Canvas Card Merger

A small, local Obsidian plugin that turns a Canvas into a single structured Markdown note — one command, no manual copy‑pasting.

Canvas is great for spreading ideas out spatially. But when you want that thinking back as a normal linear note, you end up copying every card by hand. This plugin does it for you.

What it does

Run the command “Merge canvas to note” while a canvas is open, and it creates a new note next to it that contains the canvas content as Markdown:

• Cards become text blocks, in reading order:
  • if cards are connected by arrows, the order follows the arrows (topological order);
  • otherwise, top‑to‑bottom, then left‑to‑right.
• Groups (the boxes you draw around cards) become headings (##). Cards inside a group are nested under it, and any headings inside a card are pushed down a level so they never outrank the group heading.
• File/image nodes become embeds (![[file]]); link nodes become plain URLs.
• Local images written inside a card as relative Markdown (![](attachments/x.png), ![](../assets/y.png)) are converted to vault embeds (![[x.png]]) so they keep rendering in the merged note even though it lives in a different spot. External image URLs (https://…) are kept exactly as written.
• It never overwrites an existing note — if X (merged).md already exists, it writes X (merged 2).md, and so on.

Example

A canvas with a group “Project” containing a card # Goal / Ship MVP, a plain card Details, an image node, and a link node produces:

## Project

### Goal
Ship MVP

Details

![[diagram.png]]

https://obsidian.md

Install

This plugin is not (yet) in the community store. Two options:

Manual

1. Create a folder <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/canvas-card-merger/.
2. Copy main.js and manifest.json into it.
3. Reload Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → enable Canvas Card Merger.

Via BRAT (Beta Reviewers Auto‑update Tool)

1. Install the BRAT plugin.
2. BRAT → “Add beta plugin” → paste this repository’s URL.

Usage

1. Open a canvas.
2. Command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P) → Merge canvas to note.
3. A new … (merged).md note appears in the same folder.

What it does NOT do (please read)

This is a v1 of a small tool. Be honest with yourself about its limits:

• It flattens spatial meaning. A canvas is non‑linear; a note is linear. Positions, colours, arrow types, and the visual layout are not preserved beyond the ordering described above. If the spatial arrangement is the meaning, the merged note will lose it.
• It only adds a file. It never edits or deletes your existing notes or the canvas. The worst it can do is leave extra (merged) notes you can delete.
• No network. No telemetry. It runs 100% locally and sends nothing anywhere.

Safety notes

• Back up your vault before first use, and try it on a throwaway canvas first.
• External references are passed through verbatim — external image URLs, links, and embedded HTML alike. If a card contains something like ![x](https://example.com/...) (or raw <img>/<iframe> HTML, or CSS with an external url()), the merged note keeps it exactly as-is. The plugin does not alter or sanitize your content. When you open the merged note in reading view, Obsidian fetches any such external reference — exactly as it already does on the canvas itself, so this adds no new exposure. Still, be cautious merging canvases that contain external references you don’t trust.
• Duplicate filenames. Local in‑card images are converted to ![[filename]] embeds, which Obsidian resolves by name across the whole vault. If two files share the same name, the embed may resolve to a different one than the card pointed at — keep image filenames unique if this matters to you.
• When reporting a bug, desensitise first. Don’t paste private vault content, full canvas JSON, or screenshots of confidential notes into a public issue.

How ordering is decided (details)

• Within a set of sibling cards: if there are arrows among them, a topological sort is used (A→B means A comes first); cycles fall back to geometric order, and no card is ever dropped.
• Groups and ungrouped nodes at the same level are interleaved by position.
• Nested groups increase the heading level (## → ### → …), capped at ######.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.