Canvas

Canvas TUI Toolkit

Start here when using terminal canvases. This skill covers the overall workflow, canvas types, and IPC communication.

Example Prompts

Try asking Claude things like:

Calendar:

• "Schedule a meeting with the team next week"
• "Find a time when Alice and Bob are both free"

Document:

• "Draft an email to the sales team about the new feature"
• "Help me edit this document"

Flight:

• "Find flights from SFO to Denver next Friday"
• "Book me a window seat on the morning flight"

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

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