feat(canvas): send the last referenced canvas node as a generation anchor

Resolve the most recent canvas-node reference from the prompt's reference
images (by node id or matching asset URL) and append it as a hidden
"reference anchor node:" settings directive on agent submissions, so the
server can place generated images beside the source. Keep the persisted
user-visible copy unchanged.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

frontend/src/ui/pages/CanvasWorkspace/canvas/nodeReferenceImages.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import type { CanvasNode } from "@/domain/design";
+import type { AgentContent, CanvasNode } from "@/domain/design";
 import type { UploadedReferenceImage } from "@/ui/components/PromptComposer";
 
 const canvasNodeReferencePrefix = "canvas-node:";
@@ -21,6 +21,31 @@ export function isCanvasNodeReferenceImage(reference: UploadedReferenceImage) {
   return reference.id.startsWith(canvasNodeReferencePrefix);
 }
 
+export function lastCanvasNodeIdForReferences(references: Array<Pick<UploadedReferenceImage, "id" | "publicUrl">>, nodes: Array<Pick<CanvasNode, "id" | "content">>) {
+  for (let index = references.length - 1; index >= 0; index -= 1) {
+    const reference = references[index];
+    const directNodeId = reference.id.startsWith(canvasNodeReferencePrefix) ? reference.id.slice(canvasNodeReferencePrefix.length) : "";
+    if (directNodeId && nodes.some((node) => node.id === directNodeId)) return directNodeId;
+    const referenceKeys = assetReferenceKeys(reference.publicUrl);
+    const matchedNode = [...nodes].reverse().find((node) => Array.from(assetReferenceKeys(node.content)).some((key) => referenceKeys.has(key)));
+    if (matchedNode) return matchedNode.id;
+  }
+  return "";
+}
+
+export function withLastCanvasReferenceAnchor(contents: AgentContent[], references: Array<Pick<UploadedReferenceImage, "id" | "publicUrl">>, nodes: Array<Pick<CanvasNode, "id" | "content">>): AgentContent[] {
+  const anchorNodeId = lastCanvasNodeIdForReferences(references, nodes);
+  if (!anchorNodeId) return contents;
+  return [
+    ...contents,
+    {
+      type: "text",
+      text: `Reference anchor node: ${anchorNodeId}`,
+      textSource: "settings"
+    }
+  ];
+}
+
 export function isAssetReferencedByCanvas(publicUrl: string, nodes: CanvasNode[]) {
   const targetKeys = assetReferenceKeys(publicUrl);
   if (targetKeys.size === 0) return false;

frontend/src/ui/pages/CanvasWorkspace/index.tsx

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ import { useCanvasPersistence } from "./canvas/hooks/useCanvasPersistence";
 import { useCanvasSelection } from "./canvas/hooks/useCanvasSelection";
 import { useGenerationStream, type GenerationChannel } from "./canvas/hooks/useGenerationStream";
 import { imageGeneratorPlaceholderSize, imageGeneratorTargetSizeFromNode, imageGeneratorTargetSizeFromSettings, serializeImageGeneratorTargetSize, type ImageGeneratorTargetSize } from "./canvas/imageGeneratorSizing";
-import { canvasNodeToReferenceImage, isAssetReferencedByCanvas, isCanvasNodeReferenceImage } from "./canvas/nodeReferenceImages";
+import { canvasNodeToReferenceImage, isAssetReferencedByCanvas, isCanvasNodeReferenceImage, withLastCanvasReferenceAnchor } from "./canvas/nodeReferenceImages";
 import { canvasNodeSvg, exportCanvasNode, exportImageNode, exportTextNode, imageNodeRasterBlob, svgToRasterBlob } from "./canvas/nodeExport";
 import { beginPenStroke, createPenStrokeNode, PenStrokeDraftOverlay, PenToolControls, type PenDraft, type PenSettings } from "@/ui/pages/CanvasWorkspace/canvas/PenTool";
 import { PenStrokeToolbar, updatePenStrokeNode, type PenStrokePatch } from "./canvas/PenStrokeToolbar";
@@ -2993,12 +2993,13 @@ export function CanvasWorkspace({ projectId, shareAccess = ownerWorkspaceAccess
       source === "image-generator"
         ? imageGeneratorContents ?? []
         : activeRef.current?.toAgentContents() ?? [{ type: "text" as const, text: activePrompt, textSource: "input" }];
+    const anchoredContents = source === "agent" ? withLastCanvasReferenceAnchor(baseContents, referenceImagesRef.current, nodesRef.current) : baseContents;
     const hasUserText = baseContents.some((content) => content.type === "text" && !isHiddenTextSource(content.textSource) && content.text.replace(/\u00a0/g, " ").trim());
     const contents =
       activeMode === "image"
-        ? withImageGeneratorTarget(baseContents, selectedGeneratorNode?.id)
+        ? withImageGeneratorTarget(anchoredContents, selectedGeneratorNode?.id)
-        : baseContents;
+        : anchoredContents;
-    const visibleContents = activeMode === "image" ? baseContents : contents;
+    const visibleContents = baseContents;
     if (!project || !hasUserText) return;
     const selectedThreadId = selectedAgentThreadIdRef.current;
     const reusableAgentThreadId =

frontend/tests/nodeReferenceImages.test.mjs

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import assert from "node:assert/strict";
 import test from "node:test";
 
-import { canvasNodeToReferenceImage } from "../src/ui/pages/CanvasWorkspace/canvas/nodeReferenceImages.ts";
+import { canvasNodeToReferenceImage, lastCanvasNodeIdForReferences, withLastCanvasReferenceAnchor } from "../src/ui/pages/CanvasWorkspace/canvas/nodeReferenceImages.ts";
 
 test("keeps the SVG source for model preparation and uses WebP for the visible capsule", () => {
   const reference = canvasNodeToReferenceImage({
@@ -24,3 +24,29 @@ test("keeps the SVG source for model preparation and uses WebP for the visible c
   assert.equal(reference.previewUrl, "https://assets.example/drawing.render.webp");
   assert.equal(reference.semanticContext, "CAD context");
 });
+
+test("anchors generation to the last canvas-backed image capsule", () => {
+  const nodes = [
+    { id: "image-1", content: "/assets/one.webp" },
+    { id: "image-2", content: "/assets/two.webp" }
+  ];
+  const references = [
+    { id: "canvas-node:image-1", publicUrl: "/assets/one.webp" },
+    { id: "upload-external", publicUrl: "/assets/external.webp" },
+    { id: "canvas-node:image-2", publicUrl: "/assets/two.webp" }
+  ];
+
+  assert.equal(lastCanvasNodeIdForReferences(references, nodes), "image-2");
+  assert.equal(lastCanvasNodeIdForReferences(references.slice(0, 2), nodes), "image-1");
+  assert.equal(lastCanvasNodeIdForReferences([{ id: "upload-two", publicUrl: "/assets/two.webp" }], nodes), "image-2");
+
+  const contents = withLastCanvasReferenceAnchor([{ type: "text", text: "generate", textSource: "input" }], references, nodes);
+  assert.deepEqual(contents.at(-1), {
+    type: "text",
+    text: "Reference anchor node: image-2",
+    textSource: "settings"
+  });
+
+  const unanchoredContents = [{ type: "text", text: "generate", textSource: "input" }];
+  assert.equal(withLastCanvasReferenceAnchor(unanchoredContents, [{ id: "upload-external", publicUrl: "/assets/external.webp" }], nodes), unanchoredContents);
+});