Developer Uses Claude AI to Build Free Rust Clones of Microsoft Office
According to a report published yesterday by Neowin, independent developer Brandon Thomas is now challenging the Microsoft Office productivity suite. Previously, Thomas launched ArtCraft as an open-source competitor to Adobe Creative Suite. Now, by leveraging the Claude AI model, he has built three new productivity applications from scratch.
Cross-Platform Productivity Powered by Rust and WebAssembly
Specifically, Thomas released WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft yesterday. These programs serve as free, open-source replacements for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, respectively. Furthermore, all three applications are written entirely in the Rust programming language with coding assistance from Claude AI.
Regarding platform compatibility, the three tools run natively across Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. Additionally, the suite supports BSD distributions and offers web-based browser versions compiled via WebAssembly.
Core Features of WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft
As a word processor, WordCraft features a familiar Ribbon interface, custom document styles, tables, track changes, comments, spell and grammar checking, and mail merge capabilities. Moreover, the software opens and saves native DOCX files seamlessly. It also maintains full compatibility with ODT, RTF, HTML, Markdown, and plain text formats while supporting direct PDF exports.
Meanwhile, the GridCraft spreadsheet application integrates a robust formula engine housing over 500 built-in functions. It supports dynamic arrays, conditional formatting, charts, data tables, and PivotTables. Although GridCraft uses XLSX as its primary file format and handles CSV and TSV files effortlessly, it can also import legacy XLS workbooks. However, importing older XLS files does not yet preserve certain complex formatting elements or embedded objects.
For presentations, DeckCraft provides customizable themes, slide layouts, geometric shapes, image insertions, tables, and data charts. Users can also apply slide transitions, animations, a dedicated presenter view, and full-screen slideshow playback. The application natively reads and writes PPTX files while allowing creators to export slide decks as PDF documents or static image files.
Early-Stage Availability on GitHub
Notably, all three applications remain in active development as early-stage software projects. Nevertheless, Thomas has published the complete source code across separate GitHub repositories for WordCraft, GridCraft, and DeckCraft, allowing interested users and developers to download and test the tools immediately.
