Overview
canvas-design is an open-source design skill for Claude Code and compatible agents, published by anthropics. Its author describes it as: “Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual desi…”. The project has 177k stars on GitHub and ships custom license terms, so review them before reuse. Add it to your setup with `/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills`.
What canvas-design does
These are instructions for creating design philosophies - aesthetic movements that are then EXPRESSED VISUALLY. Output only .md files, .pdf files, and .png files.
What’s inside
The SKILL.md for canvas-design is organised into these sections:
- DESIGN PHILOSOPHY CREATION
- THE CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING
- HOW TO GENERATE A VISUAL PHILOSOPHY
- PHILOSOPHY EXAMPLES
- ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES
- DEDUCING THE SUBTLE REFERENCE
- CANVAS CREATION
- FINAL STEP
- MULTI-PAGE OPTION
Installation
Add canvas-design to your agent with:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skillsReview a skill’s source before installing it — skills can instruct your agent to run commands. This command comes from the skill’s public repository, which is the source of truth for setup steps. New to skills? Read how to install Claude Code skills.
Supported agents
- Claude Code — ships a claude code plugin marketplace
License
anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license for this repository (Complete terms in LICENSE.txt). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
Strengths
- Ships in anthropics/skills, an established project with 177,416 GitHub stars
- Works with Claude Code
- Actively maintained — repository updated in the last 30 days
- Its repository gained 12,054 GitHub stars over the last 52 days
Things to check
- No license declared — confirm terms with the author before reuse
Author
Topics
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Frequently asked questions
- What does canvas-design do?
- Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual designs, never copying existing artists' work to avoid copyright violations.
- How do I install canvas-design?
- Run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills in your agent, then reload your skills. Review the source at https://github.com/anthropics/skills before installing.
- Is canvas-design free to use?
- canvas-design is publicly available on GitHub, but anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license (Complete terms in LICENSE.txt). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
- Which agents does canvas-design work with?
- canvas-design lists Claude Code — named in its SKILL.md, its plugin marketplace or its repository topics. Skills use the portable SKILL.md format, so other agents that read that format may load it too.
- Where does canvas-design come from?
- canvas-design ships inside anthropics/skills, a repository that contains 21 catalogued skills in total. The repository's 177,416 GitHub stars apply to that whole collection, not to this skill on its own.
