Canvas Draw Artifact

Excalidraw whiteboard artifact with data-whiteboardDelta streaming, uncontrolled canvas, SVG/PNG/.excalidraw export, scene templates (architecture, user flow, org chart), and in-memory versions — no database persistence.

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Problems solved

Technical challenges this implementation handles out of the box.

Stream Excalidraw scene JSON with data-whiteboardDelta UI parts
Draw on an uncontrolled Excalidraw canvas inside the artifact
Export SVG, PNG, or .excalidraw files
Start from architecture, user-flow, or org-chart scene templates

Use cases

Products and workflows this pattern is designed to support.

Architecture whiteboarding agents
User-flow mapping sessions
Org chart drafting in chat
Excalidraw artifact prototypes

Setup

Requirements, wiring steps, and what this pattern adds to your project.

Getting started

Pick how you want to pull this pattern in — then wire env vars and routes the same way.

1
Install from the preview toolbar
Copy the install command above and run it in your project — Pro patterns include a short-lived token.
2
Add environment variables to .env.local
AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY, UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL, UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN
3
Point client fetches at your API routes
Replace preview `/view/.../api/...` paths with `/api/...` in the installed files.
4
Customize the agent and tool files
Adapt prompts, tools, and stop conditions for your product — Copy for AI in the toolbar helps seed that work.
5
Run your dev server and open the pattern route
Install dependencies if needed, then start the app and verify responses.

Environment variables

AI_GATEWAY_API_KEYGet key
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URLGet key
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKENGet key

Capabilities

AI SDK APIs

streamTextcreateUIMessageStreamgatewaytool

Providers

OpenAI

External services

Upstash

Files added

22 files

app/page.tsx
app/layout.tsx
app/api/agent-canvas-draw-artifact/route.ts
excalidrawWrapper.tsx
excalidraw-client.tsx
components/agent-canvas-draw-demo.tsx
components/whiteboard-artifact-tool.tsx
components/whiteboard-artifact-panel.tsx
components/data-stream-provider.tsx
components/data-stream-handler.tsx
components/empty-state.tsx
hooks/use-artifact.tsx
lib/types.ts
lib/auto-save.ts
lib/create-artifact.ts
lib/whiteboard-artifact.tsx
lib/whiteboard-document.ts
lib/scene-templates.ts
lib/artifacts.ts
lib/rate-limit.ts
lib/request-utils.ts
README.md

Dependencies

15 total

npm packages

AISDK@excalidraw/excalidrawUpstashdate-fnslucide-reactnanoidNext.jsReactsonnerusehooks-tsZod

Registry components

buttondraweremptytooltip

Critical files

lib/whiteboard-artifact.tsx
Defines whiteboardArtifact with onStreamPart for data-whiteboardDelta, Excalidraw panel, and export actions.
agent-canvas-draw-artifact/route.ts
createUIMessageStream merges streamText with updateWhiteboardScene tool; emits data-id, data-title, data-kind, data-whiteboardDelta, data-finish.