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Notes on the canvas

Notes are post-it style annotations you can drop on the flow editor canvas to document a flow in place – why a branch exists, what a temporary step is for, who owns a section, anything that helps a future reader (or your future self) understand the flow at a glance. They are part of the flow's definition, so they version with the flow and follow the same draft / publish lifecycle as the steps themselves.

Notes never affect what the flow does. They are pure documentation that lives on the canvas next to the steps it describes.

Adding a note​

Double-click on an empty area of the canvas to drop a fresh note at the click position. The new note opens with the placeholder text "Type a note..." and the caret already inside it – just start typing.

If you double-click on a step, an edge, an existing note, or one of the canvas controls (zoom, fit, minimap), nothing happens. The double-click only mints a note when the click lands on the canvas background.

Editing the content​

A note's content supports lightweight rich text:

  • Bold, italic, and underline using the standard keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+B / Ctrl+I / Ctrl+U on Windows, Cmd+B/I/U on macOS).
  • Line breaks via Enter.
  • Plain text otherwise.

Anything more elaborate – links, images, headings, bullet lists – is intentionally not supported. The note is meant to read as a sticky annotation, not a document; if you want a full doc page, that lives on the wiki, and your note can reference it as plain text.

Edits persist automatically. The first time you stop typing for a moment (about half a second) the note is saved; clicking outside the note also forces a save. There is no explicit Save button.

Color​

A note has a single accent color used for its border and (translucent) background. The fixed palette is:

  • Yellow (default) – generic note
  • Pink
  • Blue
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • Grey

There is no semantic meaning attached to a color – pick whatever helps you organize at a glance (e.g. yellow for ideas, pink for caveats, blue for owner attributions).

To change the color, hover the note. A swatch in the bottom-left corner shows the current color; click it to expand the palette, then click the new color. Click anywhere else to dismiss without picking.

Moving the note​

A note is draggable like a step block – click and drag anywhere on the note's body that is not a control or the editable text area, and the note follows the cursor. Drop it where you want; the position persists into the flow definition.

Notes always render behind the step blocks. Edges drawn by the flow may cross over a note – this is by design, so notes never visually obstruct the actual flow.

Sizing​

By default, a note auto-sizes to its content:

  • A new (empty) note starts at a comfortable minimum size.
  • Typing makes the note grow horizontally until it reaches a soft maximum width, after which lines wrap.
  • The note's height grows with the number of lines.

If you want the note to stay a fixed shape regardless of content, drag the resize handle in the bottom-right corner to set a manual size. Once the size is manual, the box stops auto-growing – content that doesn't fit is clipped at the note's edge.

To return a manually-sized note to auto-sizing, double-click the resize handle. The note snaps back to fitting its content.

Removing or duplicating a note​

Hover a note to reveal two corner buttons:

  • × (top-right) removes the note. There is no undo prompt – the action is immediate but trivial to redo (just type the content into a new note).
  • ⧉ (top-left) duplicates the note. The copy lands slightly offset from the original (down and right) so you can immediately see and grab it; same content, same color, same size.

Notes and the flow lifecycle​

Notes live inside the flow's definition, which means:

  • A note added to a draft flow is part of that draft. When you publish the draft, the note becomes part of the published version too.
  • A note exists exactly on the version it was added to – earlier flow versions don't suddenly grow the note retroactively.
  • Editing or removing a note follows the same rule as editing a step: only draft flows are editable. On a published flow the canvas is read-only, including notes; switch to draft via Edit flow to change anything.
  • The execution viewer (when you open a past or running execution) shows notes too, alongside the step status badges. There they are read-only context, never editable.

Because notes are part of the definition, they are exported and imported with the flow, copied across when you duplicate a flow, and included in any flow templates you save.