The honest answer
A basic browser image editor is buildable; a credible Photopea replacement is not a sensible first vibe-code project. Layer compositing, file-format fidelity, filters, text, selections, GPU performance, memory pressure, and interaction depth are enormous.
The hard parts
What actually makes this difficult
- PSD fidelity
- Fast compositing
- Professional selection and text tools
What you lose
The parts that make the paid product hard to replace
- Full Photoshop parity
- Broad professional formats
- Advanced GPU filter engine
People still pay for Photopea because exceptional format support; deep toolset; professional performance.
What your first version needs
Useful capabilities, not a clone checklist
DocumentRepresent a layered image project.
- Canvas
- Layers
- Transforms
- History
EditingManipulate visual content interactively.
- Selection
- Brush
- Text
- Adjustments
FilesMove work into and out of the editor.
- Image import
- PSD parsing
- Autosave
- Export
Before you start
Photopea build questions
Can I vibe code Photopea?
Not as a full replacement. Build a purpose-specific editor, such as social crops or product-image cleanup, instead of a general professional suite.
What is a realistic version one?
One raster canvas, upload, crop, resize, a few adjustments, simple layers, undo, and PNG/JPEG export can be useful.
Should I support PSD?
Only through a proven library and with explicit compatibility limits. Faithful round-trip PSD support is a major product by itself.
Sources
Reviewed 2026-08-10. This is a scoped independent build, not a claim about the proprietary implementation behind Photopea.
