Canvas
Excalidraw board, drawing tools, layout, pages, Command Search, and node actions.
The canvas is BLXAde’s main workspace surface: a limited Excalidraw board where you draw and place functional nodes (terminals, browsers, todos, loops, and more).
Drawing tools
Available drawing tools:
- Selection, hand, eraser
- Text, freedraw
- Rectangle, diamond, ellipse
- Line, arrow
- Small color palette
Plus embeddable functional nodes (apps, tools, helpers) described in Canvas nodes.
Drawing preferences
Under Settings → Canvas:
| Preference | Effect |
|---|---|
| Snap to grid | Excalidraw grid mode (off by default) |
| Keep tool active | Locks the current drawing tool for shape/text/freedraw tools |
These preferences are global per profile. They are not written into the project canvas file and do not dirty autosave by themselves.
Open menu and dock
Use the canvas Open / dock controls to create or focus nodes:
- Apps — Browser, Terminal / Shell, Music, Loops, Hermes
- Tools — Usage, GitHub, Todo, Image Gen
Helpers (Markdown, Mermaid, Plan, Media, Feedback) are not all listed in the Open menu; they appear through agent tools, drops, or dedicated buttons.
Command Search
Command Search is the app-wide command palette for creating or focusing nodes and other actions.
- Default shortcut: Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) or ⌘K (macOS)
- Rebind under Settings → Shortcuts
- The canvas dock also shows the bound key as a trigger
Layout and pages
Canvas layout modes control how nodes pack when organized (see Settings → Canvas for layout mode, max nodes per page, and gap).
Useful actions (defaults; rebindable under Shortcuts):
| Action | Default (typical) |
|---|---|
| Organize canvas | Ctrl+Shift+O |
| Cycle layout | Ctrl+Shift+L |
| Swap node | Alt+Shift+Tab |
| Quick edit | product default (see Shortcuts) |
| Lock toggle | product default (see Shortcuts) |
Projects can span multiple pages. Node capacity per page is limited by settings; Move to offers other pages that still have room.
Node headers
Many nodes expose a header action menu:
| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| Screenshot | Capture the full visible node frame (must be fully on-screen) |
| Move to | Move the node to another page with capacity |
| Handoff | Agent terminals only — ask Global Agent for a masked handoff |
Lifecycle controls for Loops stay inside the Loops node; the header only offers presentation actions.
Feedback button
Settings → Canvas can show a Feedback control in the canvas corner. Each click places a new inert Feedback helper marker on the current board.
Appearance on the canvas
Node shells follow Appearance theme tokens: colors, radius scale, transparency, and blur. Embedded terminal/browser content keeps its own rendering. Wallpapers behind the board are configured under Settings → Appearance.
Autosave and safety
- Edits autosave into
.blxade/workspace.blxcanvas - Switch/close flushes pending saves
- Prefer leaving the app via normal close so pending writes can finish
Next: Canvas nodes.