Keyboard & canvas

The canvas is deliberately shallow: a handful of modifier shortcuts, and everything else on the right mouse button. This page lists what is actually bound. Nothing more.

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Keyboard

Every shortcut in the editor’s own handler requires a modifier, and Cmd and Ctrl are interchangeable on every platform. The handler tests metaKey || ctrlKey, so Ctrl+Z works on macOS and Cmd+M works on Linux. Tooltips in the UI say “Cmd” because it was written on a Mac.

All of them are suppressed while the event target is an <input>, a <textarea>, or a contenteditable element. Typing in a note or a prompt never triggers them.

Keys	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + Z	Undo
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z	Redo
Cmd/Ctrl + C	Copy the selected nodes
Cmd/Ctrl + V	Paste
Cmd/Ctrl + D	Duplicate the selection
Cmd/Ctrl + M	Toggle mute on every selected node
Cmd/Ctrl + B	Toggle bypass on every selected node

There is no Cmd+Y redo, no Cmd+A, no Cmd+X, no Cmd+S (graphs save themselves), and no arrow-key nudge.

Two keys are bound outside that handler:

Keys	Action	Note
Backspace or Delete	Delete the selected nodes and wires	The only way to delete a wire. There is no edge context menu
Escape	Close the node menu, the wire/add-node menu, and the tab menu	Not a modal dismiss: the params editor, param-run prompt, validation and detached-gate dialogs close via their own buttons or by clicking the backdrop
Cmd/Ctrl + Enter	Send the message in the Live handoff dock	Only while that dock’s composer has focus

Mute and bypass behavior

The toggle is per-node, so a mixed selection inverts rather than normalizing. Mute and bypass are mutually exclusive. Setting one clears the other. Nodes that cannot be muted (notes, frames) ignore the shortcut silently.

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Mouse

Opening menus

Action	Result
Double-click empty canvas	Quick-add menu. Every node type, nothing pre-wired
Right-click empty canvas	The same add-node menu
Drop a wire on empty canvas	Wire-drop menu, filtered to node types that can legally connect. Titled add next node when you dragged from an output, add input node when you dragged from an input
Shift+click a connector	Same compatible-node menu, pinned next to that handle (compatible next nodes / compatible input nodes)
Right-click a node	Node context menu
Right-click a workflow tab	Tab menu. Export, duplicate, promote/convert, close, close others, close to the right, close all

Double-click zoom is disabled so the quick-add gesture is free. Panning or zooming the canvas closes any open menu, because the menus are viewport-fixed.

The wire-drop menu lists the built-in blocks first, then custom nodes, agents, library payloads and sessions. If nothing can legally connect to what you dragged, it says no compatible node.

The node context menu

Entry	Effect
❯ run from this node	Run this node and everything downstream. Upstream nodes feed in their last result
⊙ test this node	Run only this node
⌫ clear	Wipe captured content on an Output node
❐ copy	Copy captured Output text to the clipboard
⊘ mute / unmute	Skip the node. Downstream starves
⤳ bypass / unbypass	Pass input straight through without executing
⟳ retry	Cycle extra attempts (with backoff) before the node counts as failed
⤼ on error	Toggle between continue and fail run
⇄ exchange agent ›	Swap the agent on an agent node (agent nodes only)
▦ group selection	Wrap two or more selected nodes in a frame
⌗ save selection as sub-workflow	Extract the selection into its own graph
▦ ungroup	Dissolve a frame (frames only)
↻ sync from sub-workflow	Re-pull a linked frame’s contents (linked frames only)

The two run entries are disabled while the graph is running.

Clicking and dragging

Action	Result
Click a skill or rules node	Opens the inspector. Reading is the primary action for these
Double-click any node	Opens the inspector
Double-click a linked frame	Navigates into the sub-workflow it points at
Double-click a frame title	Rename it inline
Double-click a note	Edit its text
Drag a frame	Moves every member with it. Nodes tagged to the frame, plus any node whose centre sits inside it
Drag a node into a frame	Re-tags it to the innermost frame containing its centre. Members of a linked frame are exempt and stay put
Drag a palette item onto the canvas	Adds it where you dropped it
Drag a .json file onto the canvas	Imports it as a workflow
Drag a workflow tab (chrome / ×)	Reorders it
Drag across a tab title	Selects the name text (copyable). Does not start a reorder
Middle-click a workflow tab	Closes it
⊡ in the canvas controls	Cleanup arrangement. Pack nodes by wire depth, center fan-outs on predecessors
Hover the minimap	Expands it. Otherwise it stays compact in the corner

Tabs while a run is going

Signal	Where
Thin progress fill	Bottom edge of a background tab that is running / waiting / errored
Under-tabbar rail	Only the focused graph’s run

Navigation

These come from the canvas library’s defaults rather than threadle’s own handler, and they are the one place where macOS and other platforms genuinely differ.

Action	Result
Shift + drag on empty canvas	Rubber-band selection box
Cmd (macOS) / Ctrl (elsewhere) + click a node	Add it to the selection
Wheel	Zoom
Drag empty canvas	Pan
Hold Space + drag	Pan without hitting the pane

Zoom is clamped to 0.08×–2.5×, and the view fits the graph when a workflow first opens. Scrollable areas inside nodes. Prompt bodies, output panes, run logs. Capture the wheel instead of zooming the canvas. The minimap in the bottom-right stays compact until you hover it, then expands for panning and zooming.

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Related

• Graph & wires. What the canvas is modelling
• Run. Partial runs and graph settings
• Graph lint. The dock that catches wiring mistakes