---
title: "Create a canvas"
description: "Start a new canvas from a codebase page or from Home, and find it again later."
url: https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/35-create-a-canvas
collection: "Canvas"
updated: 2026-10-29
language: en
---

# Create a canvas

Start a new canvas from a codebase page or from Home, and find it again later.

A new canvas opens on a running copy of your codebase, with one Portal showing your app. Create one for each task, so a redesign and a quick fix do not share a canvas.

**Before you start**

-   A codebase whose setup has finished. It is listed under **CODEBASES** in the sidebar.
    

## Steps

1.  Click the codebase under **CODEBASES**. Its page lists the canvases it already has under **Canvases**.
    
    ![The demo-shop codebase page with one canvas under Canvases and the New Canvas button highlighted](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/p6a1872808f187689a3937fa3/p1Fs0PtrBnOzSst3aWK7BFRAjcKZvBbWRm7gcXn7bbmuVB9djfF2wHTwpJS2NBUHqYLP2f3PVc3.png)
2.  Click **New Canvas**. The canvas opens, named **Untitled**, with a Portal named **Codebase** that shows your app.
    

Give it a name from its card, see [Rename, duplicate and delete canvases](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/40-manage-your-canvases.md). For moving around the new canvas, see [Canvas controls and keyboard shortcuts](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/32-canvas-controls-and-shortcuts.md).

## Start without opening the codebase page

**New Canvas** is also on **Home** and **My work**. With more than one codebase, **Select Codebase** asks which one to use: click its name and the canvas opens. With a single codebase, the canvas opens straight away.

![The Select Codebase dialog listing the organization's codebases, each with an arrow](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/p6a1872808f187689a3937fa3/z6gDYGjzhKwVb7OIiI5Uk79usI5EMrKpzZWe4tJQjauh3yP4pCkXi6dwGxkkMauYVS3jZHEc2my.png)

## Where to find a canvas later

-   **Home** lists the ten most recently edited canvases in your organization under **Recent**.
    
-   **My work** lists the ten canvases you created and edited most recently.
    
-   The codebase page lists every canvas of that codebase, latest edit first.
    
-   **Drafts** lists canvases without a repository behind them, see [Start from a blank codebase](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/15-start-from-a-blank-codebase.md).
    

Every card shows the canvas name and when it was last updated. Click the card to open the canvas.

## If it does not work

-   **The codebase is not under CODEBASES**: its setup has not finished. See [What happens during setup](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/17-what-happens-during-setup.md).
    
-   **The demo codebase is not in Select Codebase**: new canvases go on codebases you connected. For a fresh copy of the demo canvas, duplicate it from its card on **Home**.
    

## Related

-   [Rename, duplicate and delete canvases](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/40-manage-your-canvases.md)
    
-   [Canvas controls and keyboard shortcuts](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/32-canvas-controls-and-shortcuts.md)
    
-   [Start a canvas from a branch or pull request](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/38-import-a-canvas-from-git.md)

## Related

- [Rename, duplicate and delete canvases](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/40-rename-duplicate-and-delete-canvases.md)
- [Duplicate a canvas](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/37-duplicate-a-canvas.md)
- [Start a canvas from a branch or pull request](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/38-start-a-canvas-from-a-branch-or-pull-request.md)
- [Canvas controls and keyboard shortcuts](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/32-canvas-controls-and-keyboard-shortcuts.md)
- [Organize a canvas into pages](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/41-organize-a-canvas-into-pages.md)