How to build interactive experiences with canvases (opens in new tab)

Canvases extend GitHub Copilot beyond text-based conversations by providing shared, interactive workspaces where developers and agents can visualize information and take action together. They are useful for tasks such as triaging issues, exploring code architecture, managing worktrees, and searching organizational knowledge. The article concludes that canvases make AI workflows more engaging, practical, and easier to iterate on.

How canvases work

• Canvas extensions are interactive surfaces within the GitHub Copilot app.
• Agents can update the canvas while users interact through clicks, edits, swipes, and other controls.
• User actions may be sent back to the agent or handled locally.
• Developers create one by running /create-canvas in a Copilot agent session and describing the desired interface and capabilities.
• Canvases can evolve through follow-up prompts that add features or refine existing behavior.

Visual issue triage

• A card-based interface displays GitHub Issues one at a time.
• Users swipe right to ship an issue or left to reject it.
• The canvas updates immediately, organizing issues into decision-based categories.
• This replaces a slower, text-heavy review process with direct visual interaction.

Interactive codebase diagrams

• A generated diagram represents components of a project as connected nodes.
• Users can hover over, drag, and filter elements to explore relationships and architectural layers.
• The interface turns static codebase documentation into an explorable model.

Managing sessions and worktrees

• A canvas can display active GitHub Copilot sessions and their associated Git worktrees.
• It distinguishes active, stale, and orphaned worktrees.
• Cleanup actions are available directly from the interface, reducing manual maintenance.

Improving agent prompts

• The prompt coach reviews previous agent interactions.
• It identifies issues such as unclear context, spelling mistakes, and syntax problems.
• It suggests ways to make prompts more precise and improve future agent results.

Finding organizational knowledge

• A knowledge finder can search sources such as Slack, Teams, email, and documentation.
• It identifies people connected to a file or topic.
• Results explain both who has relevant context and where that connection was found, making it easier to locate the right expert.

Getting started

Canvases are best suited to workflows where visual understanding and direct manipulation are more effective than sequential prompts. Developers can try them in the GitHub Copilot app by using /create-canvas, then iterating with the agent to build a workspace tailored to their task.