canvas-template

canvas-template: Template Browser & Instantiation

Operations

List Templates (/canvas template list)

Run the template script to list available archetypes:

python3 scripts/canvas_template.py --list

Present the results as a formatted table:

| Archetype | Layout | Description | |-----------|--------|-------------| | presentation | linear-vertical | Slide deck for Advanced Canvas (1200x675 slides) | | flowchart | linear-vertical → auto dagre | Process flow with connected step nodes | | mind-map | grid → auto radial | Radial expansion from central topic | | gallery | grid | Image placeholder grid with title zone | | dashboard | grid | Metric cards + status zones | | storyboard | linear-horizontal | Scene cards for video planning | | knowledge-graph | grid → auto force | Entity nodes for relationship mapping | | mood-board | grid | Asymmetric image grid for creative direction | | timeline | linear-horizontal | Horizontal event sequence | | comparison | grid | Side-by-side columns for option analysis | | kanban | grid | Todo/Doing/Done column board | | project-brief | linear-vertical | Stacked zones for project kickoff |

Instantiate Template (/canvas template use [name])

1. Validate the template name against the 12 archetypes.
2. Ask for required parameters:
3. title (all templates): What's the canvas title?
4. Template-specific params (slide_count, step_count, image_count, etc.)
5. Determine output path (canvas directory detection from orchestrator).
6. Run instantiation:

python3 scripts/canvas_template.py [template] [output_path] --param title="[title]" --param [key]=[value]

1. Validate the output:

python3 scripts/canvas_validate.py [output_path]

1. MANDATORY: Content Quality Gate — Read the orchestrator's Quality Standards section. Before reporting:
2. Replace ALL placeholder text in every node with real content relevant to the title
3. Verify no "Describe this", "YYYY-MM-DD", "Value: 0", or "Content goes here" strings remain
4. Run python3 scripts/canvas_validate.py and confirm 0 errors, 0 overlap warnings
5. If the template has post_layout (mind-map→radial, knowledge-graph→force, flowchart→dagre), confirm the layout was applied
6. Report: "Created [name] canvas at [path] with [N] nodes, [E] edges, [G] groups."

Template Parameters

Each template has defaults that can be overridden:

| Template | Key Parameters | Defaults | |----------|---------------|----------| | presentation | slide_count | 6 | | flowchart | step_count | 5 | | mind-map | branch_count | 5 | | gallery | image_count, columns | 9, 3 | | dashboard | metric_count | 4 | | storyboard | scene_count | 6 | | knowledge-graph | entity_count | 8 | | mood-board | image_count | 8 | | timeline | event_count | 6 | | comparison | criteria_count | 4 | | kanban | cards_per_column | 3 | | project-brief | objective_count | 3 |

All templates accept color_title, color_body, color_accent to override the color scheme (values: "1"-"6").

Post-Instantiation

After creating a template canvas, suggest next steps based on the archetype:

• presentation: "Add content to each slide. Use /canvas add banana for hero images."
• gallery/mood-board: "Replace placeholder slots with /canvas add image or /canvas add banana."
• flowchart: "Edit step text. Run /canvas layout dagre to re-flow after changes."
• mind-map: "Edit branches. Run /canvas layout radial for proper expansion."
• knowledge-graph: "Add entities and edges. Run /canvas layout force to visualize relationships."
• kanban: "Add task cards with /canvas add text. Move between columns manually in Obsidian."