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PhotoCraft: What an AI-Rebuilt Photoshop Means for Your Business

By Marko, founder of UBI ยท October 22, 2026

Earlier this month, a free image editor called PhotoCraft hit the tech press with a provocative pitch. PetaPixel's October 7, 2026 headline read: "Someone Rebuilt Free, Open-Source Versions of Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom Using AI." Two days later, Vice reported that a developer had used an AI model to build the whole suite.

PhotoCraft is real, you can download it, and it is labelled early alpha. That means it's unfinished, rough in places and not ready to replace anything you rely on.

I'm not writing this because you should switch photo editors. I'm writing it because PhotoCraft shows something every founder with a website or app should understand. AI is making it cheaper to study software and rebuild what it does. If your business runs on software, that changes which parts of it are actually worth protecting.

The Short Answer: What PhotoCraft Means for Your Business

PhotoCraft is an early-alpha, open-source image editor whose GitHub repository describes it as a clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop. Vice reported that it was built with help from Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5. The project's own README doesn't say that.

For a business owner, the lesson isn't "Photoshop is finished." The lesson is that AI lowers the effort needed to recreate software whose behaviour anyone can observe. This one example doesn't prove a measured cost saving, and it doesn't prove the copy matches the original feature for feature.

Two practical points follow:

So review what sensitive information lives in the software you ship. And invest in the advantages a copy can't replicate.

What Is PhotoCraft, Exactly?

Let's start with what the project says about itself, because the headlines and the project don't use quite the same language.

The ArtCraft project and its "Craft Apps"

PhotoCraft is one of a set of "Craft Apps" from a project called ArtCraft. According to the official PhotoCraft page, it's "a native app written entirely in Rust." Rust is a programming language known for speed and for preventing certain kinds of crashes. "Native" means it runs directly on your computer instead of inside a browser tab, although there's also a web version.

Here's what the site lists:

Interestingly, the site never names Adobe or Photoshop. It calls itself "The image editor you already know how to use." That's a pointed bit of positioning.

Open source, explained in one paragraph

"Open source" means the program's source code, the human-readable instructions programmers write, is published for anyone to read, modify and reuse. The PhotoCraft GitHub repository offers it under a choice of two permissive licences, MIT or Apache-2.0. In plain terms, people can use it, change it and build on it with very few restrictions.

Is PhotoCraft a real Photoshop alternative?

Not yet, and the project doesn't pretend otherwise.

Vice called the software "incredibly glitchy" and noted it's "still in early alpha." The "134 of 135" figure is the project's own test result, not an independent audit. Even taken at face value, a file that saves back byte for byte tells you the format handling works. It doesn't tell you every effect renders the same way, that performance holds up on a heavy file, or that the app won't crash halfway through a client job.

If you're a designer weighing a switch, test your own workflows: your files, your filters, your deadlines. A feature list is a starting point, never a verdict.

Did Someone Really Rebuild Photoshop With AI?

This is the question everyone's searching, and the honest answer has two halves.

What the press reported

Vice's October 9, 2026 article reported that developer Brandon Thomas used Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and Rust to "reverse-engineer Adobe's core software suite into an open-source clone called ArtCraft." According to Vice, the suite includes:

  1. PhotoCraft, a counterpart to Photoshop
  2. VectorCraft, a counterpart to Illustrator
  3. FilmCraft, a counterpart to Premiere
  4. LightCraft, a counterpart to Lightroom

Vice also reported that Adobe did not respond to its request for comment.

What the project itself says

The GitHub README tells the story differently. It describes PhotoCraft as "an open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop, rebuilt in pure Rust," "implemented from public specs and observed behaviour only." It also states that the project "is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Adobe Inc."

The README does not say AI wrote the code. That claim comes from the reporting.

Clean-room vs. reverse engineered: why the wording matters

These terms get used interchangeably, but they emphasise different things.

Clean-room reimplementation means rebuilding software from public documentation and observed behaviour, without access to the original source code. You study what the program does, then write your own version from scratch.

Reverse engineering is a broader term for working backwards from a finished product to understand how it works. Journalists often use it loosely.

So "rebuilt with AI" is the fairest summary. The project claims a clean-room method, and the press says AI did much of the heavy lifting. Neither description has been independently audited, and I'm not going to draw legal conclusions from either label. That's a question for lawyers, not founders reading a blog.

What PhotoCraft Proves, and What It Doesn't

I find it useful to split stories like this into two columns.

What this example demonstrates

What it leaves unresolved

That gap matters for your business too. Reproducing what software visibly does is one achievement. Running a dependable product that customers trust with their work every day is a completely different one. AI is clearly compressing the first. The second still takes years of unglamorous work.

Can AI Copy My Software or App?

This is where PhotoCraft stops being a curiosity and starts being about you.

Marko's take: assume your code can be read

I teach non-technical people to build with AI, and many of the founders I work with built their site or app with tools like Claude, Cursor or Lovable. After reading about this project, I posted this on LinkedIn:

"Assume anyone can read your app's code, almost any software on the internet can now be reverse engineered."

That's the punchy version. Here's the precise one.

AI makes it far cheaper to study and rebuild software whose behaviour can be observed. Anything you ship to users' devices can be read directly. But code on your own server isn't exposed the same way.

Client-side vs. server-side, in plain English

Your product probably has two halves:

Here's how the two kinds of exposure compare:

What a competitor can doClient-side code (browser, mobile app, desktop app)Server-side code (your private backend)
Read the code directlyYes, though compiled apps don't reveal the original source exactlyNo, not just by using your service
Extract values embedded in it, like API keysYes, if they're shipped inside the appNo, if they stay on the server
Observe its behaviour and imitate itYesYes, through what the service visibly does
Rebuild similar features with AI helpIncreasingly feasibleIncreasingly feasible from observed behaviour

The last two rows are the PhotoCraft lesson. Even if your code is perfectly private, your behaviour is public. Every screen, workflow and output is a specification someone can study.

The API key problem most founders don't know they have

An API key is a password-like string that lets your app talk to another service, like a payment processor, an AI model or a database. Some keys are designed to be public. Others are secrets, and if one leaks, someone else can run up your bills or reach your data.

At Cloudflare Connect 2026 I met the team from Approov, a mobile app security company. They make a point every app founder should hear. In their write-up on API key theft, Approov explains that keys inside shipped apps can be pulled out through:

Approov is a vendor that sells protection against this, so read it as a specialist's explanation rather than neutral research. The core idea, though, is simple. A secret that only stays secret because it's "hidden" inside an app you gave to millions of people isn't really a secret.

Not every visible key is a breach. Plenty are meant to be public and are restricted on the server side. The point is to know which is which.

Where Durable Business Value Comes From Now

If features are getting cheaper to imitate, what actually protects a business? This part is my analysis rather than anything PhotoCraft proves. Still, I think the logic holds.

Trust that takes years to earn

Customers hand you their files, their payments and their reputation. A clone might copy your interface in a month. It can't copy three years of you showing up, fixing problems fast and never losing anyone's data.

Distribution and relationships

Knowing your customers personally, ranking in search, being the name an AI assistant recommends: none of that ships with the code. Ironically, the visibility of PhotoCraft itself came from press coverage, which is distribution.

Deep workflow integration

The more your product connects to the other tools a customer uses, the more painful switching becomes. A standalone feature is easy to replace. A product that sits in the middle of someone's daily process isn't.

Operational reliability

Remember "incredibly glitchy"? Uptime, speed, accessibility and a site that works on every device are boring. They're also exactly what an early clone tends to lack.

Data you have the right to use

Useful data that improves your service over time, gathered legally and with permission, compounds in a way copied code can't.

None of these advantages is permanent. They all need investment and they can all erode. But they're harder to rebuild from screenshots than a feature list is.

What a Founder Should Do Next: A 5-Step Review

You don't need to become an engineer to act on this. You need to ask better questions. Here's the framework I'd run through, ideally with your developer or coding agent.

  1. Map what users receive. List everything you ship to customer devices: your website's front end, any mobile apps, desktop software. Then list what runs separately on your servers. You can't protect what you haven't mapped.

  2. Review credential handling. Ask your developer directly: "Does any code we ship contain secret keys? How does our server check who's allowed to do what?" Secrets belong on the server, with permissions enforced there. Your developer should also be able to tell you how you'd swap a key out if one leaked.

  3. Assess which features are reproducible. Walk through your product as a competitor would. Which workflows could a capable team, armed with AI, plausibly imitate from the outside? Be honest. Usually it's most of them.

  4. Identify why customers actually stay. Is it the integrations? Your support? The reliability? Your audience? Write it down. That list is your real moat, and it deserves more of your budget than polishing a feature anyone can copy.

  5. Prioritise concrete improvements. Pick the issues affecting customers right now, give each a clear owner and decide what "done" looks like. Then actually finish them.

Steps 4 and 5 are where most founders without a technical co-founder get stuck. You can feel that the site is underperforming, but you can't see why.

Give UBI your URL to find what's holding your site back, and get guidance on what to fix next. I describe UBI as a daycare for your website: you drop it off, it gets looked after and helped to grow, and you get on with running the business. The free scan at ubi.studio checks SEO, AI search readiness, performance, accessibility and how well AI agents can use your site. It then walks you, or your coding agent, through each fix.

To be clear about the limits: UBI's scan doesn't run security tests, and it can't tell you whether your product can be copied. For credential reviews like step 2, work with a qualified developer.

Strategic FAQ

Can PhotoCraft replace Photoshop for professional work today?

Nothing in the available evidence supports that. PhotoCraft advertises strong file compatibility and editing tools, but it's early alpha and Vice reported significant glitches. Any business considering a switch should test its real workflows: rendering, file exchange with clients, performance on large files and recovery from crashes.

Is PhotoCraft free to download?

Yes. It's open source under the MIT or Apache-2.0 licence, available from the official PhotoCraft site and its GitHub repository.

Can AI recreate my app without seeing my source code?

Increasingly, yes, at least the visible parts. PhotoCraft's README says it was built from "public specs and observed behaviour only." What AI can't easily recreate is your customer relationships, reliability record and integrations.

Can a competitor read my app's code?

They can inspect anything delivered to a device, such as your website's browser code or your mobile app's binary. Compiled apps don't hand over the original source exactly, but values like embedded keys can be extracted. Code running privately on your server isn't exposed just because people use your service.

Should I panic about API keys in my app?

No, but you should check. Some keys are meant to be public. Ask a developer to confirm that no secret credentials are shipped in your app and that your server enforces permissions on its own.

Does this mean building software no longer matters?

The opposite, in my view. Building is getting easier, so building well is what separates you: verified, maintained, fast and accessible. Speed of development is no longer the impressive part.

Key Takeaways

Sources