The open-source alternative to Jasper, AdCreative, Anyword, Pencil & Copy.ai · runs in your browser · MIT-licensed · built by Dicecodes
One tool. Every ad platform. Zero subscriptions. Your key · your data · your folder.
Use it now — two paths · Screenshots · How to use it — step-by-step · Who's it for · What's inside · vs Jasper / AdCreative / Anyword / Copy.ai · FAQ · Architecture · Star this repo ⭐
OpenAdKit is the open source AI marketing tool that replaces a $49–$499/month stack of paid AI marketing tools (Jasper · AdCreative · Anyword · Pencil · Copy.ai · Marpipe) with one app that runs entirely in your browser.
You bring your own AI key — free-tier (Groq · Gemini · Cerebras · OpenRouter) or paid (Claude · GPT · Mistral · DeepSeek) — and get every paid-tool feature for $0/month, forever.
18 AI generators · 11 data-driven optimizers · 9 AI providers · multi-client brand brains · vision (image) input on Claude/GPT/Gemini · platform-grouped sidebar · 10-minute launch wizard · multi-client batch mode · auto-update from GitHub.
Use it for: writing Google Ads RSA copy, generating Meta / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / LinkedIn / YouTube / X ads, building Reel hooks, scoring creatives before launch, fixing low-CTR ads, planning campaigns end-to-end, running an agency across many clients, or teaching yourself paid media via the built-in framework trainer (PAS · AIDA · BAB · 4 U's · Schwartz awareness ladder).
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Paste a client URL ─► OpenAdKit auto-extracts a Brand Brain │
│ │
│ ▼ │
│ │
│ AI suggests campaigns ─► Pick a generator (18 of them) │
│ │
│ ▼ │
│ │
│ Generate · score · preview · launch │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Real screenshots of the production app — no mockups. All UI runs in your browser; the only thing we can't show is your own AI provider's output (BYOK — bring your own API key).
Your first 10 minutes from install to your first AI-generated ad. Follow these five sections in order; total time is about 10 minutes.
Pick one of the two install paths:
- Path A — Hosted (recommended for non-developers). Click the Deploy with Vercel or Deploy to Cloudflare button in the Install in 60 seconds section above. Sign in to Vercel/Cloudflare with GitHub, confirm, get your own URL in 30 seconds. Open the URL in your browser. Done.
- Path B — Local install. Download the repo as a ZIP (green "Code" button → "Download ZIP") and extract it. On Windows double-click
OpenAdKit.bat; on Mac/Linux double-clickOpenAdKit.command. First run installs dependencies (one-time, ~2 minutes), drops a desktop shortcut, and opens the app in your default browser. From the second launch onwards it's a single double-click → browser opens to the app.
You'll know it worked when the OpenAdKit setup wizard loads in your browser (see screenshot #1 above).
This is the only paid thing in OpenAdKit, and it can be $0 if you pick a free tier.
- The setup wizard shows all 9 supported AI providers grouped by Free (Groq, Gemini, Cerebras, OpenRouter) and Paid (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, DeepSeek, Mistral, Together AI).
- Recommended for first-timers:
- Groq (free, fastest) — sign up at console.groq.com, copy your API key (starts with
gsk_…), paste in OpenAdKit. - Gemini (free, great quality) — get a key at aistudio.google.com, paste it.
- Claude (best quality, paid) — get a key at console.anthropic.com, starts with
sk-ant-….
- Groq (free, fastest) — sign up at console.groq.com, copy your API key (starts with
- Click Verify — OpenAdKit makes one tiny test call to confirm the key works.
- Pick a model from the dropdown (defaults are sensible). Click Continue.
💡 You can add multiple provider keys and switch between them anytime in Settings — useful when you hit a free-tier rate limit, just one-click swap to another provider.
This is OpenAdKit's killer feature. You paste one URL, the AI extracts a complete brand profile in 30 seconds.
- The setup wizard's last step asks for a website URL. Paste the URL of any brand you want to generate ads for — could be your own brand, a client's, or a competitor's you're studying.
- Click Extract. OpenAdKit:
- Reads the homepage (and 2–3 key subpages like /about, /pricing)
- Pulls Open Graph data, JSON-LD schema, and social links automatically
- Asks the AI to fill 30+ brand fields: business name, industry, niche, USP, tone, audience pain points, audience desires, key benefits, brand voice, words to use, words to avoid, competitors, and more
- Review the populated Brand Brain. Edit anything that looks off. Hit Save.
💡 Agencies: repeat Step 3 for each client. Switch the "active client" from the top-bar dropdown anytime; every generator and optimizer automatically uses the active client's Brand Brain to keep the voice consistent.
- From the dashboard (cockpit), pick a generator. For your first time, try Meta · Facebook + Instagram Ads — it's fast, visual, and gives three angle-distinct variants per click.
- Fill the form:
- Objective — what's the campaign goal (sales, leads, awareness)?
- Format — Feed / Reels / Stories / Carousel
- Product / offer — what are you advertising? (Pre-filled from your Brand Brain.)
- Promotion — any offer like "20% off" or "free trial"
- Click Generate. Watch the AI stream the output in real time.
- You get 3 variants anchored to different psychological angles (pain, desire, social proof), each with:
- Primary text (front-loaded for Meta's 125-char mobile preview)
- Headline (≤27 chars mobile / ≤40 desktop)
- Description
- CTA button suggestion
- Character count validation per field (the schema retry layer catches AI mistakes)
- For video formats: hook 0–3s, value 3–15s, CTA 5s with b-roll suggestions and on-screen text
💡 Hit ⌘+↵ (Mac) or Ctrl+↵ (Windows) anywhere in the generator to regenerate without touching the mouse.
You've generated copy. Now use the optimizers to make sure it's actually good.
- Copy one of your variants. Open Optimize → Creative Score from the sidebar.
- Paste the ad copy. Pick the platform you wrote it for. Click Score.
- You get a brutal 5-lever score (hook strength, specificity, urgency, brand fit, conversion potential), a tier verdict (scale / iterate / rewrite / kill), a predicted CTR band, and 3 named fixes — each fix names the exact phrase to change and the replacement.
- Apply the fixes. Re-score. Repeat until your tier reads "scale" or "iterate".
- Optionally run other optimizers before launch:
- CTR Optimizer — lever-by-lever rewrites to lift click-through
- Budget Waste — audit where ad spend is leaking before it does
- Audience Targeting — turn brand brain + budget into a cold/warm/hot tier plan
- Quality Score (Google) — surface relevance issues before they tank your QS
- Export the campaign as Markdown or JSON for client handoff via the History page.
💡 Use Launch Guide in the sidebar for step-by-step screenshots walking you through Facebook Ads Manager or Google Ads from campaign creation to publish — useful if you're new to paid media.
- Research → Steal & Beat — paste competitor ads from the Meta Ads Library / Google Transparency Center, get a teardown plus 3 beat-their-ad variants.
- Generate → Content Calendar — one click for a per-day social calendar with captions, hashtags, and visual briefs across multiple platforms.
- Generate → Campaign Kit — one brief becomes message-matched copy across Google + Meta + TikTok + LinkedIn + YouTube + X + email in a single generation.
- Learn → Frameworks Trainer — interactive lessons in PAS, AIDA, BAB, the 4 U's, and the Schwartz awareness ladder. Free, ad-free, no signup.
A full step-by-step usage guide also lives at /how-to-use on the hosted app — same content, hyperlinked navigation, easier to skim on mobile.
| You are… | OpenAdKit gives you… |
|---|---|
| 🧑💻 A solo founder or indie maker | Free AI ad copy across Google / Meta / TikTok / LinkedIn / YouTube / X without paying $49–125/mo for Jasper. |
| 🏢 A marketing agency | Multi-client brand brains, batch mode (generate the same asset for 5 clients in one parallel run), per-client cost rollup, and Markdown/PDF campaign export for client handoff. |
| 🛒 An e-commerce store owner | Performance Max + Shopping ad generators, Reel idea generator with 10 hook formulas, hashtag stacks per platform, content calendar with image/video prompts. |
| 🎓 A marketing student | Free practice ground with framework trainer (PAS / AIDA / BAB / FAB / 4 U's), 28 mini-course lessons, 25-concept library, industry benchmarks for CTR/CPC/CVR/ROAS. |
| 💸 A budget-conscious freelancer | Bring your own free AI key (Groq, Gemini Flash, Cerebras, OpenRouter free tier) — generate unlimited copy at literally $0 cost. |
| 🔒 A privacy-conscious team | Zero backend. No telemetry. No accounts. Your API key + every generation lives in your browser only. Data file portable to another machine in one zip. |
| 🤖 A power user | Cmd+K command palette, multi-AI-provider abstraction, vision (screenshot upload) on Claude/OpenAI/Gemini, auto-update from GitHub with safety rules, full keyboard navigation. |
Pick the one that fits you. Both are 100% free, BYOK, and store your work in your browser only — no accounts, no servers we operate, no telemetry.
Deploy your own private instance to Vercel or Cloudflare in one click. Free tier covers it easily.
What you get: your own URL (yourname.vercel.app), nothing to install, works on any device with a browser including mobile + tablet. The app auto-detects hosted mode and uses a built-in /api/ingest route (server-side fetch for the URL reader) instead of the local sidecar. Storage is browser-only IndexedDB — click Settings → Export periodically to back up to a JSON file.
You need Node.js 20+ (download here). That's the only prerequisite — the one-liner below installs everything else.
Windows (PowerShell):
iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IamRamgarhia/AdForge/main/scripts/install/install.ps1 | iexmacOS / Linux / WSL:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IamRamgarhia/AdForge/main/scripts/install/install.sh | bashThat single command: installs Node + git if missing (Windows uses winget), clones the repo into ~/OpenAdKit, runs npm install, asks for a port, then opens the launcher control panel in your browser. Click ▶ Start OpenAdKit and you're live.
- Download this repo (green "Code" button → "Download ZIP" → extract)
- Double-click
OpenAdKit.bat— that's it. First run installs Node dependencies, writes a default.env.local, drops anOpenAdKitshortcut on your Desktop, then opens the launcher. From the second run onwards it's a single click → browser opens to the launcher.
The launcher is a control panel: hit ▶ Start OpenAdKit, watch the progress bar, then click ↗ Open OpenAdKit when it's up. From the launcher you can stop, restart, change ports, see update notices, and open three different local URLs.
To shut everything down: close the launcher tab and run scripts\stop.bat (or just close the hidden sidecar via Task Manager).
git clone https://github.com/IamRamgarhia/AdForge.git openadkit && cd openadkit
bash OpenAdKit.command # first run installs + creates Desktop shortcut · subsequent runs just launch
# bash scripts/stop.sh # to force-stop laternpm install
npm run start:all # web app + local-sync sidecar togetherFirst launch walks you through a 5-step wizard: welcome → tour → pick AI provider → paste key → optional first brand. No accounts. No env vars. No database.
The default is 3005 for the web app and 3006 for the sidecar. Change either from the launcher's Settings card any time — no editor needed. Pick anything 1024–65535 (avoid 80 unless you want admin rights).
- Zero setup: open
http://openadkit.localhost:3005/instead ofhttp://localhost:3005/. Works in Chrome / Firefox / Safari / Edge today — all modern browsers auto-resolve*.localhostto 127.0.0.1. - Hosts-file option: for
http://openadkit.local/with no port shown, runscripts/set-domain.bat(Windows, as admin) orsudo bash scripts/set-domain.sh(Mac/Linux). Full guide: docs/CUSTOM_DOMAIN.md.
Path A — Hosted: everything is stored in your browser's IndexedDB. Settings → Export writes a JSON backup file you can re-import on another browser / device. Clearing site data wipes everything, so export periodically.
Path B — Local install: brand brains, generated ads, campaigns, checklists, performance logs all auto-save to data/snapshot.json in the project folder in addition to browser IndexedDB. Zip the folder → move to another machine → run start again → everything is there.
What hosted mode sends to your Vercel/Cloudflare server:
- The URL you typed into the brand-extraction box (so
/api/ingestcan server-side-fetch it past CORS). - That's it. Your AI key never touches the server — every LLM call goes directly from your browser to the LLM provider. No analytics, no telemetry, no accounts, no logging.
Pick where you're running ads first ("I'm doing Meta this week"), then see every tool that applies. Cross-platform tools appear under each relevant group so discovery happens by where you ship, not by the action verb.
| Platform group | Generators | Optimizers in this group |
|---|---|---|
| Meta · Facebook + Instagram | Meta Ads · Reel Ideas · Lead Form · Hashtags · Content Calendar · Image / Video Prompts | CTR Optimizer (Meta-tuned) · Creative Score · Audience Targeting · Ad Fatigue · A/B Test · Landing Page · Bid Strategy |
| Google · Search + PMax + Shopping | Google RSA · Performance Max · Shopping · Display Banners | Quality Score Improver · Keyword Builder · Bid Strategy · CTR Optimizer · Audience · Landing Page · A/B Test |
| TikTok | TikTok In-Feed · Reel Ideas · Spark Ads · Branded Hashtag Challenge · Hashtags · Content Calendar · Image / Video Prompts | CTR Optimizer · Creative Score · Audience · Ad Fatigue |
| LinkedIn · B2B | LinkedIn Sponsored · Lead Form | CTR Optimizer · Audience · Landing Page · A/B Test |
| YouTube | YouTube TrueView Scripts · Shorts Ideas · Hashtags · Image / Video Prompts | Creative Score |
| X · Twitter | Twitter Ads · Hashtags · Content Calendar | — |
| Email + Display | Email Subjects · Display Banners | — |
- ⚡ 10-Minute Launch Wizard (
/launch/wizard) — single click → strategy brief + cross-platform ad copy + content calendar + 3-email sequence + launch-day social posts. One Campaign, five chained AI calls, streaming live. - Multi-Client Batch Mode (
/batch) — pick N clients → generate the same asset (Content Calendar / Hashtags / Reel Ideas / Campaign Kit) for all in parallel. Each output uses that client's own brand brain so voice is preserved per-client. - Reel Idea Generator (
/generate/reel-ideas) — 10 proven hook formulas rotated across a batch (POV / Contradiction / Listicle / Number-Promise / Pattern-Interrupt / Before-After / Story / Demo / Controversy / Insider) with platform-native rules baked in for IG Reels / TikTok / Shorts / FB Reels. - Competitor Reel Teardown (
/research/reel-teardown) — paste a competitor's captions → AI maps hook formulas, content pillars, format mix, weakness map → writes 5 "beat-their-reel" scripts citing the specific reels they respond to. - Data-first optimizers — every optimizer (CTR · Quality Score · Audience · Landing Page · Keywords · Bid Strategy · Ad Fatigue) requires real Google Ads / Meta / TikTok numbers, computes derived metrics, and cites specific values in its recommendations. Optional dashboard-screenshot upload on vision-capable providers (Claude / OpenAI 4.1+ / Gemini).
Full Campaign Kit · Hashtags (any language) · Email Subjects · Lead Forms · AI Image/Video Prompts · Social Content Calendar · Steal & Beat competitor ad teardown · Compare 2 Ads · Budget Waste Analyzer · Budget Planner · A/B Test Planner
- Add a client by pasting a website URL — OpenAdKit auto-extracts the Brand Brain (tone, audience, USP, VOC, words to use/avoid) using Jina Reader + your chosen LLM
- 10 industry templates for instant brand creation (local restaurant, B2B SaaS, e-commerce fashion, agency, etc.)
- One-click switcher in the top bar
- History + checklists scope to active client automatically
- Steal & Beat — paste competitor ads from Meta Ads Library / Google Transparency Center / TikTok Top Ads / LinkedIn Ad Library. AI tears them down + writes 3 variants that beat the strongest one.
- Compare 2 ads — head-to-head AI teardown · picks the winner · proposes a hybrid
Pick a platform + experience level + budget — OpenAdKit walks you through every click, every field, every dropdown in Meta Ads Manager / Google Ads / TikTok Ads Manager / LinkedIn Campaign Manager. For non-technical users who've never launched an ad before.
- Daily / Weekly / Monthly checklists with streak counters and custom items
- 28 mini-course lessons across Google · Meta · TikTok tracks
- Interactive Ad Copy School — type → AI critiques → you rewrite (AIDA, PAS, BAB, FAB, 4 U's)
- 25-concept library + on-demand AI explainer
- Industry benchmarks for CTR/CPC/CVR/ROAS across 8 verticals
Log impressions / clicks / conversions / spend / revenue per ad → OpenAdKit computes CTR / CPA / ROAS → surfaces winning angles per brand in future Suggested Campaigns.
Every Google / Meta / TikTok generation includes a live realistic mockup — Feed cards, Reels overlays, Search SERP previews, For-You-page mockups. No more guessing the visual.
| Tier | Provider | Free? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Groq | ✅ | ~30 req/min Llama 3.3 70B · fastest tokens/sec |
| Free | Cerebras | ✅ | ~30 req/min · even faster than Groq |
| Freemium | Google Gemini | ✅ | Generous free tier on Flash · paid Pro |
| Freemium | OpenRouter | ✅ | Free community models tagged :free |
| Freemium | Together AI | partial | Some free models · mostly cheap paid |
| Paid | Anthropic Claude | ❌ | Strongest for long-context reasoning |
| Paid | OpenAI GPT | ❌ | Best at structured JSON |
| Paid | DeepSeek | ❌ | Cheapest serious model |
| Paid | Mistral | ❌ | Multilingual + JSON |
Pick during onboarding · switch any time in Settings · one app, every API.
Looking for one specifically? Jump to: OpenAdKit vs Jasper · OpenAdKit vs AdCreative · OpenAdKit vs Anyword · OpenAdKit vs Copy.ai · OpenAdKit vs Pencil
Or read the full side-by-side at openadkit.dicecodes.com/alternatives.
| Feature | Jasper $49+ | AdCreative $39+ | Anyword $49+ | Pencil $119+ | OpenAdKit · free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual ad mockups | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Multi-platform copy | ✅ | partial | ✅ | Meta-only | ✅ (18 generators) |
| Brand voice memory | ✅ | ❌ | partial | partial | ✅ (per-client) |
| Predictive creative scoring | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Competitor teardown | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ (4 libraries) |
| Compare A/B before launch | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Industry templates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ (10) |
| Performance feedback loop | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Campaign grouping | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Step-by-step UI launch guides | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Decision tree planner | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Hashtags in any language | partial | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Content calendar with AI tool links | ❌ | partial | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Mini-courses + framework trainer | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (28 lessons) |
| Cmd+K palette · power-user nav | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| 9 AI providers · BYOK · free+paid | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ✅ |
| Browser-only · MIT · self-host | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Folder-portable data | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Monthly cost | $49–125 | $39–299 | $49–999 | $119–999 | $0 |
Jasper ($39–59/seat/mo) is the polished long-form + ad-copy generator with brand-voice training. It's strong on consistency across blog/email/social, but lacks platform-specific format enforcement — generic copy ignores Meta's 27-char mobile-headline cap, Google PMax asset groups, and TikTok Spark Ad mechanics. Per-seat pricing scales painfully for agencies. OpenAdKit covers the same ad-copy surfaces plus 11 dedicated optimizers (creative score, CTR, ad fatigue, quality score) that Jasper doesn't have, and BYOK across 9 providers means you match Jasper's Claude/GPT-4 quality at $0 marginal cost.
AdCreative ($39–249+/mo) is best for AI-generated visual ad creatives (banners, video) with a 'conversion probability' score — capabilities OpenAdKit does NOT have in-app. Their scoring is opaque (no audit of how it's computed) and they lock you into their LLM choices. OpenAdKit beats AdCreative on copy generation breadth (18 generators vs ~6 in their copy module) and optimizer count. For visuals, OpenAdKit returns ready-to-paste prompts for Midjourney / DALL-E / Runway / Pika plus a directory of free + paid tools — you keep choice and avoid lock-in.
Anyword ($49–499/seat/mo) is known for per-variant predictive scoring correlated with historical performance + brand-voice training. Steep tier gap — enterprise features paywalled at $499/mo. No platform-specific format generators (no PMax, no Spark Ads, no Branded Hashtag Challenge). OpenAdKit's Creative Score optimizer covers similar scoring ground (5-lever score + named fixes + predicted CTR band) without per-seat fees. Anyword's brand-voice training maps to OpenAdKit's Brand Brain (auto-extracted from any URL — no manual setup).
Copy.ai (Free 2k words/mo, Pro $49/mo, Team $249/mo) offers multi-step GTM workflows and sales-prospecting agents. The free tier burns through in a single content-calendar generation. Workflows paywalled at $249/mo. OpenAdKit has no word/credit caps because you pay your LLM provider directly (free tiers on Groq, Gemini, Cerebras, OpenRouter). The Launch Wizard handles the same multi-step orchestration Copy.ai charges $249/mo for, and the 18 generators each include platform-specific format enforcement Copy.ai's generic templates don't.
Pencil (~$119+/mo, enterprise) does AI ad creative generation with performance prediction and feedback loops from real ad-platform data. They pivoted to enterprise — out of reach for solo / SMB marketers. OpenAdKit is the right tool for that abandoned segment: same copy + optimizer breadth, $0 instead of $119+/mo, MIT-licensed so your work and brand data stay yours forever.
Text version (for screen readers)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ YOUR BROWSER │
│ │
│ Next.js App ──► Jina Reader (URL ingest) │
│ (port 3005) ──► Your chosen LLM provider directly │
│ (api.anthropic.com / openai.com / generative…) │
│ │
│ IndexedDB ◄──── auto-sync ────► Local-sync sidecar │
│ localStorage (port 3006, Node, zero-dep) │
│ │ │
│ ▼ │
│ data/snapshot.json │
│ (portable!) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Outbound calls from the running app:
- The LLM provider you configured · for every generation
- Jina Reader (
r.jina.ai) · only when ingesting a brand URL - AllOrigins (
api.allorigins.win) · only as a fallback if Jina is rate-limited - The competitor ad libraries (
facebook.com/ads/library,adstransparency.google.com,ads.tiktok.com,linkedin.com/ad-library) · only when YOU click "Open" — they open in YOUR new tab, never proxied through us.
No backend OpenAdKit owns. No telemetry. No analytics. No accounts.
- No backend. Your data never leaves your browser.
- No telemetry. Zero tracking, zero analytics calls.
- BYOK. API keys live in your browser's
localStorageonly. - Direct calls. Each LLM provider receives the request directly from your browser — no proxy.
- Folder-portable. All non-key data syncs to
data/snapshot.json. Keys are excluded by default (toggle in Settings → Preferences). - Soft-delete + undo. Accidental deletes get a 7-second undo toast.
- Wipe & export. Settings includes full export (JSON/CSV/Markdown) and "wipe all local data."
⚠️ Because keys are inlocalStorage, treat OpenAdKit like your password manager: only install on devices you trust, don't paste keys on shared machines.
See SECURITY.md for the threat model + responsible-disclosure flow.
openadkit/
├── app/ Next.js App Router (56 routes)
│ ├── generate/* 18 ad generators (Reel Ideas, Spark Ads, BHC, etc.)
│ ├── optimize/* 11 data-first optimization tools
│ ├── research/* Steal & Beat · Compare ads · Reel Teardown
│ ├── launch/wizard/ 10-minute Launch Wizard
│ ├── batch/ Multi-client batch generation
│ ├── platforms/[platform]/ Per-platform hubs
│ ├── checklist/* Daily / Weekly / Monthly routines
│ ├── learn/* Concepts · mini-courses · framework trainer
│ ├── suggestions/ AI-suggested campaigns per brand
│ ├── launch-guide/ Step-by-step UI walkthrough
│ ├── campaigns/ Group ads · status lifecycle
│ ├── brand/ Multi-client Brand Brains
│ ├── benchmarks/ Industry CTR/CPC/CVR/ROAS
│ ├── strategy/ What to run · decision tree
│ ├── about/ Built by Dicecodes
│ └── settings/ Provider keys · prefs · wipe
│
├── components/
│ ├── AdMockup.tsx Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube live previews
│ ├── CommandPalette.tsx Cmd+K fuzzy nav
│ ├── UndoToast.tsx Global 7-second undo
│ ├── PerformanceDialog.tsx Log impressions/CTR/CPA/ROAS
│ └── … Shared UI primitives
│
├── lib/
│ ├── providers/ 9-provider abstraction
│ ├── prompts/ 30+ AI prompt templates
│ ├── storage.ts Dexie/IndexedDB schema v3
│ ├── settings.ts localStorage layer + migration
│ ├── local-sync.ts Folder-sync client
│ ├── url-ingest.ts Jina + AllOrigins fallback
│ ├── benchmarks.ts Industry data
│ ├── platform-hubs.ts Per-platform reference
│ ├── industry-templates.ts 10 quick-start templates
│ └── courses.ts 28 mini-course lessons
│
├── scripts/
│ ├── local-sync.cjs ~150-line Node sidecar (folder persistence)
│ ├── run-all.cjs Cross-platform launcher
│ └── refresh_knowledge.py Optional maintainer tool
│
├── data/ Your snapshot lives here (gitignored)
├── OpenAdKit.bat / OpenAdKit.command Click-to-launch (Desktop shortcut points here)
├── scripts/install/install.ps1 One-line online bootstrap (Windows · PowerShell · iwr | iex)
├── scripts/install/install.sh One-line online bootstrap (Mac / Linux / WSL · curl | bash)
├── scripts/start.bat / start.sh Manual sidecar runner (advanced)
├── scripts/stop.bat / stop.sh Force shutdown
└── package.json
- Next.js 14 (App Router, fully static-prerendered)
- TypeScript strict
- Tailwind CSS + hand-rolled "Trading-Terminal × Editorial" design system
- Dexie for IndexedDB · localStorage for settings
- Manrope + JetBrains Mono + Instrument Serif (self-hosted via
next/font) - No state-management framework —
useState+ storage helpers - No backend — everything runs in your browser
- No analytics — full stop
- Zero npm dependencies in the local-sync sidecar (Node stdlib only)
Production build: 56 statically prerendered routes · 87 KB shared JS · 130-160 KB first-load JS per route.
| Action | Windows | Mac / Linux | Cross-platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Install + Launch | double-click OpenAdKit.bat — first run installs, every run after just launches |
bash OpenAdKit.command (same: first run sets up, after that it just launches) |
npm install && npm run start:all |
| Force-stop everything | scripts\stop.bat |
bash scripts/stop.sh |
Ctrl+C in the sidecar window |
| Manual sidecar (visible log) | scripts\start.bat |
bash scripts/start.sh |
npm run start:all |
| Web only | npm run dev |
npm run dev |
npm run dev |
| Sync sidecar only | npm run sync |
npm run sync |
npm run sync |
| Typecheck | npm run typecheck |
— | — |
| Production build | npm run build |
— | — |
Ports: web app 3005 · sync sidecar 3006 (both localhost-only).
Most problems come down to one of four things: a port already in use, Node missing or too old, Windows Defender blocking a script, or .env.local pointing at the wrong port. The launcher's ⚠ Report a problem on GitHub button auto-fills an issue with your exact Node/OS/port state — use it if any of these don't help.
Symptom: Double-clicking OpenAdKit does nothing, or the cmd window flashes and disappears.
- Open a terminal in the install folder and run
node --version. If it reports anything below v20.0.0 or "command not found," install Node 20+ from https://nodejs.org/en/download. - Run
scripts\start.bat(Windows) orbash scripts/start.sh(Mac/Linux) directly — the window stays open and prints the real error. - If you see
Input Error: There is no script engine for file extension ".vbs", your Windows Script Host is disabled. The currentOpenAdKit.batuses PowerShell instead — make sure you have the latest version from this repo.
Symptom: Sidecar starts but /status returns web: starting forever, or the launcher says "EADDRINUSE 3005."
- The web app defaults to port 3005, sidecar to 3006. Open the launcher → Settings → change to anything 1024–65535. Save, then Stop + Start.
- On Windows, find who owns the port:
netstat -ano | findstr :3005thentaskkill /PID <pid> /F. - On Mac/Linux:
lsof -iTCP:3005 -sTCP:LISTEN.
Symptom: Launcher's "Open OpenAdKit" button points at the wrong port.
- Open
.env.localin the install folder. It should have two lines:PORT=3005andADFORGE_SYNC_PORT=3006(use whatever values you picked at install). - If both ports match what the launcher shows, you're fine. If they don't, save the correct values in
.env.localand force-stop everything (scripts\stop.batorbash scripts/stop.sh), then relaunch.
Symptom: "Windows protected your PC" dialog when running OpenAdKit.bat.
- Click More info → Run anyway. The warning appears for any unsigned script downloaded from the internet — OpenAdKit is open source and reviewable.
- For zero warnings: clone the repo with
git cloneinstead of downloading the ZIP. Files created locally don't carry the "mark of the web."
The launcher checks GitHub once per page load for new commits on main and surfaces an ⬆ Update available banner when there's something newer than your local HEAD. Click Update now to apply.
What it does (each step's failure stops the pipeline and surfaces the error — your tree is never force-reset):
- Stop the web app
git fetch origin maingit pull --ff-only origin main(no merges, no rebases — refuses on non-fast-forward to protect local work)npm install --no-audit --no-fund(in case package-lock.json changed)- Recursively delete
.next/build cache - Restart the web app on the new code
Rules the updater follows:
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Branch lock | Only runs when local branch is main. If you're on a feature branch, the banner stays hidden — you're developing, we don't second-guess. |
| Dirty-tree lock | Pre-flight git status --porcelain. Any uncommitted change → refuse with a clear "Commit or stash first" message. |
| No auto-apply | The check is automatic, the apply is always manual via the button + confirm dialog. |
| No destructive ops | No git reset --hard, no --force, no --no-verify. If something's wrong, your state is preserved. |
| Single in-flight | Only one update job at a time. The button locks until the current one finishes. |
| Observable | Live log streams during apply. After success: "Reload launcher" button (manual — never auto-reloads). |
| Source of truth | GitHub REST API at /repos/IamRamgarhia/AdForge/commits/main. No auth needed (public repo). |
| Data safe | Your data/snapshot.json is never touched by the update. Brand brains, generated ads, campaigns, and history all survive. |
If the banner says "Working tree has uncommitted changes": you've modified files locally. Either git add . && git commit -m "my changes" or git stash, then click Update now again.
If the banner says "Couldn't reach GitHub": check your internet connection. The check happens once per launcher page load, so reload to retry.
Symptom: Sidebar items show as a vertical list of plain text links, no orange branding, no dark background.
This is a stale .next/ build-cache problem — usually caused by running npm run build while next dev is also running, which clobbers chunk files the dev server still references.
Fastest fix:
- Open the launcher (http://127.0.0.1:3006/)
- Scroll to the 🧹 Clean rebuild button in the trouble row
- Click it → confirms → wipes
.next/, restarts the web app on a clean cache
Manual fix (no launcher available): delete the .next/ folder in the install directory and re-run OpenAdKit.bat (or bash OpenAdKit.command on Mac/Linux).
Symptom: Launcher shows "Starting OpenAdKit…" with progress bar that never completes.
- First boot compiles 56 routes; this can take 15-30 seconds on slow disks. Wait a full minute.
- If it's still stuck, click ⚠ Report a problem in the launcher — the GitHub issue will include
web_last_logwhich usually shows the exact compile error. - Workaround: stop the launcher, delete
.next/in the install folder, restart.
Symptom: Clicking "Open OpenAdKit" shows ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.
- The web app isn't running. Go back to the launcher and check the status dot — orange means starting, gray means stopped. Click Start.
- If the dot is green but the page still fails, your browser may have cached an old port. Try
http://127.0.0.1:<port>/directly with the port shown in the launcher.
- Launcher (sidecar) logs: the launcher page shows the last 3 lines of the Next.js output in the gray log box. For full logs, run
scripts\start.bat/bash scripts/start.shin a visible window instead ofOpenAdKit.bat. - Web app errors in the browser: open DevTools (F12) → Console.
- Data file:
data/snapshot.jsonin the install folder is everything OpenAdKit has saved.
Click ⚠ Report a problem on GitHub in the launcher — it pre-fills github.com/IamRamgarhia/AdForge/issues/new with your platform, Node version, port config, and recent log lines. Add what you were trying to do and submit.
Yes. Forever, no asterisk. Released under the MIT license. We make money from custom builds at Dicecodes — not from this tool. You only pay your chosen AI provider, and several of them (Groq, Gemini Flash, Cerebras, OpenRouter :free models) cost $0/month for typical OpenAdKit usage.
For ad-copy generation across Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X — yes. OpenAdKit has 18 generators covering every major ad format, plus 11 data-driven optimizers, multi-client brand brains, competitor teardowns, content calendars, and a 10-minute launch wizard. The one thing it doesn't do is image generation — for that, OpenAdKit writes prompts for Midjourney / Runway / DALL-E / Pika instead of running its own image model.
Nowhere except your own browser. All your brand brains, generated ads, campaigns, and history live in your browser's IndexedDB. The folder-sync sidecar mirrors everything to data/snapshot.json in the project directory on your own machine. No analytics, no telemetry, no accounts, no cloud sync.
Stored in your browser's localStorage, same as 1Password's browser extension stores your session. Every LLM call goes directly from your browser to the provider (api.anthropic.com, api.openai.com, etc.) — never proxied through any OpenAdKit server (we don't run one). Treat your install like a password manager: only set it up on devices you trust.
Groq for speed, Gemini 2.5 Flash for free-tier generosity, or OpenRouter for free community models (meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free, deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3:free). All four are first-class. Add multiple keys in Settings and switch between them per project.
Out of the box it's designed for one person on one machine. You can expose it on a LAN by changing the bind from 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0 in scripts/local-sync.cjs, but it has no auth layer — anyone on the network would have full access including your API keys. For team use, fork it and add your own auth, or wait for a multi-user fork (or hire us to build one).
Zip the entire folder → copy to the new machine → run OpenAdKit.bat / OpenAdKit.command. Every brand brain, ad, campaign, checklist, and performance log comes with you in data/snapshot.json. API keys are excluded by default (re-paste them on the new machine for safety).
The Service Worker caches the app shell + all 56 routes, so the UI loads offline. AI generation needs internet (every LLM provider is online-only). URL ingest (Jina Reader) and Google search (Jina Search) also need internet. Everything else — viewing history, editing brands, browsing campaigns — works fully offline.
Yes, on vision-capable providers (Claude, OpenAI GPT-4.1+, Gemini). Drop a screenshot into CTR Optimizer / Quality Score / Audience / Landing Page / Keywords / Bid Strategy / Ad Fatigue and the AI extracts metrics + recommendations directly from the image. If your active provider is text-only (Groq, DeepSeek, Mistral, Cerebras, Together), OpenAdKit auto-falls-back to a vision-capable provider you've configured a key for, just for that one generation.
ChatGPT/Claude are general models — they'll write ad copy if you prompt them, but you do all the framework selection, character-limit validation, platform-specific rules, and JSON structuring yourself. OpenAdKit wraps the model with 30+ task-specific prompts that bake in Schwartz's awareness ladder, Google RSA character limits, Meta primary-text rules, TikTok hook formulas, 4 U's headline scoring, and 20 years of direct-response copywriting patterns. You paste a URL + a goal; OpenAdKit writes you a launch-ready campaign.
Production build is 56 static routes · 87 KB shared JS · 130-160 KB first-load JS per route. Strict TypeScript across the entire codebase. Vitest unit tests for the highest-risk pure functions (smart-fill, brand-brain normalization, framework stack, next-steps routing, LLM helpers — 43 tests total). CI runs typecheck + tests + production build + lint on Node 18 / 20 / 22 for every PR.
See CONTRIBUTING.md. Most generators are a single prompt file + a single page that imports GeneratorShell. A typical new-generator PR is 30-60 lines of code and 30-60 minutes of work.
MIT. Use it commercially. Fork it. White-label it. The only thing we ask: don't claim you wrote it.
See CONTRIBUTING.md. Most contributions are a single prompt + a single page using the shared GeneratorShell framework — aim for 10-minute PRs.
Pattern grounding: OpenAdKit prompts borrow patterns (with attribution) from open-source skill repos. See NOTICE.md for the full source list.
OpenAdKit is built by Dicecodes — a digital studio combining creative design with advanced technology for measurable business growth.
We make money from custom builds, not from this tool. OpenAdKit will always be free.
Need a private fork, a white-labeled agency edition, or something we haven't built? Get in touch → · 📧 Contact@dicecodes.com · 💬 WhatsApp +91 98884 04991
MIT. See LICENSE.
Built by Dicecodes · Open source forever · No backend · No telemetry · Your key, your data, your folder.