Alien
Try Alien
Your work stays yours
Every component is a plain file in a folder you choose. Read it, edit it, share it, keep it forever. Your requests go only to AI providers that don't store or train on them, or run a local model and nothing leaves your machine.
The problem
You know exactly what the component should do. Grasshopper just doesn't have it.
So you go looking.
Forums, plugin libraries, someone's old definition. An hour later you have three tabs open and nothing that quite fits.
Or you try to script it.
If you write Python, that's your afternoon. If you don't, you paste code from a chatbot, it throws an error, and now you're debugging something you didn't write.
Or you build it the long way.
Forty components and a tangle of wires to do one small thing, which nobody else on the team can read next month.
The fix
Say it in a sentence. Get a component that works.
Type what the component should do in plain English. A few seconds later it's on your canvas, already running, with sliders where you need them. If the code errors, Alien reads the error and fixes it itself.
- 10 of 10
- test requests ran on the first attempt1
- ~8 s
- from sentence to running component
- No code
- to write, read or debug
Alienclaude-haiku-5.5
Describe a component
a voronoi panel facade on a surface
Result
- Attempt 1ok
3 outputs · 8 s
And before you even start
Stop tracing your site. Type the address.
Every project starts with an afternoon of redrawing the lot, the neighbours and the roads off council maps. Alien's site map component does it from an address: lot, neighbours, roads and building massing, to scale, ready to design on.
Victoria, Australia, for now. Building heights are estimates.
Everything else
Skip the scripting. Keep the control.
Not quite what you meant? Say what to change and Alien edits that component, nothing else in your definition. Every earlier version is kept.
If the code throws an error, Alien reads it and tries again, up to four times. You watch it sort itself out.
Every input arrives with the right control on the component. Drag, flip, pick, and see the model change. Try the slider.
Alienclaude-haiku-5.5
Describe a change
make the cells smaller near the base
Result
- Version 2ok
only this component changed
Alienclaude-haiku-5.5
This request
- Attempt 1error
AttributeError: module 'Rhino.Geometry' has no attribute 'VoronoiCell' - Attempt 2ok
3 outputs · 8 s
divide_curve
PY
ok
baseCurve
log21 points
Yours and in control
Yours and in control
You see everything it does
Each request shows its attempts and what it cost. Every earlier version of a component is kept, so you can always go back. And it only changes the component you asked about, not the rest of your definition.
Alien in action
See it work.
Thirty seconds, start to finish: an address becomes a site, a sentence becomes a facade.
alien_demo
30 s
0:00
Demo recording goes here
Shot 1 of 6
An empty Grasshopper canvas. An address is typed into the site map component.
16:9 · 1080p · silent · loops
Start with an address.
First users
Hear it from them.
Architects and students on what they built in their first week.
Story goes here
Story goes here
Story goes here
Reserved. Nothing appears here until real testers have used Alien and said it themselves.
Pricing
Free to start. Pro when you just want it to work.
Free runs on your own AI key. Pro takes the key off your hands, so you open Grasshopper and describe.
Free
For tinkering, with your own AI key.
US$0
- Unlimited components with your own key or a local model
- All five ready-made components
- Every component saved as a file you own
Pro Recommended
For getting straight to work. Nothing to set up.
US$20/ month
- Everything in Free
- No AI key to set up
- Private components with version history
Coming soon. Waitlist hears first.
Try Alien
Ready to describe your first component?
Frequently asked questions
What is Alien?
A plugin for Grasshopper in Rhino 8. You describe a component in plain English and it writes the script behind it, runs it, and fixes its own errors.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You write a sentence and never have to open the script. If you do code, the file is right there to read and edit.
Does it actually work?
We gave it ten typical requests, from a voronoi facade to panels numbered for fabrication. All ten produced a running component on the first attempt, in about eight seconds each.1
What if it gets it wrong?
If the code fails, it reads the error and tries again, up to four times. If it runs but isn't what you meant, say so and it edits the component. Every earlier version is kept.
Is my work used to train AI?
Your requests go only to providers that don't store or train on prompts. To keep everything on your machine, use a local model.
Am I locked in?
No. Each component is a plain Python or C# file in your own folder. Stop using Alien and you still have every script.
What does it cost to run?
The plugin is free. Describing a component uses an AI model you pay for directly, about a tenth of a US cent each.2 A local model costs nothing.
Where does the site map work?
Victoria, Australia, for now. It is a starting point for design, not a Planning Property Report, and building heights are estimates.