Canvus SDK

⚠️ Beta Release (v0.1.2): Canvus is currently in active development (public beta). APIs and configuration options may evolve before the v1.0.0 stable release.

Canvus is a headless, framework-agnostic vanilla TypeScript SDK for building visual layout editing workspaces. By separating rendering and visual handles, it enables developers to construct CMS page-builder canvases, A/B testing editors, and high-performance visual IDE tools with web-native performance.

Documentation

Demo

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🚀 Key Features

• Twin-Layer Architecture: Renders user-supplied HTML/CSS inside an isolated Shadow DOM projection layer, keeping parent editor styles untouched. An HTML5 Canvas overlay runs overlays, coordinates selections, snap lines, and resizing handles.
• Zero Framework Dependencies: Pure TypeScript, compiling to a lightweight ESM bundle.
• Operation-Driven State Synchronization: Exposes discrete mutations (Operation delta payloads) for visual gestures, allowing host applications to manage a unified history stack (Undo/Redo) and multiplayer collaboration.
• Pluggable Rich Text Escape Hatch: Features a built-in plain-text editor, with a callback trigger to mount custom rich-text editors (e.g., TipTap or Quill).
• Native Class Manipulation: Supports modifying Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap style classes directly on nodes without relying on inline CSS styling attribute overwrites.
• requestAnimationFrame Throttled Rendering: Canvas repaints are scheduled for the next animation frame, avoiding performance bottlenecks on high-refresh-rate screens.

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📦 Directory Tour

canvus/
├── demo/                   # Dev Workbench (Interactive local testing site)
├── dist/                   # Compiled SDK ESM build and type declarations
├── docs/                   # Developer documentation & Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
├── packages/               # Workspace monorepo packages
│   ├── react/              # React bindings (@canvus/react)
│   └── react-demo/         # React Demo App
├── src/                    # SDK Core source code (TypeScript)
├── skills/                 # Custom Agent/AI skills for codebase tasks
└── package.json            # Scripts, build rules, and dependencies

For a detailed walkthrough of each source file and their individual roles, see the Architecture Guide.

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🛠️ Quick Start

1. Installation

Install the core SDK:

npm install @canvus/core

Or install the React bindings:

npm install @canvus/react @canvus/core

2. Basic Usage

Vanilla TS/JS

Import and initialize a workspace in your project:

import { Workspace } from "@canvus/core";

const workspace = new Workspace(container, {
  html: '<div class="my-layout">Hello Canvus</div>',
  onChange(ops) {
    console.log("Operations:", ops);
  },
});

React

See the @canvus/react README for full instructions:

import { Canvus } from "@canvus/react";

function App() {
  return (
    <Canvus style={{ width: "100%", height: "100vh" }}>
      {/* Canvas workspace children */}
    </Canvus>
  );
}

The SDK exports all core primitives — see the API Reference for the full surface.

3. Development (Contributing)

To work on the SDK itself, clone the repo and use the local dev scripts:

git clone https://github.com/balfaro01/canvus.git
cd canvus
npm install
npm run build      # Compile TypeScript → dist/
npm run demo       # Launch workbench at http://localhost:3000

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📚 Developer Guides

To understand how to integrate, configure, and extend the Canvus SDK, explore the following documentation:

1. Architecture & Reflow Loop Guide: Twin-layer mounting, ResizeObserver integration, and the Synchronous Reflow Loop.
2. Operation Payloads & Undo/Redo: Schema design for style, class, hierarchy, and text changes.
3. Custom Editor Integration: Mounting TipTap/Quill rich-text editors.
4. Layout & Insertion System: Deep-dives into Flex/Grid detection, tree hierarchy rules, and drag drop zones.
5. Complete API Reference: Full catalog of Workspace configuration, callback hooks, and API methods.