What the Canvas is
A FrameGraph applies a chosen analytical framework over a topic graph to produce a navigable, reusable view of what is known about a subject. The Canvas is where that happens inside Corvair. It is not a separate tool bolted on the side; it is a surface in the same workbench as Chat and Browse, running the same engine and drawing on the same governed base.
The change is deliberate. Framing a subject used to mean leaving the application for a demo. Now a Frame this or Open in Canvas action turns the answer you are reading, or the topic you are browsing, into a structured view in place, so understanding a subject in depth is one click from the question that prompted it.
How you reach it
The Canvas opens from wherever a user already is. Each of the four ways in can hand a subject to it, so the framed view always carries the context that led to it.
From an answer
Ask a question, then Open in Canvas to see the who, what, when, where, why and how behind the answer, each sourced and drillable.
From a result or a report
Frame a Search result row, or the subject of a Deep Research report, instead of opening and reconciling documents by hand.
From Browse
Drill into a topic on the Topics surface and the same framing opens at subject scope, with a breadcrumb back out to the map.
From an agent
An agent calls the same framing over the API to assemble a structured, sourced view before it acts, governed identically to a person.
The three panes
The Canvas keeps the workbench layout you already know: a left rail to choose the framing, a centre that reads the subject, and the right rail that is the Knowledge cluster behind every answer.
Left: the Frames selector
The Frames tab of the left drawer. Pick a framework (or no frame) and its aspects appear as chips, colour-coded by cache state: ready, partial, or needing retrieval.
Centre: the framed reading
The subject read through the selected aspect, with a breadcrumb to drill out and home, and a visualisation switcher: Text, Network, Treemap, Timeline, Table, Map.
Right: the Knowledge cluster
The same rail as Chat: the selected reading, sources by authority, entities by salience, a one-line coverage read, and the actions, Save a Snap, Suggest, Produce a deliverable.
Browse and Canvas, one engine
The Canvas header carries two moves that make the relationship explicit. Back to conversation returns to the Chat that seeded it. Browse the map zooms out to the Topics surface, the same framing applied to the whole base rather than one subject. They are the same engine at different scope, so nothing is relearned when you move between them.
What you can do with it
A FrameGraph is a working artifact, not a reply that disappears. From the Canvas, a framed view flows into the rest of the workbench.
Save a Snap
Keep the subject, framework, aspects, drill state, and visualisation as a Snap in your Vault and reopen it later. The cluster persists per base, per user.
Produce a deliverable
Turn the framing into a structured report from the same picker the rest of the app uses, with a rubric and an executive summary. See templates.
Run a coverage report
Ask how strong the base is on this subject: coverage by aspect and concept, the gaps, and what to curate. See the coverage report.
Suggest to the steward
Route a statement or entity into the same curation queue the steward works from, so exploring a subject helps grow the base.
Stack a framework
Add a second framework over the same subject. Because the cluster is shared, what is already covered renders at once and only new angles are retrieved.
Extract a seed
Lift typed statements, facts, claims, beliefs, hypotheses and predictions, from the view to seed or extend a governed knowledge base.
Why it is ours
A list of links or a single generated answer cannot do what the Canvas does, because neither rests on a governed, trust-tiered topic graph with a warrant behind every claim. The Canvas sits above any retrieval service and beneath the substrate, and it carries the same governance as everything else in the workbench.
Sourced and tiered
Every aspect and entity carries its provenance and trust tier from the first pass, so a framed view is what the base can show, with the proof attached.
OKF at the leaf
Drill to a source and you reach its OKF record: the portable, inspectable concept behind the reading, governed and warranted. See the knowledge format.
People and agents alike
A person frames a subject to understand it; an agent calls the same framing over the API before it acts. One engine, one trust model, governed the same for both.