Propose a Map from Canon

3 min read

Let Atlas read your Canon documents — specs, PRDs, user guides — and suggest the parts of your app your test folders never named. Nothing is added to the map until you review it and apply it.

A node is one item on the map (an area, a screen, a feature…); a route is a line between two items; a journey is an end-to-end task a user does.

Discover or Find Gaps

Both use the same sparkle button in the Discover group of the action rail (the column of buttons on the right edge of the Atlas page). What it does depends on whether your map has items yet:

Your map	Button name	What it does
Empty	Read Canon and propose the product’s areas, screens and routes	Drafts a whole map from your Canon documents
Has items	Find gaps — read Canon again for what the map is missing	Compares your Canon documents with your current map and suggests only what’s missing

Most teams Sync first, so they use Find gaps — and run it again whenever they add documents to Canon. Atlas reads the headings of every Canon document, so it sees your whole set of documents.

Get Suggestions

Check that your project has Canon documents that show as Ready.
In the Atlas action rail, select the sparkle button in the Discover group.
Wait while a panel above the map shows Reading Canon…. You can keep working.
When it’s done, the review panel opens above the map, titled Proposed from Canon. If you’ve scrolled away, select Review what Canon proposed in the rail.

Review and Apply

The review panel lists every suggested item, nested as it would sit on the map, with its type and the number of Canon documents it came from (hover the src badge to see which).

Go through the Nodes list and choose for each item:
- Add — put it on the map.
- Merge — shown instead of Add when an item with the same title is already on the map (marked already on map). Your existing item is kept, with its links, and takes the suggestion’s type, place and sources.
- Skip — leave it out.
Look harder at items marked implied. Their title doesn’t appear in any document heading — Atlas grouped them itself.
Check the suggested journeys in the same way, if there are any.
Select Apply N to map to add everything you chose. Or select Discard to throw the whole suggestion away — your map is untouched.

New items start as Skip and items already on the map start as Merge, so nothing is added unless you choose it. Accept all sets everything to Add or Merge — you still need to select Apply. Your choices are saved as you go, so you can close the panel and come back. Not offered lists items Atlas couldn’t back up with a document; they aren’t added.

Items you add from a suggestion are never changed or removed by Sync.

Suggest Journeys from Your Test Steps

The second button in the Discover group, Read the test steps and propose the flows they walk, reads your test case steps and suggests journeys through items already on your map. It needs a map with items, so run Sync or Find gaps first.

The review panel works the same way — choose Add or Skip for each flow, then apply. Tick Link the evidencing tests if you want the test cases behind each flow linked to the items they pass through, which changes those items’ coverage.

If Nothing Useful Comes Back

If your Canon documents don’t describe the app’s structure well enough, the panel says so instead of guessing. Add documents that describe what the app is made of — a feature list, a navigation guide, a product spec. See Canon best practices.

Daily Limit

Suggestions (including journey suggestions) are limited to 20 a day per workspace, shared by everyone in it and the same on every plan. If you reach it, your map is untouched — apply the suggestion you have, or try again tomorrow.