Brandon Thomas launches open-source Office alternatives with Claude’s help

Brandon Thomas, the creator of ArtCraft, launched WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft as free, open-source alternatives to the Office suite. The apps were developed with help from Anthropic’s Claude and can be downloaded through GitHub for Windows, macOS, Linux and the browser. WordCraft edits documents and supports DOCX; GridCraft offers formulas, charts and XLSX support; and DeckCraft creates presentations but is still at an early development stage. The projects were developed in Rust and do not fully reproduce the features and formats of established suites.

According to Tom’s Hardware, Thomas wants to offer options for people who prefer not to depend on subscriptions. The programming community criticized the apps as “vibecoded,” a term used for projects produced with AI tools. On X, Thomas defended the technology as an aid and said he has 15 years of experience, arguing that AI models allow him to work “like an entire company.”