# The Canvas page reads .canvas files, it does not create them

A viewer and light editor for JSON Canvas files already in your vault. There is no "new canvas" button; a .canvas file has to get there some other way first.

*https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/canvas-page — last checked 2026-09-08*

## Steps

1. Open Canvas from the sidebar. It lists every .canvas file already in your vault, the same open format Obsidian uses.
2. Open one to drag its nodes around. Changes autosave as you work.
3. To get a canvas here in the first place, add a .canvas file to your vault folder by hand, or bring one over from Obsidian: this page has nothing to create one from scratch.

## How to tell it worked

A .canvas file you place in the vault folder appears in the list the next time you open the page.

## If it does not work

**You are looking for a button to start a new canvas.**

There is not one. The empty state says so directly: canvas files live in your vault with a .canvas extension, and this page opens what is already there.

**The Canvas page is not there at all.**

It needs Personal or above, its own gate separate from Board or Workflows.

## Related guides

- [Why you cannot edit a note inside NeuralVault](https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/vault-is-read-only)
- [The Board: six columns, and what an agent is not allowed to do on it](https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/using-the-board)

## Still stuck

Bug reports belong in the app, in Settings, About. Those carry no contact details, so they
get fixed rather than answered. To get a reply, email us instead: that route targets two
business days. https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/contact