The canvas¶
When an agent makes something — a report, a table, a chart, a page, an image — it doesn't have to fit inside a chat bubble. The canvas is the panel beside the chat where those results live: chat on the left, the thing you asked for on the right.
What lands there¶
Three things put a file on the canvas:
- Anything the agent creates while working on your request is listed automatically, under the Artifacts tab. Nothing interrupts you; the file is simply there when you want it.
- Images and video the agent generates are listed the same way, as soon as they're ready, under a short name the agent gives it — so a picture from earlier in the conversation is easy to find again, and you can ask for it by name. See Media generation.
- When a deliverable is ready, the agent opens it for you in its own tab. You can also just ask — "show me that file" — and it will.
- Files a skill produced while running land here the same way — a skill that generates a document, an export, or an image puts it straight onto the canvas of the conversation that asked for it.
- Work another agent did for you arrives here too. When your agent hands a job to one of your other agents, the files that come back appear on your canvas. Each stays tied to the job that produced it, so two hand-offs that both return a
report.htmlgive you two separate files rather than one overwriting the other.
Each open file gets a closable tab, and the Artifacts tab always keeps the full list, with the file type and size. Above the open file sit two buttons: Open in new tab shows the file in a browser tab of its own, and Download saves it. A downloaded HTML page is self-contained: its pictures, scripts and styles are embedded in the file, so it looks the same when you open it outside the canvas. Videos and pictures over 10 MB stay links.
In the Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac apps, Download sits in the bar above the open file, and the menu beside it has Share and Open in another app. On iPhone and iPad, Download asks where to save the file; on Android and Mac the file goes to Downloads. Share sends the file through the system share sheet, and a shared HTML page is the same self-contained file that Download gives you. Open in another app hands the file to an app that opens that kind of file; on iPhone and iPad it opens in the system preview, and from there you can pass it on to another app.
When the assistant hands part of the job to a helper, or to one of your own agents, whatever that agent makes is listed here too, marked with the name of the agent that made it.
A file that was only listed doesn't split the screen on its own. On a computer, the panel opens when the agent shows you a deliverable — otherwise it waits behind the Canvas toggle in the chat header, which you can click once there's something to look at. On a phone the panel never opens on its own, so the conversation and the message box stay on screen while the answer streams: when the agent makes or shows you a file, the Canvas toggle at the top gets a dot. Tap it to open the canvas in place of the conversation, and tap it again to go back.
Previews¶
The canvas renders most things in place:
| Type | What you see |
|---|---|
| HTML pages | The page itself, running — including interactive ones (see below). A slide deck wider than the panel is scaled down to the panel's width, and any other page that runs well past the panel's edge is scaled down too, to no less than half its size. A page that already fits keeps its own size |
| Images, including SVG drawings | Displayed in the panel |
| Video | Played in the panel |
Audio, such as .mp3, .m4a, .wav and .ogg files |
Played in the panel |
| Spreadsheets (CSV) | A table of the first rows, with the full file one click away |
| Workbooks (Excel) | Each sheet as a table, with a switcher between the sheets (see below) |
| Documents (Markdown) | Formatted text |
| Code | Syntax-highlighted source |
Plain text, such as .txt and .log files and files with no extension |
Shown as text |
| PDFs | Shown in the panel when the browser can display a PDF inside a page, as desktop browsers do. On iPhone and iPad, in Chrome on Android, and in any other browser that can't, a card with Open and Download. Open opens the PDF in a new tab, or downloads it where the browser has no PDF viewer of its own |
| Word, PowerPoint, archives and everything else | A card with the file's name and Download |
The same card, with a line saying why, takes the place of an image that can't be shown, a video or audio file the browser can't play, and a workbook that can't be read as a table. A text file that turns out to hold binary data shows the card too, with the general line "No preview for this file type." The card's Download always saves the file under its own name.
In a phone or tablet browser the canvas shows the same previews. What depends on the browser is whether it can display a PDF inside a page, and which video and audio formats it plays.
While a turn is still running, a file the agent just created shows as pending — its preview opens as soon as the turn finishes. If a file was deleted from the agent's workspace, the canvas says so instead of showing a broken frame.
Workbooks¶
When the answer is an Excel file (.xlsx, .xlsm) — a model, an export, several sources pulled together — the canvas shows it as a table instead of a download card. The sheet names sit above the table: pick one and its rows appear underneath. Download is where it always is, and it gives you the workbook itself, to open in Excel or anywhere else.
What the panel shows is a view of the file, not the file:
- The first 24 sheets are shown, and of each one the first 500 rows and 64 columns. Long text in a cell is shortened so the table stays readable.
- Numbers, percentages and dates are shown the way the workbook itself formats them, so a total reads as
84 317.62rather than as the long stored value behind it. A cell the workbook leaves unformatted is shown as it is stored, shortened to ten digits. - A cell with a formula shows the value that formula worked out. Some programs save a workbook without calculating it and leave that to whoever opens the file next; a cell like that shows the formula instead, and the number appears once you open the downloaded file in a spreadsheet program.
- Above the table you see exactly what was left out — sheets, rows, columns or shortened text — and nothing at all when the whole workbook fits.
Nothing the preview leaves out is lost. The file you download is the one the agent wrote — every sheet, every row, every formula.
In the apps¶
The Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac apps open files in the canvas too. A file the app can't show — because of its type, or because it is damaged or too large to preview — opens as a card instead: the file name, a line saying why, and Download, Share and Open in another app, the same actions as in the bar above the file.
| Type | Android | iPhone, iPad and Mac |
|---|---|---|
| HTML pages | The page itself, running; a slide deck wider than the screen, or another page that runs well past its edge, is scaled down the same way as on the web. The page can't be pinch-zoomed | The page itself, running; a slide deck wider than the screen, or another page that runs well past its edge, is scaled down the same way as on the web |
| Images, including SVG drawings | Shown in the panel; pinch to zoom | Shown in the panel; pinch to zoom |
| Video | Played in the panel; a video the device can't play shows the card | Played in the panel; a video the device can't play, such as most .webm and .mkv files, shows the card |
| PDFs | Every page; pinch or double-tap to zoom | Every page; pinch to zoom |
| Markdown, CSV and code | Formatted text, a table of the first rows, and the source as text | Formatted text, a table of the first rows, and the source as text |
Plain text, such as .txt and .log files |
Shown as text | Shown as text |
Excel workbooks (.xlsx, .xlsm) |
Each sheet as a table, as on the web (see Workbooks); tap a cell to read it in full | Opened in the system preview |
Word, PowerPoint, older Excel (.xls), RTF, Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents, and audio |
The card | Opened in the system preview |
Everything else, such as .zip archives |
The card | The card |
On Android, an Excel workbook the agent is still writing shows a note that its preview appears when the turn finishes, with no buttons, and the table once the turn is over. A very long code or plain-text file shows its beginning, with a note saying how many lines are shown. On iPhone and iPad, a file the system preview can't draw shows the card. Download always gives you the whole file.
It's part of the conversation¶
Which tabs are open belongs to the chat, not to your browser: reopen the conversation tomorrow, or on another computer, and you'll find the same tabs waiting. On a computer, only the panel's width and whether it's shown at all are remembered per browser — use the Canvas toggle in the chat header to hide or show it. A phone remembers neither: every chat, including one you open from a link, starts on the conversation with the canvas closed until you tap the toggle.
The canvas isn't unique to your workspace chat with the main assistant — it's part of the same chat that runs on every agent's published page, team page, and Use page, so files an agent makes for a visitor land there too, not just in the reply. See Publish an agent. An agent published before this change keeps its older in-app chat, without a canvas, until it's republished.
Removing a file¶
Closing a tab only puts the file away: it stays in the Artifacts list and you can open it again. Deleting one of the agent's generated files removes it from the list as well — unless the same file also lives in the agent's workspace, in which case the entry stays and keeps showing the workspace copy.
Interactive panels¶
An HTML page an agent shows you can be more than a picture. Pages on the canvas can:
- send you back into the chat — a button or a form in the panel becomes your next message, so a dashboard can have a "Dig into this row" button;
- fill in your message box with a suggested prompt for you to edit and send.
A panel shows the data the agent built into it; to see fresh numbers, ask the agent to update the panel.
The first time a panel wants to speak into the chat, Donkit shows you exactly what it's about to send and asks you to Allow or Dismiss it. Panels are otherwise sealed off: they run isolated, with no access to the internet and no access to anything in your account beyond what the agent put into the page. A page opened with Open in new tab runs just as isolated, and there its buttons can't reach the chat.
Credits
A panel action is a normal chat message and costs credits like one. A panel can't spend in a loop — Donkit limits how often and how much one panel may send.
The shared document¶
One file on the canvas is yours to edit as well: the chat's document, canvas/notes.md. Open it and click Edit to change the text, then Save — the agent sees your version and works from it. If the agent updates the same document while you're editing, the panel tells you and offers to Reload its copy; reloading discards your unsaved draft, so copy anything you want to keep first.