Collab Canvas

Collaborator Canvas

Control Collaborator's spatial canvas from the terminal using the collab-canvas CLI. The canvas is a pannable, zoomable surface where tiles display terminals, files, images, and graphs.

Coordinate System

All positions and sizes use grid units. One grid unit = 20 pixels. Origin (0,0) is the top-left corner. X increases rightward, Y increases downward.

Tile Types

Type is inferred from the file when --file is used:

• .md, .txt -> note
• .graph.json -> graph
• .png, .jpg, .gif, .svg, .webp -> image
• Directories -> graph
• Everything else -> code

Commands

collab-canvas tile list

List all tiles on the canvas. Returns JSON array with id, type, position, size, and file path for each tile.

collab-canvas tile list

collab-canvas tile create

Create a new tile on the canvas.

collab-canvas tile create <type> [--file <path>] [--pos x,y] [--size w,h]

• <type>: term, note, code, image, or graph
• --file <path>: file to display (required for note, code, image, graph; omit for term)
• --pos x,y: position in grid units (default: viewport center)
• --size w,h: size in grid units (default: per-type default above)

Returns the new tile's ID on stdout.

Examples:

# Open a terminal at position (5, 5)
collab-canvas tile create term --pos 5,5

# Open a markdown file with default placement
collab-canvas tile create note --file ./README.md

# Open a graph file at a specific position and size
collab-canvas tile create graph --file ./entities.graph.json --pos 25,0 --size 35,30

collab-canvas tile rm

Remove a tile from the canvas.

collab-canvas tile rm <id>

collab-canvas tile move

Reposition a tile.

collab-canvas tile move <id> --pos x,y

collab-canvas tile resize

Resize a tile.

collab-canvas tile resize <id> --size w,h

collab-canvas tile focus

Pan and zoom the viewport to bring one or more tiles into view, then flash their focus rings.

collab-canvas tile focus <id> [<id>...]

Examples:

# Focus a single tile
collab-canvas tile focus tile-abc123

# Focus multiple tiles (viewport zooms to fit all)
collab-canvas tile focus tile-abc123 tile-def456

collab-canvas terminal write

Send input to a terminal tile. The tile must be of type term with an active PTY session.

collab-canvas terminal write <id> <input>

Examples:

# Run a command in a terminal tile
collab-canvas terminal write tile-abc123 $'ls -la\n'

# Launch Claude Code in headless JSON mode
collab-canvas terminal write tile-abc123 $'claude -p "fix the bug" --output-format json\n'

collab-canvas terminal read

Read recent output from a terminal tile. Returns raw terminal output from the PTY session's ring buffer.

collab-canvas terminal read <id> [--lines N]

• --lines N: number of lines to capture (default: 50)

Composition Patterns

Side-by-side comparison

Two files next to each other for comparison.

collab-canvas tile create code --file ./old.ts --pos 0,0
collab-canvas tile create code --file ./new.ts --pos 23,0

Research workspace

Knowledge graph on the left, notes on the right, terminal below.

collab-canvas tile create graph --file ./research.graph.json --pos 0,0 --size 30,25
collab-canvas tile create note --file ./notes.md --pos 31,0
collab-canvas tile create term --pos 0,26

Dashboard layout

Multiple views arranged in a grid.

collab-canvas tile create graph --file ./entities.graph.json --pos 0,0 --size 30,25
collab-canvas tile create note --file ./log.md --pos 31,0
collab-canvas tile create note --file ./report.md --pos 31,14
collab-canvas tile create term --pos 0,26

Focus view

Single tile centered with generous size.

collab-canvas tile create code --file ./main.ts --pos 5,2 --size 40,35

Agent in a terminal

Launch a Claude Code instance in a terminal tile for the human to observe.

# Create terminal, wait for PTY, then launch agent
collab-canvas tile create term --pos 0,0
# (use tile list to get the tile ID, then)
collab-canvas terminal write <id> $'claude -p "summarize this project" --output-format json\n'
# Read the result when done
collab-canvas terminal read <id> --lines 100

Conventions

1. Always tile list first to see what's already on the canvas before creating tiles.
2. Use tile focus to frame after arranging tiles so the user can see them.
3. Clean up when done: remove tiles you created when they're no longer needed.
4. Leave 1 grid unit gap between adjacent tiles for visual clarity.
5. File tiles auto-refresh: when you write to a file that has a tile, the tile updates automatically. No need to close and reopen.
6. Graph tiles support incremental updates: append nodes to a .graph.json file and the graph tile smoothly incorporates them.
7. Terminal tiles need time to initialize: after tile create term, wait a few seconds before terminal write so the PTY session can start.

Setup

The collab-canvas CLI is installed to ~/.local/bin/. If the command is not found, the user needs to add it to their PATH:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Add this to ~/.zshrc (macOS) or ~/.bashrc (Linux) to persist across sessions.

Exit Codes