> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cortex-foundation-add13747-droid-2a5c5e50-docs-ferndesk-pro.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# 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={3}>
  <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="Design desktop" icon="monitor" href="/design/desktop">
    Install the working UI, open a board, edit frames and notes.
  </Card>

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

  <Card title="Troubleshooting" icon="life-buoy" href="/design/troubleshooting">
    Where a canvas lives, why the browser will not edit it, and a board that is not listed.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The shape of the product

| Fact                         | What it means                                                                                                                                 |
| ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Hosted from Chat or Code** | Both products have design tools that create and write to a canvas. Bot does not.                                                              |
| **Edited on desktop**        | The working UI is a separate desktop app. There is no `/design` route in the web app and no Design segment on the Chat · Code · Bot switcher. |
| **Private to your account**  | Sign in first. Another account's canvases are not visible.                                                                                    |
| **Not a Chat sidecar**       | A Chat canvas is a document beside a conversation. A Design canvas is a board of frames. Different objects.                                   |

## Start from Chat or Code

<Steps>
  <Step title="Sign in">
    Canvases are member objects.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Host a canvas">
    Ask Chat — *lay these three screens out on a canvas* — or ask a Code session to draw the architecture. The design tools create the board, titled **Untitled canvas**, and write frames to it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open it on desktop">
    Install the [Design desktop app](/design/desktop), sign in, and open the board. Edit frames, notes, and the Library drawer there.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## 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. A [Design library](/design/library) item and a file in Chat's [Library](/chat/library) are different objects that share a word.

## Related

* [Downloads](/getting-started/downloads) — every desktop app and the CLI in one place.
* [Security and privacy](/security/overview) — what Cortex stores and where your work runs.

## Next

1. [Canvases](/design/canvases) — what lives on a board and how it is hosted.
2. [Design desktop](/design/desktop) — install the app and open your first canvas.
3. [Design library](/design/library) — components, pages, and tokens.