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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.asquareportal.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Brainstorming mode gives you an infinite pan-and-zoom canvas where you can place cards, sketches, shapes, and connectors anywhere without any fixed boundaries. It is designed for freeform ideation — whether you are mapping out a product concept, assembling a moodboard, or organizing research before moving into Design mode.

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Getting around the canvas

You navigate the canvas entirely with gestures and keyboard shortcuts. There are no fixed limits on how far you can pan or how deep you can zoom.
ActionShortcut
PanSpace + drag
Zoom in / outScroll wheel or pinch on trackpad
New cardDouble-click on empty canvas
Fit canvas to screenCmd/Ctrl + Shift + H
Pinch gestures on a trackpad include momentum — lift your fingers and the canvas continues to glide, matching the feel of native macOS scrolling.

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Cards

Cards are the core unit of Brainstorming mode. Every piece of content you add — a note, an image, an AI-generated result — lives inside a card. To create one, double-click on any empty area of the canvas.

Text cards

Plain or rich-text notes. Resize freely and change background color to organize by theme or priority.

Image cards

Drag an image file onto the canvas, or let the Portal Agent fetch and place images from the web directly.

AI-generated cards

Cards produced by the Portal Agent — search results, generated content, applets, and visualizations — all land as first-class cards you can move and edit.

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Moving and editing cards

Select a card by clicking it. Drag it to reposition. Resize from any corner or edge. To edit a text card’s content, double-click the card body. You can select multiple cards by drawing a selection rectangle or by holding Shift and clicking. Once selected, you can move, group, or delete the entire selection at once.

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Card colors

Each card supports a background color, which you can set from the card’s toolbar. Use colors to create visual clusters — for example, blue for research, yellow for open questions, green for confirmed decisions.

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Shapes and connectors

The toolbar at the top of the canvas gives you access to basic shapes (rectangles, ellipses, lines) and connectors. Connectors snap to card edges and stay attached when you move cards, making them useful for mind maps and flow diagrams.
1

Select the connector tool

Click the connector icon in the toolbar, or press C.
2

Click the source card

Hover over a card until the edge anchor points appear, then click one to start the connector.
3

Click the target card

Click an anchor on the destination card to complete the connection. The connector updates automatically when either card moves.

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Inspiration view

Inspiration view is an alternative canvas presentation that applies a parallax depth effect to your cards, making the board feel spatial and immersive. It is useful for presenting a moodboard or reviewing a research collection. To enter Inspiration view, click the Inspiration button in the top-right controls. Click it again to return to the standard canvas.

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Ambient sounds

While in Inspiration view you can enable ambient background sounds to create a focused creative environment. Open the sound controls from the view toolbar and choose from the available soundscapes.
Ambient sounds play only within Portals and do not affect your system audio output for other applications.

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Portal Agent in Brainstorming mode

The Portal Agent integrates directly into the canvas and can perform multi-step tasks from a single prompt. You do not need to leave the canvas or switch tools.
Ask the agent something like “Research brutalist architecture and build a moodboard.” It will search the web, find images, create cards for each result, and organize them on the canvas — including source citations attached to each card.
Prompt the agent to “Create a mind map for a subscription fitness app.” It will create a central topic card and branch cards connected with labeled connectors.
The agent can generate mini-apps — charts, calculators, or data visualizations — and place them as applet cards on your canvas alongside your other content.
When you have existing cards on the canvas, the agent is aware of their positions and will place new content in open space rather than on top of existing work.
To open the agent, click the agent input bar at the bottom of the screen or press /. For a full list of what the Portal Agent can do, see the Portal Agent overview.