Getting started

Access.

Aestheria supports teams at different stages of design system maturity, from teams that want AI agents to start building on-system immediately to organizations that want to own and customize the full design context layer.

Choosing the right option

There are four ways to work with Aestheria, from immediate MCP access to a bespoke engagement, depending on how much of the design context layer you want to own and customize.

See plans and pricing

MCP access

MCP access is the fastest way to connect AI coding agents to Aestheria’s design context.

With this option, agents can query Aestheria’s themes, components, patterns, and usage rules through MCP. This helps tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, and other agentic development environments generate interfaces that follow the system instead of guessing from incomplete context.

MCP access is licensed by tier: a single theme, or all themes. The same license opens these docs as your design system reference, with the full charts, patterns, and templates libraries unlocked for your team to browse.

This option is best for teams that want to start building with Aestheria quickly, without hosting the full Studio or customizing the system from day one.

Use MCP access if you want to:

• Give AI agents structured design context immediately
• Use Aestheria’s base themes and patterns as provided
• Reduce off-system UI generation from AI tools
• Test how Aestheria fits into your AI development workflow
• Start lightweight before moving into a deeper implementation

What this includes:

• MCP access to a single theme or all themes, by license tier
• Machine-readable guidance for tokens, components, patterns, and rules
• Full access to these docs as your design system reference, including the complete charts, patterns, and templates libraries
• Agent-readable structure for building more consistent product UI
• Support for AI code generation workflows

MCP access is ideal when your main goal is to help agents build better interfaces now.

Self-hosted source of truth

The self-hosted option is for teams that want to own the design context layer directly.

With self-hosting, Aestheria becomes your internal source of truth. Your team can host the Studio inside your own environment, customize the system to match your product language, and maintain a living design layer that both people and agents can use.

Designers, engineers, and product teams can browse the system. AI agents can query it through MCP. Everyone works from the same source instead of relying on scattered files, stale documentation, or one-off prompts.

Use self-hosted if you want to:

• Own and control the design context layer
• Customize the system for your product, brand, and workflows
• Maintain Aestheria as an internal source of truth
• Serve design context to AI agents from your own environment
• Support design, engineering, and product teams from one shared system
• Build a long-term foundation for AI-native product development

What this includes:

• A self-hosted Studio
• A browsable design system for your team
• Machine-readable design context for AI agents
• MCP-based access for agent workflows
• Customizable tokens, components, themes, patterns, and rules
• A system that can evolve with your product over time

Self-hosted is the best option for teams that want Aestheria to become part of their product infrastructure.

Cloud workspace

The cloud-hosted version is planned next.

Cloud will provide a managed Aestheria workspace for teams that want the benefits of a shared source of truth without maintaining their own hosted environment. It is intended for teams that want a collaborative system for design, engineering, product, and AI agents, with less operational overhead.

Cloud will be best for teams that want to:

• Use Aestheria without managing hosting
• Collaborate across design, engineering, and product
• Keep the design context layer always accessible
• Give agents access to the latest system through a managed environment
• Scale Aestheria across a broader team over time

Planned direction:

• Hosted Studio
• Shared team workspace
• Managed access and updates
• Agent-readable design context
• Collaboration across design, engineering, and product workflows
• Continued MCP support for AI agent access

Cloud is not required to use Aestheria today. Teams can start with MCP access or self-hosting, then move to cloud when the hosted version becomes available.

Bespoke

Aestheria can be used out of the box, but many teams need more than a base system.

For teams with existing products, complex workflows, or mature design systems, Aestheria can be customized to fit the way your organization already works. This may include adapting the visual language, extending components, mapping product-specific patterns, creating custom templates, or shaping the system around your AI development workflow.

A bespoke engagement helps teams turn Aestheria from a general design context layer into a product-specific source of truth.

Consulting can help with:

• Custom theme creation
• Token and component adaptation
• Existing design system migration
• Product-specific pattern definition
• AI-native workflow design
• Agent console and AI interaction pattern design
• Enterprise SaaS template customization
• MCP setup and agent workflow integration
• Design system governance
• Design, engineering, and product adoption

This is best for teams that want Aestheria to reflect their own product language, not just use the default system.

Recommended paths

For early exploration

Start with MCP access. This gives your AI agents immediate access to Aestheria’s base design context with the lowest setup effort.

For product teams building seriously with AI codegen

Start with self-hosted. This gives your team control over the system and allows Aestheria to become the shared source of truth for both humans and agents.

For larger organizations

Use self-hosted with a bespoke engagement. This is the strongest path if you want Aestheria adapted to your product, integrated into your workflow, and adopted across design, engineering, and product teams.

For teams that prefer managed infrastructure

Wait for or migrate to cloud when available. Cloud will provide a hosted workspace for teams that want Aestheria managed for them.

Summary

Aestheria can start small or become core product infrastructure.

• Use MCP access when you want agents to build with better design context immediately.
• Use self-hosted when you want to own and customize the system as your internal source of truth.
• Use cloud when you want a managed team workspace.
• Use Bespoke when you want Aestheria shaped around your product, organization, and AI-native workflows.

No matter which path you choose, the goal is the same: one design context layer that people can browse, teams can maintain, and AI agents can query every time they build.