# Canvas

Canvas is a spatial workspace for notes, files, and connections. Canvas documents are portable `.canvas` files that live beside your Markdown.


## Why it exists

Some problems are easier to understand as a map than as a list. Canvas gives you room to arrange ideas without locking that arrangement inside a proprietary format.

## When to use it

Use Canvas for project planning, research maps, architecture diagrams, and questions where sequence or proximity matters.

## Workflow

Open a canvas → add note cards → arrange by relationship → link edges → return to the underlying Markdown to deepen the ideas.

## Example

```text
Question → evidence → decision → implementation note
```

> **OpenOnyx tip**
> Make each card answer one question. A canvas becomes clearer when cards have a single job.

> **OpenOnyx common mistake**
> Do not use Canvas as the only place an important idea exists. Put durable conclusions back into a Markdown note.

## Continue learning

- [Writing Notes](<Writing Notes.md>)
- [Knowledge Graph](<Knowledge Graph.md>)
- [Markdown](<Markdown.md>)