shaongitbd/doory

Doory is worth a look if you want a Canva-style editor without a subscription or account, and you're comfortable that it is a very young project with a small template library. It is a working browser editor, not a mature product.

The problem

Someone who needs a poster, an event story, a pitch deck or a resume usually opens a hosted design tool, creates an account, and then discovers that the useful templates and export formats sit behind a paid tier. Doory changes that step: you open the editor, pick one of ten starter templates or a blank canvas, edit text, images and pages, and export to PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, MP4 or GIF. Guest work is saved in the browser, so you can start before deciding whether to sign up.

What's different

The editing model is conventional — a left tool rail, context-sensitive panels, Fabric.js on the canvas — so the differentiator is deployment and openness rather than a novel interface. The whole stack is self-hostable: React and TypeScript in the browser, Django and PostgreSQL on the server, Docker Compose with nginx, optional Redis, and local or S3-compatible uploads. Everything on the templates is editable, and admins can add more templates through the admin site.

Doory also runs a Model Context Protocol server at /mcp, off by default, so an MCP client such as Claude or Cursor can create and edit designs or fill template fields by key. That is a genuine capability rather than a marketing line, but it is an additional surface you have to enable and document for yourself. The main trade-off is maturity: the README itself calls the project young, ships only ten starter templates, and invites bug reports. A fresh self-hosted site also starts empty, so templates, fonts, icons and audio must be imported from the starter content before it resembles a usable design tool.

Who should try it

A good fit is a small team or individual who wants a self-hosted design editor and is willing to load starter content, manage the server, and accept a thin template catalogue. The no-account guest mode also suits someone who just wants to make one social graphic without signing up. A poor fit is a team that needs a large, curated template library or a mature product today; ten templates and a young codebase will not replace a full design service for them.

Requirements and limitations

Self-hosting needs Docker Compose, a DJANGO_SECRET_KEY, a PostgreSQL password, and a manually created admin account — nothing creates a superuser for you. After the first start, the site is empty until you import starter content, so the setup is not finished when the container is up. Designs made as a guest live in that browser on that device; signing in moves them to the server, and if you self-host, that server is yours. Uploads need either a local volume or S3-compatible storage, and the optional Redis service matters for the Channels-based collaboration path.

The license matters for anyone planning to host Doory for others: the Attribution Assurance License allows commercial use, but you must keep the license and NOTICE and display a prominent credit to the author inside the running app. Check that requirement against your product before you build on it.

HotRepo's take

HotRepo first recorded Doory on 2026-10-24, at 15 days old, on the NEW-REPOSITORY board (新项目榜, not the overall board), where the entry showed 1,818 total stars at #6. That is one dated snapshot, not a growth series, so persistence cannot yet be judged. The most concrete thing to verify before adopting is the self-hosting documentation and how complete the starter-content import is for your intended templates.