figcraft/docs/boards-parity.md

# Boards parity

> **Last reviewed:** 2026-10-24 · **Last updated:** 2026-10-24 · **Change:** major (created: board files, the first slice of the whiteboard workflow) · **Target:** the incumbent's whiteboard product (behaviour from its public help centre)

**Breadth ~35%, ready ~20% (estimated, erring low).** A board is a FigCraft file of its own kind
(`file.newBoard`) with sticky notes, shapes with text, connectors that follow what they join,
marker, highlighter and eraser, stamps, text and sections, edited together in the existing live
sessions. The facilitation tools (timer, voting, widgets), templates, tables, mind maps and the
rest of the tail are missing. Remaining: ~30–60 h. Tracked as area 22 of
[`target-app-parity.md`](target-app-parity.md) (not in its weighted sum: the target there is the
design product). The work item is gap 24 in [`gaps.md`](gaps.md).

## How boards are built

Board objects are ordinary layers with a small `board` field on the node (`figcraft_doc::BoardItem`),
so rendering, hit testing, undo, saving, SVG/PNG/PDF export, copy and paste and live sessions work
on them unchanged. The file kind (`Document.kind`) is saved in `.figcraft` and reaches people who
join a live session in their snapshot. What follows from the metadata (a sticky's text size, a
shape's text room, connector routes and their labels) is recomputed in the engine's normalize pass,
deterministically from the document, so local edits, undo and edits from others in a live session
all end with the same geometry.

## Features

| Feature | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Board files: File ▸ New board, the home screen's New board card, a light page | done | `file.newBoard`; the kind shows in `inspect_document`, tabs and file rows (a note mark; design files a pen nib) |
| Board toolbar at the bottom | done | Move/Hand, Marker/Highlighter/Eraser, Sticky (colour flyout), Shapes (flyout), Connector, Text, Section, Stamp (flyout), Comment, Resources, Actions, the Design panel's button |
| Design panel hidden by default; a contextual bar above the selection | done | colour, shape, text size (S/M/L/XL), connector straight/elbow and its arrow; the Design panel opens with its button or View ▸ Design panel |
| Prototyping and Dev Mode refuse on boards | done | `proto.*`, `dev.*`, `view.prototype`, `view.devMode` say why |
| Sticky notes | done | a square frame (200 wide, growing taller through auto layout), 8 soft colours, a soft shadow, the note's text size shrinking as it grows (24 → 11, by characters and lines), the author's name at the bottom; a click places one and starts typing; Enter or a double-click edits; Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+Enter adds the next one beside it |
| Sticky options: hide the author, change size presets, sticky stacks | partial | `board.sticky {author: false}`; no size presets or stacks |
| Shapes with text | done | rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, diamond, triangle, speech bubble, chevron; text centred and wrapping inside the outline; shape type and text size from the contextual bar |
| Shape auto-fit to its text, more shapes (cylinder, cross, star…), shape libraries | missing | |
| Connectors | done | from a layer's side (the facing one, or one named) to another layer or a free point, straight or elbow, arrowheads (the stroke's caps), a label in the middle (double-click to add); re-routed when either end moves or resizes; a deleted end stays where it was |
| Curved connectors, connector waypoints, dragging an end to re-attach | missing | ends are attached when drawn or through `board.connector` |
| Quick-create handles (drag out a connected copy) | missing | |
| Marker and highlighter | done | the Pencil's stroke fitting with board presets: marker opaque, highlighter wide, see-through and multiplying |
| Eraser | done | drag over marker and highlighter strokes to remove them, one undo step |
| Pen colours and widths in the toolbar | partial | `tool.marker {color}`, `tool.highlighter {color}`; colour changes on a selected stroke from the contextual bar |
| Stamps | done | thumbs up, heart, plus one, star, question, check: round badges drawn as vectors, the placer's name on hover |
| Stamps sticking to the object they land on, the stamp wheel, emotes, stickers | missing | |
| Text and sections | done | the existing Text tool and sections |
| Live sessions: cursors, selections, cursor chat, spotlight | done | the existing sessions; board objects, connectors following moved objects, colours and stamps sync both ways (checked with two app instances) |
| Timer and music | missing | |
| Voting sessions | missing | |
| Board widgets | missing | design-file widgets exist (`crates/engine/src/widgets.rs`), not wired to boards |
| Templates (retrospective, brainstorm, flow chart…) | missing | |
| Tables | missing | |
| Mind maps | missing | |
| Washi tape, code blocks, image cropping on boards | missing | images can be placed as in design files |
| Audio and huddles | missing | |
| AI features (summaries, sorting stickies, generating boards) | missing | |
| Dot grid on the page | missing | the canvas grid is drawn over the render; a dot grid needs a render pass under the layers |
| `.jam` import and export | missing | see [`file-format-parity.md`](file-format-parity.md) |

## Revision history

| Date | Change | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-24 | major | Created with board files (M12): sticky notes, shapes with text, connectors, ink and eraser, stamps, the board toolbar and contextual bar, live-session sync |