In early June I stumbled across Layouts.dev, a visual layout builder that offered a fast way to scaffold UIs with drag-and-drop ease. The concept was great—but I wanted something more open, developer-first, and extensible. Something that could be used like a real tool, not just a toy.
That moment kicked off a journey to create Spindle—a blazing-fast, open-source layout builder designed for engineers to prototype components and templates with minimal friction. This blog post walks through the inspiration, research, naming conventions, and technical planning that shaped Spindle into a real, usable tool.