Documents and the canvas¶
The canvas is the document editor that sits beside the chat. You write in it, the agent writes in it, and you both see the same text. This is where most of the real work in Colleag happens.
Every document is a plain Markdown file in your product's Git repository. What you see in the canvas is that file, formatted.
Open the canvas¶
Any of these opens it:
- Click Document Workspace in the top bar.
- Ask an agent to open or change a document — the canvas opens by itself.
- Click a document in the Execution plan.
Close it with the × at the top left of the canvas. The chat widens back out.
Find a document¶
The canvas has a file tree under a DOCUMENTS heading, organised by discipline. Small markers tell you the state of each file:
| Marker | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red dot | Unsaved — you are editing right now |
| New | Created but never published |
| Unpublished | Saved but not yet published |
| Published | Live in the published version |
| Deleted | Removed, pending publish |
Opening a document from a different discipline switches the chat to that discipline's agent and picks up its most recent conversation, so the agent you are talking to always owns the document in front of you.
Editing and suggesting¶
The button at the top right of the canvas switches between two modes:
- Editing — your changes go straight into the document.
- Suggesting — your changes are marked as suggestions to accept or reject.
The same two modes apply to the agent. When an agent proposes a change you get an inline diff: removed text struck through in red, new text highlighted in blue. Accept or reject it. When an agent edits directly, the document simply updates and the canvas reloads.
Use Suggesting on anything approved
On a released or approved document, suggesting keeps the original intact until someone signs off on each change. On an early draft, editing is faster and perfectly safe.
Ask the agent about what you are reading¶
Select some text in the canvas and ask the agent about it. Your question goes to the chat together with the document path and the exact passage you highlighted, and the agent is told to change only that passage. This is the most precise way to get an edit — far better than describing where the problem is in prose.
The canvas toolbar¶
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| × | Close the canvas |
| Title | The document's name, with a Draft badge when it is unpublished and an orange dot when there are unsaved changes |
| ⓘ | Show document properties — the structured fields such as owner, status and revision |
| ‹ Version n of m › | Step through earlier versions of the document |
| A− / A+ / 100% | View zoom. Display only — it does not change what is saved or exported |
| Copy | Copy the whole document to the clipboard |
| Download | Download the file |
| Editing / Suggesting | Switch edit mode |
Document properties¶
Click ⓘ to open the properties panel. These are the structured fields kept at the top of the file — things like the owning discipline, status and revision — and they are what drives revision numbering when you publish. Editable fields can be changed directly here.
Importing existing documents¶
Use the import button in the DOCUMENTS header to bring in Word, Excel, PDF and drawing files. Colleag reads each one, converts it to Markdown, proposes the discipline it belongs to and shows you a review screen before writing anything. The original file is kept alongside the converted text so an answer can always be checked against the source.
Standards in the canvas¶
The canvas also shows a Standards tree with the standards your organisation has uploaded. Entries can carry warnings — for example that a document was read by OCR from a scan and should be checked against the original, or that the extraction hit a size limit and is incomplete. See Standards and SOPs.
Saving and publishing¶
Saving is not publishing. Your edits are saved as you work, but the document stays a draft until you publish it. The sidebar's orange n drafts counter tells you how much is waiting. See Publishing and reviews.
Troubleshooting¶
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| The canvas will not open | You need a product selected. Commercial, Corporate and Quality System agents have no product documents. |
| An agent edited the wrong part of the document | Select the exact text first, then ask. Without a selection the agent decides for itself what to change. |
| Your change disappeared | Check the version stepper — you may be looking at an older version. |
| Text looks too small or too large | That is the zoom. Click the percentage to reset to 100%. It never affects the saved file. |
Next: Publishing and reviews →