Troubleshooting

The licence is not found#

The editor is blurred under “UI Designer is read-only”, or ud refuses edits with exit code 4.

• Click the licence item of the status bar for the Subscription menu: its placeholder says what UI Designer sees (“Free — read only; …”, “Pro (offline) — the platform could not be reached; …”).
• Refresh from the platform (signed in), Re-check the key with the platform (with a key) or Check Licence Now asks the server at once, for example after a renewal or a freed seat.
• All seats taken? Free one under Manage plan, bills and devices, or Sign Out on a machine you no longer use.
• ud in a terminal reads the licence ticket next to the shim. Open a new integrated terminal after signing in, and check what it sees:

ud license status
ud license status --json
ud where app.design

A UD_LICENSE_TICKET variable set in your shell takes precedence over the ticket the extension writes; unset it if it points to an old file. Without VS Code (CI, a build machine), ud license activate <key> writes the ticket itself, to the file UD_LICENSE_TICKET names or the default one.

Fonts are missing#

The status strip says “1 font missing”, and texts are drawn with a fallback until the face is available.

• Put the font files (.ttf, .otf) into a workspace font folder, by default fonts/ or assets/fonts/ (ud.fonts.folders), and commit them, or install them in the system.
• ud validate --fonts app.design lists the missing faces; ud fonts app.design --os lists the fonts ud can draw, the system’s included.
• In vscode.dev and github.dev there are no system fonts: use the workspace folders or ud.fonts.web (UI Designer on the web).

ud is not on the PATH#

ud: command not found in a terminal.

• Use a new integrated terminal of VS Code: terminals opened before the extension started do not have it.
• Check that ud.cli.addToTerminalPath is on.
• ud exists only on the desktop; vscode.dev and github.dev have no terminal.
• In an external terminal, add the shim’s folder to your PATH (<VS Code user folder>/globalStorage/softforge.softforge-ui-designer/bin, see Installing), or run node <extension folder>/dist/ud.js with Node.js 22.
• The output channel says “the ud command could not be written” when the shim folder is not writable.

ud does not reach the open editor#

ud where says headless although the design is open, so its changes go to the file instead of appearing live in the editor.

• Check that ud.cli.liveEditing is on, and that the path you pass is the file the editor has open.
• The editor and ud find each other through a private folder: $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/ui-designer on Linux, else <temp>/ui-designer-<user>. ud running as another user, in a container or on another machine (a remote SSH window with a local terminal, for example) does not see it; UD_BRIDGE_DIR must point to the same folder on both sides.
• --live makes a command fail instead of falling back to the file; --no-live forces the file.

Chromium is not found#

Import Web Page, Capture Web Page and Compare with Running Page say “No Chromium, Chrome or Edge was found on this machine.”

• Install Chromium, Chrome, Edge or Brave, or set ud.chromium (or UD_CHROMIUM for ud) to its executable.
• Running as root, for example in a container, adds --no-sandbox automatically; UD_CHROMIUM_NO_SANDBOX=1 forces it.

Restricted Mode#

In a workspace you have not trusted, the editor opens and edits designs, but the AI features wait until the workspace is trusted, and the workspace’s own settings cannot change the programs and servers UI Designer starts or talks to: ud.chromium, ud.ai.claude.command, ud.license.serverUrl, ud.license.publicKey and ud.license.keyPrefix. Trust the folder with Workspaces: Manage Workspace Trust if you want those.

Logs#

Where settings live#

UI Designer’s settings are ordinary VS Code settings under ud.*: in your user settings.json (Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)) or the workspace’s .vscode/settings.json. Lint rules are in .design-lint.json next to the design, project hints for the AI panel in .design-ai.md. The sign-in, the licence key and the Figma token are in VS Code’s secret storage; the shim and the licence ticket in the extension’s global storage folder.