The Canvases sidebar

Localidraw adds one thing to Excalidraw’s screen: a Canvases tab in its sidebar, beside the Library. Open it from the Canvases button at the top right. It docks like the Library does (the pin in its header), and the browser remembers whether it’s docked.

Projects and canvases

Every folder under the one you started Localidraw in that holds .excalidraw files is a project, and each file is a canvas. A project’s header is its path in the folder; canvases at the top level are under the folder’s own name.

notes/                      ← you ran `localidraw notes`
├── roadmap.excalidraw      → "notes": roadmap
├── web-app/
│   ├── architecture.excalidraw   → "web-app": architecture, login-flow
│   └── login-flow.excalidraw
└── research/
    └── interviews/
        └── themes.excalidraw     → "research/interviews": themes

Folders without canvases aren’t listed, and nor are node_modules or dot-folders. The list follows the disk: a file added, renamed or deleted in your shell, by git or by an agent shows up (or goes) within a second.

The open canvas is highlighted, and is in the page’s URL (?canvas=web-app/architecture.excalidraw), so the back button and bookmarks work.

Finding a canvas

Find a canvas filters the list as you type. It matches anywhere in the canvas’s path, so web finds everything in web-app/, and arch finds architecture.

New canvas

New canvas opens a field with a path to fill in, starting in the open canvas’s folder with untitled selected, so typing replaces just the name. The + beside a project’s header does the same in that project.

• Type a path in the folder: ideas, or web-app/deploy, or plans/2027/q1. Folders are made as needed, and .excalidraw is added if you leave it off.
• Enter creates it and opens it; Esc cancels.
• It won’t overwrite a canvas that’s there already, and won’t make one outside the folder, in a dot-folder or in node_modules. It says why under the field.

The new file is an empty scene, written at once, so it’s in git status straight away.

Rename, move and delete

Each canvas has a menu: the ⋯ that shows when you point at its row, or a right-click on the row.

• Rename or move turns the row into a field with the canvas’s path, the name selected. Type a new name, or change the folder to move it (archive/2026/plan); folders are made as needed. Enter renames it; Esc cancels.
  • It never replaces another canvas: if the name is taken, it says so under the field and nothing changes.
  • If it’s the open canvas, what you drew is saved first, then the file is renamed and the page follows it (the URL too). Its view comes along.
• Delete asks first, in place of the row. It doesn’t delete anything: the file is moved into the folder’s trash, .localidraw/trash/, as <date and time>-<name>.excalidraw. A notice at the top of the tab says so, with Undo, which puts it back where it was (unless another canvas has taken its place since).
  • If it’s the open canvas, it’s saved first, and another canvas opens: the first in the same project, or else the first there is.
  • The trash is a dot-folder, so it’s never listed. Empty it yourself when you like (rm -r .localidraw/trash), and consider adding .localidraw/ to your .gitignore.

Renaming, moving and deleting in your shell, file manager or git works as before: the list follows.

The status, in the footer

Next to the undo buttons, in small grey text:

Status	Means
Saving…	A change is being written.
Saved (time)	The file has everything on screen.
Updated from disk	The file changed on disk and the change was merged in. See Saving and merging.
Not saved: (reason)	The save failed. It keeps trying, and saves once it can.
Not saved	The file was deleted or moved on disk. A notice says so, and Save it again writes it back (Saving and merging).

Ctrl+S (⌘+S on a Mac) saves at once rather than waiting.

If Localidraw stops, the page says it isn’t running, in the footer. Keep drawing: when it’s started again the page reconnects, catches up with anything that changed on disk meanwhile, and saves what you drew.

An empty folder, or a canvas that won’t open

On a folder with no canvases yet, the page says so, with a button to make the first one.

A canvas that can’t be opened (it isn’t in the folder, or the file isn’t valid JSON, or isn’t an Excalidraw scene) gets a page that says why and lists the canvases. It’s never opened as a blank canvas, so it can’t be drawn over and saved. If the file is fixed on disk, it opens.