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You know the outcome you want. You don’t always know where to start: the component you need isn’t in any plugin, and scripting it means debugging it. Alien closes that gap. Say what a component should do in a sentence. Alien writes the script, runs it on your canvas, and if the code throws an error, reads it and fixes it itself. The component arrives already running, with sliders, switches and dropdowns where you need them.

Get started

Install, link a key and describe your first component in about five minutes.

Install

The macOS and Windows installers, what they do, and how to install by hand.

Describe a component

How to ask, how to change it, and how to build on what’s already on your canvas.

Ready-made components

Site maps, a building suite, views and layouts, entourage, and generators that make objects from a sentence.

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What you get

Type what you want in plain English: “divide a curve into 20 points”, “a voronoi panel facade on this surface”. A model writes the Python or C# script, Alien runs it, and any error goes back to the model to fix, up to four attempts. Not quite right? Say what to change, and Alien edits that component, nothing else in your definition.
Every input arrives with the right control on the component: a slider for a number, a switch for a yes or no, a dropdown for a choice, a text field for words. In the next beta, geometry inputs also get Select in Rhino, so you can pick objects straight from the viewport. Drag, flip, pick, and see the model change.
A suite of architectural components comes with Alien: a site map from a Victorian address, a BIM-style building suite (levels, grids, walls, doors, windows, curtain walls, structure), views and layout sheets, scale figures and trees, and generators for 3D objects, materials and more.
Every component is a plain file in a folder you choose. Read it, edit it, share it, keep it. Your requests go only to AI providers that don’t store or train on them, or you can run a local model and nothing leaves your machine.
Each request shows its attempts and what it cost. Every earlier version of a component is kept, so you can always go back.
Alien runs a local MCP server, so agents such as Claude Code or Cursor can place and wire components, edit scripts and look at the viewport while you watch.

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Before you start

Alien is a plugin for Grasshopper in Rhino 8, on macOS and Windows.
Alien is in beta. The current download is 0.02-alpha, built and tested on Rhino 8 for macOS. The Windows build comes from the same code but hasn’t been run on a Windows PC yet. Pages marked next beta describe what’s already built and arriving in the next download.
These docs say component, Grasshopper’s own word. In this beta, a few labels in Alien’s panel still say node (Place node, + New blank node). They mean the same thing, and we quote them as they appear.