Design Editor intent implementation guide

Create specialized editing tools within Canva.

This guide helps you implement the Design Editor intent to create specialized editing tools that appear alongside the Canva design surface.

Creating a Design Editor

Step 1: Enable the intent

Before an intent can be implemented, it must be enabled. Enabling an intent informs Canva of when and where the app should be invoked throughout the user experience.

You can configure intents for your app with either the Developer Portal or the Canva CLI:

Navigate to an app via the Your apps⁠(opens in a new tab or window) page.
Go to Inside Canva. If the app already has an intent, select Intents beneath it.
Under Available intents, find the "Design Editor" intent and click Set up.
In the Set up Design Editor dialog, click Add Design Editor. The following sections in this guide will walk you through implementing the intent in your code.

Set up your app to use the Canva CLI to manage settings via the canva-app.json file.
Set the intent.design_editor property to be enrolled. For more information, see canva-app.json.

For example, the following enables the Design Editor intent.
```
{
  "intent": {
    "design_editor": {
      "enrolled": true
    }
  }
}
```
JSON

Step 2: Register the intent

Before an intent can be implemented, it must be registered. Registering the Design Editor intent establishes how your app will render its UI within the Canva editor.

To register the intent, call the prepareDesignEditor method as soon as the app loads:

import { prepareDesignEditor } from "@canva/intents/design";

prepareDesignEditor({
  render: async () => {
    // TODO: Implement the logic to render your app's UI
  },
});

Intents must only be registered once. To learn more, see Technical requirements.

Step 3: Render the app's UI

When a user opens your app within the Canva editor, the intent will use the render method to display your app's interface. This method should set up your UI components and make them ready for user interaction.

import { createRoot } from "react-dom/client";
import { AppUiProvider, Rows, Text } from "@canva/app-ui-kit";
import { prepareDesignEditor } from "@canva/intents/design";
import "@canva/app-ui-kit/styles.css";
import * as styles from "styles/components.css";

prepareDesignEditor({
  render: async () => {
    const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
    const rootElementExists = rootElement instanceof Element;

    if (!rootElementExists) {
      throw new Error("Unable to find element with id of 'root'");
    }

    const root = createRoot(rootElement);

    root.render(
      <AppUiProvider>
        <DesignEditor />
      </AppUiProvider>
    );
  },
});

function DesignEditor() {
  return (
    <div className={styles.container}>
      <Rows spacing="2u">
        <Text>Hello world.</Text>
      </Rows>
    </div>
  );
}

TSX

Initiating OAuth inside intents

If your app requires OAuth with a third-party identity provider, initiate the OAuth flow from inside the intent’s render lifecycle so it runs within the app iframe.

For implementation guidance, see Initiating OAuth inside intents.

Next steps

After setting up the Design Editor intent, use the available APIs, such as the Design Editing API, to interact with the user's design.