--- title: "AI and Developer Tools Product Designer | Utkarsh Panwar" description: "Product designer for developer tools and AI startups. I own the UX for CodeAnt AI's code review and security scans, used weekly by 40,000+ developers." url: https://www.utkarshdesign.com/services/ai-and-developer-tools-design author: Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar updated: 2026-10-08 --- # Product designer for AI and developer tools Service · Updated 8 Oct 2026 ![CodeAnt AI Get Started page with a SaaS or Self Hosted toggle and sign-in buttons for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/codeant-sign-in.webp) **I'm a product designer for AI products and developer tools. Since June 2024 I've owned the UX of CodeAnt AI's code review, security scans and code quality product, used weekly by 40,000+ developers. I also design and build the websites for these products in Framer, including CodeAnt's and Zania's.** ## Where devtool UX usually breaks Developer tools tend to break at org permissions, self-hosted installs and a first run that has to work against real code. At CodeAnt the worst of these was the repo connection. Installing the GitHub app on a company org needs admin rights, so the developer who found CodeAnt often couldn't finish setup, and the admin who could had never heard of it. At CodeAnt we gave blocked developers a way to email the admin or share an invite link into team chat, and drop-off at that step fell 40%. I look for the same pattern in any devtool: the product assumes one person does everything, and the org chart disagrees. [How CodeAnt doubled trial-to-paid](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/guides/how-we-doubled-trial-to-paid): The admin wall, the Get Started screen and the behaviour-triggered emails, step by step. ## What I design for AI and developer products - Install, auth and repo-connection flows, including the admin and permission paths that usually get designed last. - Self-hosted setup. At CodeAnt I turned dense docs into step-by-step flows for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps, each with its own short video. - Review and scan results: how an AI finding is shown, ranked and acted on inside the developer's normal work. - Manager views. Putting code analysis and secret leaks into one dashboard cut org-level triage time by 35%. - The first success moment. Onboarding A/B tests cut setup from 7 steps to 3 and doubled activation, partly by spelling out what a successful first PR review looks like. - The marketing site, because the same audience reads it before they ever sign up. ![Before: CodeAnt docs page for self-hosted Azure DevOps pull request review, with sidebar navigation, numbered steps and an embedded Azure screenshot](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/vSEIhJhnwDQQxTA3aEd7PUqnTio.webp) _Before: self-hosted setup lived in a long reference doc._ ![After: CodeAnt self-hosted setup screen with a Configure Application Details video beside step 4 of 4, a GitLab URL, Client ID and Client Secret form](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/codeant-self-hosted-after.webp) _After: one platform, one step at a time, with a video for that step._ ## What developers notice that other users don't Developers read a devtool website the way they read a code review. They skip the hero, look for what it integrates with and open the docs in a new tab. That's why CodeAnt's sign-in page puts the four Git providers and the SaaS or self-hosted choice first. In the product they want density and their own words: repo, PR, rule, branch. A designer who renames a pull request a "submission" loses the room. I've worked inside a developer team since 2024, so your engineers won't need to explain that vocabulary to me. ## AI products: explain the job, then earn trust AI startups have two design problems. On the website, "AI-powered" tells a buyer nothing. The pages that work name the buyer and the job first: Entvin's site leads with faster drug development, Zania's with security risk and compliance. The AI comes in further down, where the page explains how it does the job. In the product, the problem is trust. A code review comment in a separate dashboard gets ignored, and the same comment on the pull request gets read. One that can't show its reasoning gets ignored after the second wrong one. At CodeAnt I treat the evidence behind each AI finding (the file, the line, the rule) as part of the interface, so a developer can accept or dismiss it in one look. | Company | What I designed | | --- | --- | | CodeAnt AI (YC W24): AI code review, security, code quality | Product since June 2024, the Framer website, the brand and the design system | | Zania: AI agent for security risk and compliance | The website, designed and built in Framer end to end | | Entvin (YC S22): AI agents for drug development | The SaaS website: positioning, storytelling and conversion flows | SoundSphere, a 4-week concept, came at the same trust question from the consumer side, with AI podcast summaries you hear before you commit to an episode. ## How an engagement starts 1. **I sign up like a new developer**: Fresh account, no help from your team. I note every point where I needed the docs, a permission I didn't have, or a guess. 2. **Read what users already told you**: Support threads, funnel data and any session recordings. The step where people stall is usually obvious within a day. 3. **Design the fix with engineers in the room**: Devtool fixes often touch auth, webhooks or install scopes. I design with whoever owns those, so the first version is something they can build. 4. **Ship, then check the number**: Before design starts I name the metric that should move, such as repo connections or first reviews, and I check it after release. A single flow fix is typically a 2 to 4 week sprint. Owning the whole product surface works better as ongoing work, and product design starts from $4,500/month (the pricing page has the rest). ## Who this isn't for If you need research on model quality, prompt engineering or evaluation pipelines, hire an ML engineer. I design the product around the model. And if your tool is a CLI with no UI and no website, a good docs writer will do more for adoption than I will. [CodeAnt AI case study](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/work/codeant-ai): Onboarding, dashboards, website and brand for a code health and security platform. ## Questions people ask ### How should I evaluate a designer for a developer tool? Ask them to walk you through a real setup flow they designed, like connecting a Git provider, and what broke in it. Good answers mention permissions, admin approval, empty states before the first scan, and how they checked the design with engineers. Polished screenshots of a dashboard tell you much less. ### Do you understand developer workflows well enough to design for them? I've designed CodeAnt's code review, security scanning and Git provider onboarding since 2024, and I build small tools of my own with AI coding tools. I still check every flow with your engineers. ### Can you design docs or a developer portal? I design the setup flows that sit in front of the docs and the page structure around them. Long-form technical writing stays with your engineers. ### Do you work on CLI or IDE tools? My work is the web product, the setup flows and the website. CodeAnt's IDE extensions appear in the Get Started screen I designed, but I haven't designed a CLI. ### Can you design the website for an AI startup as well as the product? Yes. At CodeAnt I designed the product, the Framer website and the brand, and I designed and built zania.ai in Framer. ## Sources 1. [Installing a GitHub App from a third party](https://docs.github.com/en/apps/using-github-apps/installing-a-github-app-from-a-third-party), GitHub Docs 2. [Requesting a GitHub App from your organization owner](https://docs.github.com/en/apps/using-github-apps/requesting-a-github-app-from-your-organization-owner), GitHub Docs ## Start a project Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck: [book a 30-minute call](https://cal.com/utkarsh-design/30min), email [work@utkarshdesign.com](mailto:work@utkarshdesign.com) or [send a brief](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/contact). ## Related - [Developer tools UX lessons from CodeAnt](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/guides/designing-for-developer-tools) - [Designing AI features users trust](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/guides/designing-ai-features) - [Developer tool website best practices, from building one](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/guides/devtool-website) - [Cybersecurity product and website design](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/for/cybersecurity) --- Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar, Founding Product Designer and Design Engineer (IIT Roorkee; Founding Designer at CodeAnt AI, YC W24). Email: work@utkarshdesign.com · Book a call: https://cal.com/utkarsh-design/30min · Hire: https://www.utkarshdesign.com/hire · About: https://www.utkarshdesign.com/llms.txt