The Qanvas workspace
Qanvas is one workspace with four modes and an AI chat that stays beside you in all of them.
The header
From left to right:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Qanvas logo | Opens the licence window. The icon beside it shows your edition: an upgrade icon on Community, a verified check on Lifetime. |
| Project switcher | Shows the open project. Open it to switch to another project or create a New project... If you have unsaved changes, Qanvas asks before loading another project. |
| Read-only badge | Appears on Community when the open project is not your editable one. See Editions and licensing. |
| Mode switcher | Blueprint, Design, Code and Export. |
| Update badge | vX.Y.Z available when a newer Qanvas is published. |
| Save | Saves the project. A dot means there are unsaved changes. |
| Help | Guided tour, Report Issue / Feedback and About Qanvas. |
| Settings | Project and Qanvas settings (Ctrl+, / ⌘,). |
The mode switcher is disabled while the AI is working, so a change in progress is never interrupted.
The four modes
Each mode keeps the same layout: a deck on the left, a stage in the centre, and the chat on the right.
| Mode | Left deck | Centre stage | Use it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blueprint | Your strategic drivers (the site brief) | Your living specifications (PRD and TDD) | Define what the site is for |
| Design | The page workbench and Inspector | The live artboard | Build and refine pages and blocks |
| Code | The generated file tree | Read-only source | Read the Next.js code Qanvas generates |
| Export | Export details | Readiness check and local setup | Download the site as a Next.js project |
The natural order is left to right: shape the strategy in Blueprint, build in Design, inspect in Code, and download in Export. You can move between modes at any time.
The chat
The chat on the right is your AI collaborator. It can answer questions, fill in your brief, write your specifications, build pages and edit blocks, wherever you are in Qanvas. When the AI starts changing something, Qanvas switches to the mode where you can watch the change happen. See Working with the AI.
Notifications
Short notifications appear when something happens that you should know about, for example when the AI's changes are applied to your draft, when a save succeeds, or when you click a link on the artboard that does not lead to a page yet.
The Guided Tour
On first launch Qanvas runs a short spotlight tour. It covers:
- Add your AI key: where to paste your provider key.
- Set your strategic drivers: the audience, goals and constraints that ground everything the AI generates.
- Chat with your AI collaborator: describe your product; confirmed answers flow into your specifications.
- Your living specifications: the PRD and TDD that update as you talk.
- Move to Design when ready.
- Style your site: themes, colours and typography in the ribbon.
- Your live artboard: a preview of the selected page; click blocks to edit them.
- Page workbench: manage pages, add blocks and tune the selected block.
- Inspect the code and the Generated repository file tree.
- Report an issue or send feedback from the Help menu.
- Upgrade to Lifetime and Activate Lifetime from the Qanvas logo.
Replay it any time from Help → Guided tour. It starts from the first step and returns you to the mode you were in when it ends.