canva-edit-design

name

canva-edit-design

description

Make edits to an existing Canva design — change or fix text, replace/insert/delete images and videos, reformat text (size, weight, style, color, alignment, lists, line height), reposition or resize elements, and update the title. Use when the user wants to change, edit, update, fix, translate, replace, or reformat content in a specific Canva design. This is the safe edit engine that other Canva skills (e.g. implement-feedback) build on.

Canva Design Editing

The canonical, safe way to apply edits to an existing Canva design. Every Canva skill that mutates a design should follow this exact protocol: start a transaction → perform operations → commit (with approval). Changes are draft-only until committed and are PERMANENTLY LOST if not committed.

The Transaction Protocol (always these steps, in order)

1. Canva:start-editing-transaction — pass the design_id. Remember the returned transaction_id and the pages array; both are required by later calls. ALWAYS show the user the thumbnail(s) returned here.
2. Canva:perform-editing-operations — apply edits. Pass the transaction_id, the pages array from the previous response, the page_index of the first page being changed, and an operations array. Batch multiple operations into a single call wherever possible.
3. Canva:commit-editing-transaction — save. See the approval gate below. After committing, the transaction_id is invalid; a new edit needs a new transaction.
4. Canva:cancel-editing-transaction — discard the draft instead of saving (e.g. the user rejects the preview, or you opened a transaction only to inspect the design).

Capabilities — what the API CAN and CANNOT do

CAN (operations on perform-editing-operations)

• Text content: replace_text (whole element), find_and_replace_text (substring)
• Text formatting (format_text): font size, weight (normal/bold), style (normal/italic), color, alignment, line height, underline, strikethrough, links, list level/marker
• Media: update_fill (replace image/video), insert_fill (add image/video), delete_element
• Layout: position_element, resize_element
• Metadata: update_title
• Autofill mapping: update_autofill_field (fixed-page designs only)

CANNOT

• Change font family/typeface (only size, weight, style)
• Add new text elements (you can only insert media, not new text boxes)
• Change background colors or gradients
• Add, remove, or reorder pages/slides
• Modify animations, transitions, or element opacity (except on newly inserted fills)
• Group/ungroup elements, or restyle shapes (only text inside shapes is editable)

When a requested change is in the CANNOT list, tell the user it must be done manually in the Canva editor — don't attempt a workaround.

Responsive pages — restricted operation set

Some pages come back marked is_responsive: true. On those pages, ONLY these operations are allowed: update_title, replace_text, update_fill, delete_element, find_and_replace_text.

Before calling perform-editing-operations, check the pages array. If any operation targets a responsive page with an unsupported op (e.g. format_text, position_element, resize_element, insert_fill), do NOT make the call — tell the user that operation isn't supported on that page and offer an alternative.

The commit approval gate (required)

commit-editing-transaction makes changes permanent. You MUST show the user exactly what changed (and the preview thumbnail) and get explicit approval before committing — e.g. "Here's the preview. Save these changes to your design?" Wait for a clear yes.

• Do NOT commit without approval.
• Do NOT tell the user changes are saved before the commit call has succeeded.
• After a successful commit, give the user a direct link to open the design in Canva.
• If a commit fails, all changes are lost — start a new transaction to retry.

Note for composing skills: a skill that already collects a single up-front approval for a batch of changes (e.g. canva-implement-feedback) should treat that approval as covering the commit and NOT ask again. Follow that skill's own confirmation rules; the gate above is the default for direct, ad-hoc edits.

Workflow

Step 1: Resolve the design

• Short link (canva.link/...) → Canva:resolve-shortlink to get the URL.
• Full Canva URL → extract the design ID (the segment after /design/).
• Raw design ID (starts with D) → use directly; do NOT search.
• Nothing provided → ask for the design ID or link.

Step 2: Start the transaction and inspect

Call Canva:start-editing-transaction. Show the thumbnail(s). Use the returned content to locate the exact element_ids you need to target. (If you only needed to look, call cancel-editing-transaction and stop.)

Step 3: Build and perform operations

Translate the user's request into concrete operations. Confirm scope first when a find_and_replace_text string could match in multiple places or contexts — ask which instances they mean. Batch all operations into one perform-editing-operations call when you can.

Step 4: Preview and commit

Show the resulting thumbnail and a plain-language list of what changed. Ask for approval, then commit-editing-transaction. Share the edit link.

Rules

• Always remember and reuse the transaction_id and pages array within a transaction.
• Never leave a transaction uncommitted without telling the user their draft was discarded.
• For destructive ops (delete_element, large find_and_replace_text), confirm scope before performing.
• Prefer one batched perform-editing-operations call over many small ones.