Claude Canvas provides a TUI toolkit to give Claude Code an "external monitor" capability. It allows users to spawn interactive terminal interfaces for various applications directly within the Claude Code environment, enhancing its utility for tasks beyond simple code generation. The primary benefit is enabling richer, interactive workflows for applications like email, calendars, and flight bookings.

How It Works

The core approach involves using a TUI toolkit to create distinct, interactive terminal panes. These "canvases" are managed using tmux, which spawns them in split panes within the Claude Code interface. Bun is utilized as the runtime environment for executing the necessary skill tools that power these interactive elements. This architecture provides a novel way to integrate external application UIs into an AI coding assistant.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation: Add the repository as a marketplace in Claude Code via /plugin marketplace add dvdsgl/claude-canvas, followed by installing the canvas plugin using /plugin install canvas@claude-canvas.
• Prerequisites: Bun runtime, tmux terminal multiplexer.
• Status: This project is explicitly labeled as a proof of concept and is unsupported. Setup involves adding a marketplace and installing a plugin, which should be relatively quick, but the unsupported nature implies potential setup hurdles.

Highlighted Details

• Enables the creation of interactive terminal user interfaces (TUIs) for common applications such as email clients, calendar management, and flight booking systems, directly accessible from Claude Code.
• Provides a visual and interactive layer over Claude Code's capabilities, moving beyond purely text-based interactions.

Maintenance & Community

• The project is designated as a proof of concept and is unsupported, suggesting limited to no ongoing maintenance or official support. No specific contributors, sponsorships, community links (like Discord/Slack), or roadmaps are mentioned in the provided README.

Licensing & Compatibility

• The project is released under the MIT license. This permissive license generally allows for commercial use, modification, and distribution, including integration into closed-source projects, without significant copyleft restrictions.

Limitations & Caveats

• The primary limitation is its status as an unsupported proof of concept, indicating potential instability, lack of bug fixes, and absence of future development. Users should expect a rudimentary or experimental experience.