Overview

Canvas provides interactive terminal displays (TUIs) that Claude can spawn and control. Each canvas type supports multiple scenarios for different interaction modes.

Available Canvas Types

Canvas	Purpose	Scenarios
`calendar`	Display calendars, pick meeting times	`display`
`document`	View/edit markdown documents	`display`, `edit`
`flight`	Flight comparison and seat selection	`booking`

Quick Start

cd ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}

# Run canvas in current terminal
bun run src/cli.ts show calendar

# Spawn canvas in new split pane
bun run src/cli.ts spawn calendar --config '{...}'

Spawning Canvases

Always use spawn for interactive scenarios - this opens the canvas in a split pane while keeping the conversation terminal available.

bun run src/cli.ts spawn [kind] --scenario [name] --config '[json]'

Parameters:

kind: Canvas type (calendar, document, flight)
--scenario: Interaction mode (e.g., display, edit)
--config: JSON configuration for the canvas
--id: Optional canvas instance ID for IPC

IPC Communication

Interactive canvases communicate via Named Pipes (Windows) or Unix Sockets (Unix).

Canvas → Controller:

{ type: "ready", scenario }        // Canvas is ready
{ type: "selected", data }         // User made a selection
{ type: "cancelled", reason? }     // User cancelled
{ type: "error", message }         // Error occurred

Controller → Canvas:

{ type: "update", config }  // Update canvas configuration
{ type: "close" }           // Request canvas to close
{ type: "ping" }            // Health check

High-Level API

For programmatic use, import the API module:

import { spawnCanvasWithIPC } from "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/src/api";

const result = await spawnCanvasWithIPC("calendar", "display", {
  events: [...]
});

if (result.success && result.data) {
  console.log(`Selected: ${result.data.startTime}`);
}

Requirements

Windows: Windows Terminal (recommended), ConEmu, or PowerShell
Unix/Linux/macOS: tmux
Terminal with mouse support: For click-based interactions
Bun: Runtime for executing canvas commands

Skills Reference

Skill	Purpose
`calendar`	Calendar display details
`document`	Document rendering details
`flight`	Flight comparison details

canvas

Canvas TUI Toolkit

Example Prompts