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Canvas and diagrams

Updated

Canvas#

A canvas is a body kind for drawing: whiteboards, sketches, flow charts and architecture diagrams. It is built on Excalidraw and synchronised live like a note, so several people can draw on the same canvas at once.

  • Item cards. Place a Nix item on the canvas as a card that shows its properties. Open the item from the card.

  • Images. Drop images onto the canvas. They are stored as Nix file items that the canvas owns, never as temporary links.

  • Your library. Save a selection of shapes to your personal library and reuse it in any drawing.

  • Import. Bring in Excalidraw scenes and PNG files with an embedded scene. If an import cannot be completed, the existing drawing is left as it was.

Because canvas is a body kind, a canvas can also have children and views, like any other item.

Mermaid diagrams#

Write a code block with the language mermaid in any note and Nix renders it as a diagram, keeping the source editable beside it:

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  Idea --> Draft --> Review --> Published
```

Uploaded .mmd and .mermaid files open in the same viewer. Diagrams render with strict security settings and follow the light or dark theme. The source is what is stored; the picture is derived from it.