> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cortex-foundation-add13747-droid-1a2462c9-cor-444-sanitize.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Design guides

> Cortex Design — persistable canvases hosted from Chat or Code and edited in the Design desktop app. Frames, notes, options, and a Library of components, pages, and tokens.

Cortex Design is where visual work lives. A canvas is a board of frames, notes, and options that you host from a Chat conversation or a Code session and then open in the **Design desktop app** to work on. There is no Design mode in the web shell: the browser creates and lists canvases, the desktop app is where you edit them.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Overview" img="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-foundation-add13747-droid-1a2462c9-cor-444-sanitize/f_vF1T0UHRUAu9OO/images/banners/design.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=f_vF1T0UHRUAu9OO&q=85&s=bf63d2f35f3e3a1dd1ef8b77817fa272" href="/design/overview" width="1280" height="853" data-path="images/banners/design.png">
    What a canvas is, who can create one, and what the web app does not host.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Design desktop" icon="monitor" href="/design/desktop">
    Install the working UI, open a board, edit frames and notes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Canvases" icon="layout-template" href="/design/canvases">
    Frames, notes, options, and the host binding to Chat or Code. Default title Untitled canvas.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Library" icon="library" href="/design/library">
    Components, pages, and tokens you reuse across canvases. Thumbnails are uploaded.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Design and the other products

| Object                        | Product | What it is                                     |
| ----------------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| **Design canvas**             | Design  | A board of frames and notes, edited on desktop |
| [Chat canvas](/chat/canvases) | Chat    | A document beside one conversation             |
| [Plan](/chat/plans)           | Chat    | A task list                                    |
| Code file                     | Code    | A file inside a session's guest                |

Chat and Code can host a Design canvas through their design tools; Bot does not receive those tools.

## Where to start

1. Sign in — canvases belong to a member account and are private to it.
2. Ask Chat or Code to put something on a canvas. The object is created with the title **Untitled canvas**.
3. Install the [Design desktop app](/design/desktop) and open the board there.