Surfaces

One canvas, many windows onto it. Every surface uses the same tokens, nodes and connectors.

Web app (after sign-in)

• The whole window is the canvas. No header bar.
• Composer bottom-center (Composer, max 720px, radius-lg, shadow-float): + opens Upload a file · Paste a link · YouTube video · From Notion (soon); attachments appear as SourceChips above the input; Enter sends, Shift+Enter breaks a line; the send button is the view's one action. When the Vault is open the dock centers in the remaining space.
• Chat stays small. Only the last 2–3 turns float above the Composer (ChatTurn): the user's words in a bubble, Visualli's reply as a one-line receipt of what changed on the map, with Undo. The full history is a later, optional panel — the map is the answer.
• Tips live in the chat stack too. One-time hints from Visualli — e.g. after the first move: "Layout saved. Want to edit the content too? Edit ✕" — appear as the newest item in the stack (ChatTurn tip), never as a banner at the top of a phone. They are transient: gone after their action, ✕, or the next message, and never saved to the chat history. VisualMap hands them over through onInvite; maps without a chat show them themselves, above the chat inset.
• Results of a request are chat receipts, not toasts. Anything the person asked for — sending a message, Map it from Go deeper, an idea action — appears as a Visualli ChatTurn: first busy (busyLabel, e.g. "Mapping Brood…"), then the change with Undo ("Mapped Brood as a layer inside Castes & Roles", "Added a layer inside Method of loci", "Started a new Visualli: Brood"). On sheets and stacks, Map it closes Go deeper so the receipt and the growing map are visible; the docked panel stays open.
• Vault left (Vault, 288px): wordmark, New Visualli (primary), search, Visuallis grouped Today / This week / Earlier with an organic topic dot, rename inline (double-click or F2), a ⋯ menu with Rename · Duplicate · Export · Delete, and the user + Comfort button at the foot. Collapses to a single icon button.
• Ideas are movable: drag any idea to rearrange the map (connectors follow); Reset layout appears in the canvas controls once something has moved. Moves are saved to the Visualli.
• Go deeper docks as a 380px panel on the right; the Composer and canvas chrome shift left while it is open (onDeeperChange).
• Canvas chrome top-right: one floating toolbar — Edit (pencil + word; Editing and pressed while on — see Canvas language › Editing), Sources (paperclip + count, pressed while its panel is open), Export (download icon — Single-page PDF · Multi-page PDF · .visualli file; see Export below) and ? (help, icon-only) — with CanvasControls (zoom −, %, +, fit map to view, reset layout) below it. Labels are words, not developer glyphs: there is no </> button; the raw .visualli file is an export.
• Sources opens SourcesPanel in the right-hand slot (it closes Go deeper, and vice versa): every source with the passages the map used; hovering a passage lights up the ideas it fed.
• Depth trail top-left of the canvas, right of the Vault.
• Empty vault: a single centered ThinkingTree-style tree, the display-m line "YOUR VISUAL VAULT", one sentence, and the Composer — no tutorial modal.

Export

Visuallis are private and there is no collaboration yet, so there is no Share: no copy link, no invite. There is one Export list, built with exportItems() so every entry point shows the same three items in the same order, each with a one-line hint:

• Where: the canvas toolbar's Export button (the open Visualli) and the vault ⋯ menu under an Export as heading (any Visualli, without opening it). Mobile has only the vault ⋯ entry.
• PDFs always print in the light theme with brand faces, whatever the person's comfort settings — they are documents for others to read.
• Feedback: a busy chat turn while it's prepared (Laying out your PDF… / Packing the file…), then a dismissible tip: Downloaded "How memory sticks.pdf" · 5 pages. Not saved to history, no Undo. On phones the OS share sheet opens to save the file, and the tip reads Ready: "How memory sticks.pdf" — choose where to save it.
• When collaboration arrives, Share comes back as its own button — never mixed into Export.

Mobile app

• Full-bleed canvas, Composer pinned above the home indicator (radius 26), title pill top-center between Vault and Comfort icon buttons.
• The Vault is a bottom sheet (radius-lg top corners, grab handle) over a scrim.
• Tap an idea to peek, tap it again to step inside. The first tap opens the idea's SemanticPeek as a bottom sheet and the Composer steps aside until it closes. See Canvas language › Idea facts.
• Press and move an idea to rearrange it (a still press stays a tap).
• Pinch to zoom; swipe right from the edge or tap the trail to back out. Touch targets ≥ 44px. Double-tap is never used for our own actions (the system zooms with it).

MCP app (ChatGPT and other agent hosts)

• An inline card (radius-lg, line border) inside the host's conversation: a slim header (tree mark 22px, VISUALLI in display, map title, expand), a VisualMap 320–360px tall without zoom controls, and a footer with one hint and Open in Visualli (primary).
• Never imitate the host's chrome; follow the host's light/dark setting.
• Peeks open as a sheet inside the card: summary, terms and Step inside — no Go deeper or Map it (deeper={false}); the card is too small for facets. Open in Visualli is the way to go deeper, in the inline card and in full screen alike.

Chrome extension

• Two entry points, one result: the toolbar button ("Visualize this page", Alt+Shift+V) and the page's right-click menu (Visualize this page) open Visualli in Chrome's side panel beside the page. No selection mapping, nothing injected into other pages.
• The panel is ExtensionPanel: the map's title and source, Open in Visualli (saves to the vault, opens the app), then Reading… → the map, or Couldn't read this page + Try again. Like the MCP card: no vault, no composer.
• The same VisualMap, read-only: peeks, term cards, Step inside, Go deeper (sheet at panel widths), Map it. Editing and arranging continue in the app.

Desktop viewer (offline)

• The spec, as an app. Opens .visualli files offline and renders them with VisualliViewer from @visualli/design-system/spec — read-only browsing exactly as the spec defines it: canvas, depth trail, zoom and fit, peeks, term cards and the 8 themes. Nothing product (no Go deeper, sources, editing, chat or vault); product extensions in the file are ignored and kept. Title bar shows the file name.