Canvas

A canvas is a visual workspace where you organize jobs, plan work, and collaborate with your team. Think of it as an infinite whiteboard connected to your Backlog.

What you can put on a canvas

• Jobs — drag existing jobs from the Backlog or create new ones directly on the canvas.
• Groups — organize related jobs into labeled groups. Groups on a canvas sync with folders in your Backlog, keeping both views in alignment.
• Sticky notes — add free-form notes for ideas, context, or reminders.
• Links — attach URLs to reference external resources.
• Images — add visual references like mockups or diagrams.
• Ideas — lightweight jobs created directly on the canvas for brainstorming. Promote them to the Backlog when they are ready to become real work.
• Attachments — drop files onto the canvas for easy reference by your team.

Canvas and Backlog

Groups you create on a canvas sync with folders in your Backlog. For example, if you create a group called "Sprint 12" on your canvas containing three jobs, a "Sprint 12" folder appears in your Backlog with those same three jobs inside it. This keeps your visual planning and your work queue consistent.

Jobs can appear on a canvas and in the Backlog at the same time. The canvas is a planning view — it does not change a job's lifecycle state.

Shared sessions

Canvases support real-time collaboration through shared sessions. When you open a canvas, you can see who else is viewing it.

How shared sessions work

• One editor at a time. One person holds edit control and can move items, add nodes, and make changes. Everyone else sees those changes in real time.
• Request edit control. If someone else is editing, click Request Edit to ask for control. The current editor sees your request and can accept or decline.
• Automatic handoff. If the editor has been idle for a few minutes and you have a pending request, edit control transfers to you automatically.
• Remote cursors. You can see other participants' cursor positions and selections on the canvas.
• Session chat. Send messages to other participants directly within the canvas session, without leaving Coord.
• Activity log. After a session ends, team members who were not present can review what happened — who joined, who edited, and what changed. The activity log is a permanent record of session events.

Note: Shared sessions require all participants to be workspace members with at least member-level access.

Browsing your canvases

When you click Canvas in the sidebar, you see a gallery of all canvases in your workspace. Each canvas appears as a card showing its name, a thumbnail preview, and the last modified date.

Use the controls at the top to filter and sort your canvases. Filter between all canvases or just your own, and sort by date created, last updated, or name.

Click any canvas card to open it in the editor.

Creating a canvas

1. Navigate to your workspace.
2. Click New Canvas in the sidebar.
3. Give the canvas a name.
4. Start adding jobs, groups, and notes.

Related concepts

• Use the canvas — step-by-step guide to working with canvases
• Collaborate on a canvas — how to use shared sessions
• Jobs — the work items you organize on a canvas