Skip to content

Plugin Commands Reference

Complete reference for all Canvas Project Manager plugin commands

The plugin registers 7 commands, available via the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P). Additional functionality (entity navigation, feature panels, Notion per-note sync) lives in context menus and workspace views — see Beyond Commands below.

Canvas Management

Populate from Vault

Command ID: populate-canvas-from-vault Palette name: Project canvas: populate from vault

Scans your vault for all entity files (Milestones, Stories, Tasks, Decisions, Documents, Features) and adds them to the current canvas.

Use Cases:

  • Initial canvas setup
  • Refreshing canvas after creating entities via MCP
  • Rebuilding canvas after clearing

Reposition Nodes

Command ID: reposition-canvas-nodes Palette name: Project canvas: reposition nodes (v4 algorithm)

Auto-arranges canvas nodes using the V4 hierarchical layout algorithm. Layout rules (containment, sequencing, container ends, priorities) are derived from the active schema.json — see Entity Schemas.

Notes:

  • Writes a verbose positioning log to positioning-verbose-<timestamp>.log in the vault for debugging

Use Cases:

  • After adding new entities
  • After changing relationships
  • Cleaning up manual repositioning

Search Entity on Canvas

Command ID: search-entity-on-canvas Palette name: Project canvas: search entity on canvas

Opens a search popup to find and focus on specific entities on the canvas.

Features:

  • Search by ID or title
  • Centers canvas on the selected entity

Focus on In Progress

Command ID: focus-in-progress Palette name: Project canvas: focus on in progress

Focuses the canvas on entities with status "In Progress".

Use Cases:

  • Daily standup review
  • Identifying active work

Relationship Management

Reconcile All Relationships

Command ID: reconcile-relationships Palette name: Project canvas: reconcile all relationships

Synchronizes bidirectional relationships across the vault (forward/reverse pairs such as parent ↔ children, depends_on ↔ blocks, implements ↔ implemented_by).

Use Cases:

  • After bulk entity creation
  • After manual frontmatter edits
  • Fixing relationship inconsistencies

Notes:

  • Scans the entire vault and updates frontmatter in place
  • The MCP server exposes the same operation as the reconcile_relationships tool (with dry_run support)

Notion Integration

Sync Canvas Notes to Notion

Command ID: sync-canvas-notes-to-notion Palette name: Project canvas: sync all canvas notes to Notion

Syncs all entities on the current canvas to the configured Notion database.

Requirements:

  • Notion integration enabled in settings
  • Notion integration token and database configured

Notes:

  • Bidirectional sync polling starts automatically when the plugin loads (if enabled in settings) — there is no separate command for it
  • Individual notes can be synced from their context menu

Utility

Regenerate Templates

Command ID: regenerate-templates Palette name: Project canvas: regenerate templates

Recreates the default entity template files (existing templates are overwritten). Also available as a button in the plugin settings.

Use Cases:

  • After template corruption
  • Updating to a new template format
  • Resetting customized templates

Command Summary

Command ID Palette Name
populate-canvas-from-vault Project canvas: populate from vault
reposition-canvas-nodes Project canvas: reposition nodes (v4 algorithm)
search-entity-on-canvas Project canvas: search entity on canvas
focus-in-progress Project canvas: focus on in progress
reconcile-relationships Project canvas: reconcile all relationships
sync-canvas-notes-to-notion Project canvas: sync all canvas notes to Notion
regenerate-templates Project canvas: regenerate templates

In the Command Palette

Obsidian prefixes commands with the plugin name, so they appear as e.g. "Canvas Project Manager: Project canvas: populate from vault". Hotkeys can be assigned in Settings → Hotkeys.

Beyond Commands: Views and Context Menus

Much of the plugin's functionality is not a command:

Workspace Views

  • Feature Details — a right-sidebar panel showing details for the selected feature. Opened from an entity's context menu ("Open feature details panel").
  • Feature Coverage — a tab view for feature implementation/documentation coverage (see the Feature Coverage guide).

Context Menus

  • Canvas files (right-click in the file explorer) — canvas-level actions
  • Entity notes (right-click in the editor) — entity navigation (Go to Features, related entities) and Notion sync for the individual note
  • Canvas nodes (right-click on a node) — node-level actions

Automatic Behaviors

  • Canvas node colors update when entity status changes (e.g., "In Progress" highlight)
  • Deleting an entity's markdown file archives the corresponding Notion page (when sync is enabled)
  • Notion bidirectional sync polling runs on the configured interval when enabled

Best Practices

✅ DO

  • Use Populate after creating entities via MCP
  • Use Reposition after changing relationships
  • Use Reconcile after bulk edits or manual frontmatter changes
  • Use Search to quickly find entities on large canvases

❌ DON'T

  • Don't manually edit relationship fields without running Reconcile afterwards
  • Don't create duplicate entities (use Search to check first)

Next Steps