Canvas tour
By the end of this page you will have a graph with two connected agents, and know where every setting lives.
Prerequisites
- An Agent Graph system created (Create a MAS).
- Two or more Active AI Agents in the project.
- Admin or Developer role.
The editor at a glance
The system editor has three panes. Drag the dividers to resize them.
| Pane | What’s in it |
|---|---|
| Left | Two tabs: Configuration (the graph’s own settings and the member list) and Live (the running commentary of a turn). |
| Centre | The canvas. |
| Right | The live chat preview. |
The header carries Save, Publish, Deploy and, once a draft exists over a published version, Discard Draft in the ⋮ menu.
Build a graph
The steps below build the market-analysis flow from the overview. Substitute your own agents; the shape is what matters.
Add the agents as members
Use Add agent button on the top of the canvas to add the AI Agents this graph will use — here, Market Researcher, Risk Scorer, Legal Reviewer, Content Writer, Editorial Reviewer and Report Builder. Only Active AI Agents can be members.
Place them on the canvas
Add an agent to the canvas to make it a step. An empty canvas prompts you: “Draw your agent flow.”
Connect them
Drag from the bottom of one agent to the top of another. That connection says the second agent runs after the first, and can read what it wrote.
Draw the flow in three parts:
- The spine — Market Researcher → Risk Scorer.
- The branch — Risk Scorer → Legal Reviewer and Risk Scorer → Content Writer, then Content Writer → Editorial Reviewer. Both branches then lead into Report Builder.
- The loop — one more connection from Editorial Reviewer back to Content Writer, which you configure in Loops.
Agents you leave unconnected run at the same time.
Open a step’s settings
Click an agent on the canvas. A panel opens on the right with its label, its output key, what it reads and what happens if it fails. See Agents on the canvas.
Open a connection’s settings
Click a connection. A panel opens where you decide whether the target always runs or only when a condition passes, and whether the connection is a loop. See Connections & conditions.
Save
Click Save. The graph is checked before it saves — see below.
Canvas controls
Fit brings the whole graph back into view when you have zoomed or panned away from it. Drag a node to move it; the position is presentation only and never changes what runs.
The left panel
Configuration holds the member list and the graph-wide settings — what agents share, small talk, the model that answers conditions, the final answer, and the safety limits. See Graph settings.
Live shows the turn in progress: which step started, what each agent did, and what it wrote. Memory writes appear in the same feed, tagged Memory.
What gets checked before you save
The editor validates the graph and blocks a save that could not run. The messages name the node or connection at fault. The ones you are most likely to meet:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| ”Add an agent to the canvas to start building the graph” | The canvas is empty. |
| ”Node … has no agent selected” | A step exists with no agent on it. |
| ”Node … points at an agent that is no longer a member” | The agent was removed from the member list. Replace or delete the step. |
| ”These connections form a cycle — mark the closing connection as a loop instead” | You have drawn a circle without declaring it a loop. See Loops. |
| ”Node … cannot be reached from any starting node, so it would never run” | Nothing connects to it. |
| ”Two nodes write the output key … — the later one would overwrite the earlier” | Give one of them a different output key. |
Warnings do not block a save, but they are worth reading — they usually describe a step that will receive nothing useful.
The chat preview runs your saved graph, not what is on the canvas. Save before you test a change.
Common issues
- Two agents ran at the same time when you wanted one to wait — They are not connected. A connection is what creates the dependency.
- A connection will not draw — Drag from the bottom handle of the source to the top handle of the target.
- Save is blocked and you cannot see why — The validation message names a node by its step id; click that step on the canvas to open it.