Build in Canvas

Use Canvas as a cross-workspace visual bench—pinned terminals, frames, and agent-driven diagrams.

Canvas is not only a whiteboard. It is a cross-workspace workbench: pin live terminals from any project, organize pages and frames, and let Code Agents draw architecture diagrams, flowcharts, and notes while you orchestrate parallel builds.

Overview

Without CanvasWith Canvas
Alt-tab between workspacesMultiple terminal cards on one board
Context lost when switchingPin to Canvas keeps sessions visible
Diagrams in external toolsAgents edit the board via Canvas Agent Bridge

Open Canvas from the left sidebar Management Center → Canvas (or ⌘⇧H). The overlay uses a full-screen tldraw board with optional pinned terminals.

Core capabilities

  • Pin terminals — Live tmux panes from any workspace as cards on the board.
  • Pages — Multiple tldraw pages (default Page 1; use the page menu when more exist).
  • Frames — Group shapes on one page (toolbar Frame creates a 640×440 frame).
  • Agent on canvas — Enable Canvas Agent Bridge so agents run atmos canvas commands (read, create, move, layout shapes).
  • Copy shapes to agent context — Select graphics and paste content into agent prompts.

1. Pin a terminal to Canvas

  1. In a workspace, open the Terminal tab and focus a pane with a live session.
  2. On the pane toolbar, click Pin to Canvas (⌘⇧P), or use the context menu Pin to Canvas.
  3. Toast: Pinned to Canvas — the shape is saved on your default board.
  4. Open Canvas — the board loads; the last pin is auto-focused.
  5. On the card: Source jumps back to that terminal pane; Unpin removes the shape.

Repeat for terminals in other workspaces to work on multiple agents in parallel on one surface.

2. Organize pages and frames

Pages

  • Terminal pins belong to the current tldraw page.
  • Switch pages from the tldraw page menu when the board has multiple pages.

Frames

  1. Expand the top-right toolbar if collapsed.
  2. Click Frame to drop a named frame at the viewport center.
  3. Resize and rename via tldraw; group related cards and diagrams inside frames.

Use frames for “sprint board”, “service A migration”, or “incident timeline” groupings.

3. Parallel Code Agents on Canvas

Typical pattern:

  1. Pin workspace A’s agent terminal (feature branch).
  2. Pin workspace B’s agent terminal (hotfix).
  3. Add sticky notes for goals and risks.
  4. Watch both panes without leaving Canvas.

Jump to Source when you need the full workspace UI (editor, Review, Run / Preview).

4. Let agents work on Canvas

  1. Top-right → Canvas Agent Bridge (bot icon).
  2. Enable Enable bridge so external agents can drive the board.
  3. Copy agent instructions from the popover (uses the built-in Canvas agent skill).
  4. While the agent works:
    • Bridge icon pulses; shapes may show transient highlights.
    • Canvas agent activity island (bottom-right) lists actions.
    • Last change · Jump pans to the latest edit.

Ask agents to draw architecture diagrams, sequence flows, or layout notes—then copy shape content into chat as @ context where supported.

Save and persistence

  • Save in the share panel writes the tldraw document and camera to the default board.
  • Debounced auto-save also runs in the background.

On this page

OverviewCore capabilities1. Pin a terminal to Canvas2. Organize pages and frames3. Parallel Code Agents on Canvas4. Let agents work on CanvasSave and persistenceRelated