Nexus Canvas Documentation

Welcome to the Nexus Canvas documentation. This guide covers everything you need to know about using this visual workspace for comparing options and making decisions.

What is Nexus Canvas?

Nexus Canvas is a visual workspace that helps you:

• Map complex work - Build visual graphs of tasks, sources, items, rollups, and decisions in one board
• Compare choices - Score options with clear rules and explain why one option is better than another
• Track decisions - Keep sources, options, and outcomes connected in one place

Getting Started

Creating a Project

1. Click Open Projects from the home page
2. Click Create New Project
3. Give your project a name and optional description
4. Start building your visual board

Adding Nodes

Click anywhere on the canvas to add different node types:

• Text nodes - Frames and notes to organize your board
• Link nodes - URLs that automatically extract metadata (title, price, images)
• Item nodes - Budget items with price, quantity, vendor
• Decision nodes - Compare options using weighted criteria
• Rollup nodes - Aggregate values from connected items

Connecting Nodes

Drag from a node's handle to another node to create edges:

• Compares with - Connect items to a decision node for comparison
• Contributes to - Link items/rollups to rollup nodes for aggregation
• Depends on - Show dependencies between nodes
• References - Simple reference connections

Making Decisions

1. Add multiple item nodes with different values
2. Create a decision node
3. Connect items to the decision using "compares with" edges
4. Set criteria weights in the inspector (negative = penalize, positive = reward)
5. The decision automatically ranks options and shows the winner

Using Scenarios

Create multiple scenarios to compare different approaches:

• Click the scenario dropdown in the header
• Use Duplicate to branch from current state
• Override values in different scenarios to compare outcomes

Key Features

Documentation Sections

Browse feature documentation in the sidebar:

• Canvas - Graph rendering, nodes, edges, frames
• Workspace - Commands, history, transactions
• Inspector - Editing fields, suggestions
• Nodes - Types, creation, components
• Decision - Weighted comparison, rankings
• Persistence - IndexedDB storage, migrations

Tips

• Use frames to group related nodes
• Collapse frames to simplify complex boards
• Use search and filters to find specific nodes
• Check Analytics to see budget breakdowns
• Create scenarios to compare different approaches