NexusInDesign

✨ Why NexusInDesign

🚀 Quick start

Windows (x64 or ARM64), InDesign 2024 to 2026 installed (it registers its COM server), Claude Code and/or Codex.

[!TIP] Let your AI install it. Paste this sentence into Claude Code or Codex:

text

Install and set up NexusInDesign for me by following https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pironjulien/NexusSystem/main/INSTALL-AI.md

Or the NexusSystem app (Microsoft Store): it runs this product's get.ps1 and adds the nexus-indesign plugin to Claude Code and Codex from the Nexus catalog. Restart Claude Code and Codex afterwards.

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\get.ps1

The engine starts InDesign when needed and closes it again if it started it hidden and nothing stays open.

⚙️ How it works

flowchart LR    A["Claude Code / Codex"] -->|"MCP over stdio"| E["NexusInDesign.exe<br/>(C#, self-contained)"]    E -->|"COM: DoScript, NEVER_INTERACT"| I["Adobe InDesign 2024–2026"]    E -.->|"backups, audit journal"| P[("~\.nexus\nexus-indesign\private")]

The nexus-indesign skill (in plugin/skills) guides the agent:

1. silent_status, silent_list_documents, then open_document or create_document: each returns documentId, revision and stateToken.
2. run_layout_script for every coherent change: in one tracked InDesign pass it checks revision and state token, backs up every open document (restorable with silent_restore_backup), runs the UXP script (app, indesign, doc, input), saves if asked, renders a verified PNG preview and optionally closes. It returns the new revision and token, so calls chain without re-inspection; a failing script is a known outcome with its backup.
3. preflight_document, then finalize_layout (PDF only if the layout contract and Adobe's preflight pass) or export_pdf, export_png, export_idml, package_document, save_document, save_as.
4. silent_close_document for the documents the task opened.

Other tools: analyze_layout and compare_layout_snapshot (geometry, resources, styles, lint and a stable layout fingerprint), preview_layout, create_working_copy, silent_audit_document and the get_* reads, execute_uxp_silent, indesign_doctor (local checks, never starts InDesign) and search_official_dom (offline index of Adobe's official DOM reference, pinned by SHA-256). 32 tools in all.

[!IMPORTANT] After a timeout or a crash, silent_operation_status tells what is known; every InDesign command stays refused until silent_reconcile_unknown_operation has proven the documents stable and backed them up (it asks for a full InDesign restart when the interrupted script could still resume).

[!WARNING] Code run through run_layout_script and execute_uxp_silent has Adobe's full scripting permissions (files and network included): it is not a sandbox.

🛠️ Settings

Defaults suit most users: documents are read from and written to the user profile; private storage, ~\.nexus, .ssh, .gnupg and AppData are denied.

{  "readRoots": ["C:\\Dev", "%USERPROFILE%\\Documents"],  "writeRoots": ["C:\\Dev", "%USERPROFILE%\\Documents"],  "deniedRoots": ["%USERPROFILE%\\Documents\\Secrets"]}

🔒 Privacy & security

Everything stays on the PC. The engine sends nothing over the network; backups, the audit journal (no document text, no path, no code) and the runtime stay in %USERPROFILE%\.nexus\nexus-indesign\private, readable by the current user only. See SECURITY.md for the trust boundary and the safeguards.

🧪 Build and test

.\test.ps1pwsh -File tools/package.ps1 -Version 4.1.4

test.ps1 runs the xUnit suite against an emulated InDesign (no InDesign needed). The launcher is compiled with Native AOT, which needs the Visual C++ build tools (x64 and Arm64 for tools/package.ps1). Every push to main builds and attests the release files through NexusSystem's shared workflows; a new version is promoted to a stable release with the same files. See CONTRIBUTING.md and CHANGELOG.md.

MIT license (see LICENSE, NOTICE.md and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md).