Integrations

The canvas on a server Advanced

A canvas can live on another machine. The agents are born and work there, and this Mac is the view. The app reaches the server over SSH, and installs nothing and leaves nothing listening on the other side.

This part of CanvasCode is under construction. What does not work yet is at the end of the page.

Choosing the machine

In Edit the project → Project → Where this project lives.

  • On this machine and On a server of mine: decide where this canvas's agents work. Picking the server hides the local folder field.
  • The server menu lists the registered ones and brings Add server…. A registered server belongs to the app, not to the canvas: the same machine serves several projects.
  • Switching servers clears the chosen folder.
  • Edit…: reopens that server's registration.

Registering a server

  • Nickname: how that server appears in the list and how the voice refers to it.
  • Address: the IP or the domain, the user and the SSH port.
  • Key: the path of the private key. Left blank, the app uses the key you already use to get into that machine.
  • Test connection: says whether it reached the machine, which system it is, and whether git, tmux, node and the agent program are there. When the agent program is installed but has no credential, the test warns you: without it the agent starts up, stays silent and looks stuck.
  • Save is unavailable while the address is empty.

Choosing the folder

Choose folder… opens a browser through the server's folders.

  • Up goes one level up, and New folder… creates a folder there.
  • Folders that are a repository come marked.
  • Use this folder closes the browser with your choice. The app prepares the rest on its own.

What works the same

  • Each agent's terminal, with its whole screen.
  • The agent's state: the panel light, the subject, who wrote in each file, the pending question.
  • The Git of the repository over there, in the usual panel.
  • The file drawer, and opening a file in a panel to read.
  • Dragging a file onto an agent: the file is uploaded to the server first, and the agent receives the path over there. If the upload fails, nothing is pasted into the prompt and the app says why.

When the network drops

The SSH of an agent that dies is not the agent dying: the session stays alive on the other side.

  • The warning appears on the panel's own screen, saying which connection dropped and in how many seconds the app tries again.
  • The wait grows with each attempt, from 3 seconds up to a ceiling of 30.
  • On reconnecting, the session is found again with the history and the pending question where they were.
  • A closed panel does not reconnect. The agent stays alive on the server, and you bring it back like any stored agent.

If you log in as root

The agent program refuses to run as root with permissions waived. In that case the app drops that option: the agent starts up and goes back to asking permission before each tool, and the app handles those requests as always. The connection test warns you when the user is root.

What still does not work

  • Editing a remote file: the panel opens and shows the content, and the edit button does not appear.
  • Following a remote file live: it is not watched like a local one, and is re-read when you ask.
  • The agent's browser is a panel on this Mac. Without the Mac running, the remote agent cannot see the page it produced.
  • Modules are served by the app, and therefore only exist with the Mac running.
  • The Usage and Performance panels measure this machine.
  • Two Macs on the same canvas do not combine yet.

Configured elsewhere