Key Notes
- A Reddit developer used OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, and in some cases Anthropic's Claude Fable, to build Photon Studio, a free graphics editor with layers, masks, adjustment layers and a liquify tool.
- The developer spent about $2,000 on tokens and worked through an iterative loop of testing, bug reports and AI-generated fixes.
- Photon Studio is available now for Windows, macOS and Linux, though its creator says it is not yet a full replacement for Photoshop's advanced features.
A Reddit user has built a free, full-featured graphics editor that closely mirrors Adobe Photoshop, using OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra model to write nearly the entire application. The project, called Photon Studio, supports layers, groups, masks, adjustment layers, smart objects, curves and a liquify tool, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
According to a writeup on VG Times, the developer began by running a deep research pass to catalog Photoshop’s feature set, then fed that material to GPT-6 Astra running in its Extra High reasoning mode. The model produced a development plan, which the developer edited, and then generated a working build on its first attempt. The early version was rough and unstable but functional.
An AI-Driven Development Loop
From there, the project moved through an iterative loop typical of what developers call vibe coding: the author used the editor, logged bugs and requested improvements, and sent that feedback back to GPT-6 Astra or, in some cases, to Anthropic’s Claude Fable, without specifying which version. The AI models implemented the fixes and new features, and the cycle repeated until the software reached a stable, usable state.
The developer has said tokens for the project cost roughly $2,000 in total. A post about the build on X reported that Photon Studio drew about 170 users on its first day, and the developer has committed to keeping the editor free indefinitely while continuing to add features.
How It Compares to Photoshop
Photon Studio can open PSD files and work offline, and its feature list covers much of what casual and mid-level users reach for in Photoshop: layer-based editing, non-destructive adjustment layers, object selection, background removal and a liquify tool for reshaping images. It is not positioned as a full replacement for Adobe’s software. VG Times noted that Photoshop remains considerably deeper when it comes to advanced editing, color management and third-party plugin integrations that professional studios rely on.
Still, the project is a notable example of how far AI-assisted development has come for building genuinely usable desktop software rather than simple scripts or prototypes. It follows a broader wave of AI coding tools that let users describe an application in plain language and iterate on it conversationally. OpenAI’s recent image-editing upgrades to ChatGPT have pushed in a similar direction for image generation, while Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5.1 release earlier this month emphasized lower costs for long, iterative coding sessions of exactly the kind Photon Studio’s developer described.
Part of a Wider GPT-6 Astra Moment
The project has circulated widely since it was shared to Reddit’s r/vibecoding community, coming shortly after Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang pointed to GPT-6 Astra as evidence that AI systems have crossed a meaningful capability threshold. Whether or not Photon Studio settles that debate, it offers a concrete data point on what a single developer, working largely through prompts rather than hand-written code, can now produce with a few thousand dollars in model usage.
Photon Studio is available as a free download for Windows, macOS and Linux, and its developer says new features are planned in future updates.
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