# Any details on the canvas API?

**URL:** <https://forum.obsidian.md/t/any-details-on-the-canvas-api/57120>\
**Category:** Devs: Plugins & API\
**Tags:** canvas\
**Created:** [March 28, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/any-details-on-the-canvas-api/57120 "2023-03-28T21:07:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![KillyMXI](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/killymxi/32/46106_2.png) [@KillyMXI](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/KillyMXI)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/any-details-on-the-canvas-api/57120/5 "2025-11-22T20:33:43Z")

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World needs the Canvas API! (… and Graph API)

It is relatively easy to work with more conventional UIs - lists, grids, etc.  
But node-based UI is something that typical HTML+CSS doesn’t lend to naturally.  
The help from Obsidian developers can help a lot with visualizing our second brains in more organic way!

Obsidian team previously open-sourced the canvas format: [https://jsoncanvas.org/](https://jsoncanvas.org/)  
Would’ve been nice if Obsidian allowed to draw a navigable (not necessarily editable) Canvas from in-memory JSON.

Related:

- now that we’ve got Bases API, it is very desirable to have more tools to visualize our queries in meaningful ways
  - [Bases has great automate potential with Canvas - Plugins ideas - Obsidian Forum](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/bases-has-great-automate-potential-with-canvas/101479)
    - _(while the topic is in Plugin Ideas, the harsh truth is, plugin developers are severely constrained by the lack of the Canvas API)_

  - [Base: Add a Graph View (put graph view in base’s view menu) - Feature requests - Obsidian Forum](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/base-add-a-graph-view-put-graph-view-in-bases-view-menu/104414)
    - _(for Graph view in Bases we also need the API)_

- [Quorafind/Obsidian-Bases-Canvas: A plugin to add obsidian canvas views for bases](https://github.com/Quorafind/Obsidian-Bases-Canvas)
  - a plugin for Bases - lack of API didn’t stop someone, but…
  - it is done by monkey patching the code, only for true Jedi coders…
  - there still seems to be some weirdness about what it can achieve

- [BETO.888/\_RESOURCES/DATACORE/23 Canvas at main · beto-group/BETO.888](https://github.com/beto-group/BETO.888/tree/main/_RESOURCES/DATACORE/23%20Canvas)
  - alternative approach is to reinvent the wheel and make alternative bespoke implementation of canvas
  - this won’t have the multiplicative effect of multiple tools using common APIs and data formats and still requires a lot of work for everyone taking this route

- [This is so useful, it would be great if someone made a plugin for it : r/ObsidianMD](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1os8e7g/this_is_so_useful_it_would_be_great_if_someone/)
  - some inspirational example
  - we need the scaffolding for building node-based UIs for our workflows

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