Proto, a two-person San Francisco startup in Y Combinator's Fall 2026 batch, is pitching a design tool with "the accuracy of Cursor & creative freedom of Figma," according to its listing in the YC directory. The company has not issued a press release, and its debut is visible mainly through posts its founder made on X between Oct. 27 and 30.
That thin paper trail is worth keeping in mind. What follows rests on a one-line tagline and a handful of social posts; as of Oct. 31, 2026, we found no formal feature list, demo, or third-party public demonstration of the product.
What Proto says it does
The directory describes the product as "A design tool with the accuracy of Cursor & creative freedom of Figma." GPAgent, a third-party YC tracker that is not an official company channel, said Proto "treats prototypes as the primary artifact," pairing code-level precision with visual flexibility.
Founder Maayan Albert has filled in some detail on X, in posts captured by third-party mirrors. Proto can "generate a fully fledged prototype from… a Linear ticket, Notion PRD, or even meeting notes," one post said.
On agents, Albert wrote: "Proto is compatible with every agent… Claude, Codex, and Cursor pictured below." A separate post described agent-agnostic editing of prototypes hosted in the cloud.
The handoff to engineers
Albert's pitch for engineering teams is that a prototype should not be a dead end. "Your prototypes aren't trapped on the platform," he wrote on X. "Proto divides your prototype into atomic, shippable PRs, and submits them for you." (A PR, or pull request, is a proposed code change that engineers review before it is merged into a product.)
GPAgent's summary suggests the tool is aimed at professional design teams, with engineers connecting the "plumbing."
Access, pricing and funding
Pricing is not public. Research for this article found no pricing page and no in-depth coverage of the product on technology blogs as of Oct. 31, 2026. GPAgent said access is currently a pilot with early users, arranged through direct outreach.
Proto's website, prototypes.fun, appears in the YC directory, but its content could not be verified. The listing shows no funding round or amount beyond participation in YC, and no open jobs. Harj Taggar is the company's primary YC partner.
The team
YC lists a team of two. Albert's LinkedIn page names Proto as his employer and no cofounder, and no public source consulted identifies the second founder. Social profiles indicate he previously worked at Browserbase, Apple and Google, though those details come from third-party X mirrors rather than a company statement.
On Oct. 28, Albert posted: "Calling an exceptional motion graphics designer to work on the Proto launch video. Quick turnaround for Friday, but storyboards and graphics are already done." Friday was Oct. 30, which suggests the launch video was meant to anchor the week's push.
A crowded field
Proto is entering a market where incumbents and newcomers are racing to link design work with AI agents.
Figma said in 2026 that it had opened its canvas to agents through MCP, a protocol that lets AI tools connect to outside software, and that agents including Claude Code, Codex and Cursor can read and edit native design assets. Figma Make continued to receive updates through mid-2026.
Anthropic launched Claude Design on April 17, 2026, a prompt-to-prototype tool that integrates with Claude Code; VentureBeat framed it as a challenge to Figma. Google's Stitch received a "vibe design" upgrade, announced March 18-19, 2026. Wired reported in January 2026 on Cursor's design features aimed at Figma workflows, and ProtoPie added native MCP support on July 20, 2026.
Smaller players include Prototyper.co, which pairs an agent with a design canvas, and Alloy, which offers AI prototyping with Figma import and export.
What's next
Proto has not published a formal feature list or demo, and it has not said when pilot access will widen. Until it does, the company's claims rest on its YC tagline and Albert's posts.
