canvas

A canvas is a single `.canvas.tsx` file the IDE compiles so the user can open it beside the chat. Follow the workflow below in order. ## Workflow ### 1. Decide whether to use a canvas The trigger is **user intent**, not response shape. Ask: would the user benefit from viewing this output as its **own standalone artifact**, separate from the chat? If the output is a means to an end (a drafted message, a code fix, a dashboard in another tool), skip the canvas. **Use a canvas when the agent produces new standalone analytical output:** - Quantitative analyses and metrics breakdowns (e.g. "send 500 requests and tell me how many fail") - Billing or account investigations that surface structured findings from database queries - Security audits or architecture reviews with categorized findings - Cross-system data analyses and overlap reports - Structured data from MCP tools (Databricks, Datadog, etc.) where the data IS the deliverable - Financial analyses, margin decompositions, usage trend reports - Tables with more than a handful of rows that the user asked to see **Do NOT use a canvas when:** - The user asks for work in a **specific tool** — "create a Datadog dashboard" means give them a Datadog dashboard, not a canvas - The user has a **specific deliverable** — "draft a support response", "fix this code", "make this PR" - The user is **working within an existing artifact** — improving an HTML dashboard, editing an existing file - The user is doing **targeted debugging** or a...