Google Stitch 2.0 Ships 'Vibe Design' — DESIGN.md Creates the First Structured Design-to-Code Handoff

Google Labs launched a Stitch 2.0 update on March 18 that does something nobody else has done: it creates a structured, portable, agent-readable handoff format between design tools and coding agents. The feature is called DESIGN.md — a markdown file that encodes design system rules, component specifications, and layout constraints in a format that Claude Code, Cursor, and Gemini CLI can consume directly via an MCP server. Google AI Blog The Register

The broader update ships five features: an AI-native infinite canvas, a smarter design agent, voice-driven real-time edits via Gemini Live, instant interactive prototypes, and the DESIGN.md export/import system. Google coined "vibe design" as the design equivalent of vibe coding — describe what you want, the AI generates it, iterate with voice.

Why this matters more than it sounds: the design-to-code handoff has been the hardest gap in the vibe coding pipeline. You can vibe-code a backend in minutes, but translating a design into code still requires either a human developer interpreting Figma, or AI guessing from screenshots. DESIGN.md makes design intent machine-parseable. The MCP server means any MCP-capable coding agent can pull design rules directly into its context window — no copy-paste, no interpretation loss.

It's free at stitch.withgoogle.com. Every design exports clean HTML and CSS; React and SwiftUI aren't supported yet but the SDK is open. This directly competes with Figma's Code to Canvas, and Figma should be worried — Google is giving away what Figma plans to monetize.