl/.xml palette import/export in the palette bar and Swatches panel, and Smart Fill / Connector / Dimension / PowerTRACE integration.
• V6.1–V6.2: CoralCraft-specific MCP tools merged into the VectorCraft MCP server and regenerated docs/mcp.md.
• V7.1: Retirement of the pre-fork legacy/ workspace directory.

Quick start

Requires Rust 1.85+ (Edition 2024).

git clone https://github.com/yupoet/coralcraft
cd coralcraft

# Launch the native CoralCraft desktop application
cargo run --release -p coralcraft
cargo run --release -p coralcraft -- <file.cdr|file.vectorcraft|file.svg>

# Inspect, convert, and script documents from the CLI
cargo run --release -p coralcraft-cli -- probe <file.cdr>            # container, version, chunk tree (--json available)
cargo run --release -p coralcraft-cli -- info <file.cdr>             # document dimensions, artboards, layers, objects
cargo run --release -p coralcraft-cli -- convert <file.cdr> out.svg  # .svg .pdf .eps .dxf .png .cdr .cmx .vectorcraft
cargo run --release -p coralcraft-cli -- run -c 'file.new {"width":800,"height":600}' -o out.cdr

# Start the MCP server on stdio
cargo run --release -p coralcraft-cli -- mcp
# or: cargo run --release -p coralcraft -- --mcp

# Workspace quality, layering & clean-room gates
cargo xtask ci          # fmt, clippy -D warnings, test, cleanroom, no-bundled-fonts, pdf-deps, assets, brands, cursors, layers, wasm
cargo xtask stats       # crate-by-crate file, line & test counts

MCP server for agents

coralcraft-cli mcp (or coralcraft --mcp) runs a Model Context Protocol server (JSON-RPC 2.0 on stdio) backed by vectorcraft-mcp and vectorcraft-engine. Register it with Claude Code:

cargo build --release -p coralcraft-cli
claude mcp add coralcraft -- "$PWD/target/release/coralcraft-cli" mcp

It exposes structured tools (open_file, save_file, export, render, inspect, get_selection, list_commands, run, batch, etc.) and over 400 engine commands covering document/page/artboard/layer management, live shapes, boolean pathfinder operations, Bézier node editing, typography, gradients/meshes/patterns, vector effects, image tracing, and multi-format import/export (including .cdr and .cmx). See docs/mcp.md.

Downloads

GitHub Actions builds native packages via release.yml and verifies Linux .deb installation in ci.yml:

1. macOS universal .dmg and .app.zip (packaging/macos/package.sh).
2. Linux .deb, .rpm, AppImage, and Flatpak (packaging/linux/).
3. Windows installer and portable .zip (packaging/windows/).

Until the next tagged release is published, build from source with cargo build --release -p coralcraft.

Clean-room methodology

CoralCraft follows the clean-room engineering discipline established by storytold/vectorcraft, extended with a dual-track protocol for .cdr / .cmx format interoperability (see AGENTS.md):

1. Behavior track (public documentation only):
   • Application features, workflows, dockers and shortcuts are derived exclusively from public documentation (official online user manuals, published books, public tutorials and forum discussions, cited by URL).
   • Contributors and AI agents never run, script, automate, screenshot, measure or disassemble CorelDRAW or any Corel software, and never use Corel software to create test files.
2. Format track (public specifications & owned samples):
   • Binary format support is written from scratch in safe Rust using public specifications (Photopea CDR Format Specification, Document Liberation Project / libcdr documentation, RIFF and ISO 32000 specs) and synthetic byte fixtures authored directly in code.
   • No GPL/AGPL code (such as Inkscape, UniConvertor or sK1) is ever copied or linked. MPL-2.0 references (libcdr) are consulted strictly as read-only format documentation, with chunk-level findings recorded in docs/reverse/.

[!NOTE] Trademark Disclaimer: CoralCraft is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Corel or Alludo. CorelDRAW is a registered trademark of its respective owner and is referenced here solely for descriptive interoperability and feature-parity comparison.

Star history

License and credits

CoralCraft is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option. Required notices are in NOTICE, and every bundled asset is listed with its author, source and license in ASSETS.md.

CoralCraft is a fork of VectorCraft in the ArtCraft Crafting Apps family (DesignCraft, CADCraft, PhotoCraft, PdfCraft).