Describe the presentation, dashboard or app you want, and Canvas builds it from your live Airtable data — on brand, and updating the moment a data changes.

Canvas, currently in Airtable Labs, is the newest drop from this week’s launches: describe the app, dashboard or presentation you want in natural language, and Canvas builds it from your live Airtable data. No dragging, dropping, or design know-how required to create polished, interactive apps that read and write from your data, built to your taste.

Key takeaways

What is Canvas

Canvas builds software on top of your Airtable base. Instead of configuring an interface field by field or assembling slides by hand, you describe the outcome — like a KPI dashboard, a launch status page, a leadership deck, or a full internal tool — and Canvas creates it based on real records and live data.

Under the hood, Canvas explores your base first — tables, fields, sample records — then proposes a plan before it builds anything. If the plan calls for new tables or fields, it asks for your sign-off before touching the base.

How Canvas creates

Canvas creates a wide range of material, like apps, dashboards, presentations, websites, interactive tools, PDF exports, and diagrams. Not limited to static or pre-configured dashboard elements, Canvas designs are fully customizable, attend to a wider array of needs, and go much further beyond standard interfaces.

Here’s a look at what Canvas can do:

Infer design systems from a URL: Point Canvas at a website and it infers the color palette, typography, design tokens, and a brand description — then applies that system to everything it generates next.

Device previews: Switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile as you build, so what you ship works on the screen your audience actually uses.

Traceable numbers: Every figure in a Canvas app resolves to a record in your base. You can follow it back to the row it came from.

Canvas handles hosting and permissions too, so a published app is shareable with anyone who has access to the underlying base.

Prompting Canvas: Describe the outcome, not the layout

The model is outcome-first. Instead of going over design or trying to describe a look and feel, describe the results you want to achieve.

For example, these are useful starting points for different potential roles:

Canvas will noodle on your prompt and follow up with a design plan for you to approve. For small tweaks — like changing a button color — Canvas skips the plan and makes the change directly.

From there, you can iterate with Canvas inside the conversation. Canvas asks clarifying questions when the ask is ambiguous and can make specific adjustments. As your vision comes to life, Canvas will provide detailed explanations of different components to make it easier to get started in your custom app. It also shows its reasoning inside the thread to track design decision making.

Getting started: Join the Canvas waitlist

Canvas is in private alpha. Access is granted in waves, with priority going to active builders.

Join the Canvas waitlist.

This is Day 3 of a five-day series. Catch up on Catch up on Day 1: Interfaces and automations with Airtable's MCP server, and Day 2: Airtable MCP for teams.