Canvas - Visual Collaboration

VerifiedSafe

Enables AI-powered visual collaboration using Excalidraw for creating diagrams, flowcharts, and system architectures. Use it to draw, annotate, and collaborate on visual designs, then capture screenshots or export results. Helpful whenever you need to sketch technical concepts or visualize ideas.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DocumentationIntermediate
6/2/2026
Claude Code
#diagrams#flowcharts#excalidraw#visual-collaboration#architecture

Recommended for

Automated summary

Creates and manages visual diagrams using Excalidraw through AI assistance, enabling users to draw flowcharts, architecture sketches, and concept maps.

Strengths

  • Integrates seamlessly with AI chat for collaborative editing
  • Supports a wide range of diagram types
  • Allows programmatic addition and modification of elements
  • Provides real-time collaboration via listen and update tools

Limitations

  • Requires manual user interaction for initial drawing
  • Canvas state is stored locally, not cloud-synced
  • Limited to Excalidraw's feature set (no advanced UML or BPMN)
When to use it

Use when you need to quickly create or iterate on visual diagrams with AI assistance, such as system architectures or flowcharts.

When not to use it

Avoid for complex, pixel-perfect designs or when offline access to diagrams is critical.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

The skill only uses collaborative canvas tools for creating diagrams; no shell commands, network requests, data exfiltration, or destructive actions. The tools are safe visual collaboration utilities.

No concerns found

How this analysis is made

Examples

Flowchart creation
Draw a flowchart for a user login process including error handling.
Architecture diagram
Create an architecture diagram of a microservices system with API gateway, services, and database.
Mind map
Open a canvas and sketch a mind map of our project requirements.

name: canvas description: Use when the user asks to draw diagrams, create flowcharts, sketch architecture, visualize concepts, make a canvas, open Excalidraw, or mentions visual collaboration. Provides AI-powered visual collaboration using Excalidraw. version: 1.0.0 allowed-tools: [mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__open_canvas, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__close_canvas, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__list_canvases, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__save_canvas, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__get_canvas_state, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__update_canvas, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__export_canvas, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__delete_canvases, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__listen, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__add_to_canvas, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__close_widget, mcp__plugin_collaborative-canvas_canvas__capture_screenshot]

Canvas - Visual Collaboration

Overview

Canvas provides AI-powered visual collaboration using Excalidraw. Create diagrams, flowcharts, system architectures, and visual documentation with Claude's assistance.

When to Use

  • Create diagrams or flowcharts
  • Sketch system architecture
  • Visualize concepts or ideas
  • Make technical drawings
  • Visual collaboration on designs

Workflow

  1. Open canvas: open_canvas({ name: "My Diagram" })
  2. Wait for user: listen({ drawingId: "..." })
  3. User draws in the Excalidraw window
  4. User clicks Collaborate for feedback
  5. Review: get_canvas_state({ drawingId: "..." })
  6. Add elements: save_canvas({ drawingId: "...", elements: [...] })
  7. Repeat until user clicks Finish
  8. Close: close_widget({ drawingId: "..." })

Key Tools

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | open_canvas | Create or open a drawing | | listen | Wait for user collaboration | | save_canvas | Save elements to canvas | | get_canvas_state | View current drawing state | | add_to_canvas | Add elements programmatically | | close_widget | Close the Excalidraw window | | list_canvases | List all saved drawings | | capture_screenshot | Capture canvas as image |

Best Practices

  1. Always call listen after opening or saving a canvas to wait for user input
  2. Use compact element format for large diagrams to stay within token limits
  3. Respond visually - add annotations and elements when collaborating
  4. Close properly - call close_widget when finished to clean up

Element Format

When adding elements, use compact format:

{
  "elements": [
    { "type": "rectangle", "x": 100, "y": 100, "width": 200, "height": 100 },
    { "type": "text", "x": 150, "y": 130, "text": "Hello" },
    { "type": "arrow", "x": 300, "y": 150, "points": [[0, 0], [100, 50]] }
  ]
}

IDs are auto-generated if not provided.

Storage Location

Drawings are saved to ~/.local/share/collaborative-canvas/drawings/ with metadata.

From the file to a first result

The download contains exactly the content displayed on this page. This copy may differ from the latest version in the source repository.

View the source and supporting files

This download contains SKILL.md only. Any scripts, references, templates and dependencies are not included. Get the required files from the source, preserving their directory structure, before continuing.

1. Download the file

Download SKILL.md

From the root of a test project, save the file as .skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md, or use the command below. This folder is for inspecting the skill before installation.

Command for macOS/Linux or WSL: requires a POSIX shell and curl. On Windows without WSL, use the download button and create the folder manually.

mkdir -p '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q' && curl --fail --show-error --location 'https://skills-guides.com/api/skills/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/download' --output '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md.part' && mv '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md.part' '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md'

2. Check prerequisites

Read SKILL.md before using it. If it references scripts or external services, inspect them and prepare the required access in your test environment.

No recognized prerequisites section in this file. This does not mean it is self-contained: libraries, tools and access requirements may be mentioned elsewhere in the content or source repository.

The platforms on this page are catalog indications. The paths below follow tool documentation; they do not prove this skill has been run in those tools. No minimum tool version is confirmed for this listing.

3. Load the skill

After inspection, copy the complete folder into your project using one of the commands below, then open a new tool session. The command stops if a folder with the same name already exists: compare the files before replacing it.

Claude Code
test -f '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/canvas' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q' '.claude/skills/canvas'

OpenSkills

OpenSkills must already be installed. The local install/read procedure is checked with OpenSkills 1.5.0, which requires Node.js ≥ 20.6.0. Catalog slugs are not resolved automatically.

Official OpenSkills installation
openskills install './.skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q'

openskills read 'canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q'

Reading should display the installed file content and its base directory. It does not run the skill or install its dependencies.

For an agent that reads AGENTS.md, then sync the index. This command changes AGENTS.md: review the diff before using it.

openskills sync

Manual method or another tool: attach SKILL.md to a conversation, or open it in an agent that can read files. Include any required supporting resources. No universal folder is recognized by every tool.

4. Try a first task

Use a short, synthetic input: an API endpoint, a small document or an interface brief. In a new conversation, attach the file or give the agent its path, then adapt this request:

Read .skill-downloads/canvas-visual-collaboration-mm8o525q/SKILL.md and apply its instructions to this example: [describe a test input]. Identify any missing files, dependencies or access. Produce the result requested by the skill without inventing data or running unreviewed scripts.

Expected result: output matching the skill instructions, or a precise list of missing prerequisites. A read confirmation alone does not validate a first use. If an external resource is unavailable, that path remains untested.

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