Skip to main content
Version: 0.x.x

Getting Started

Canvas Tile Engine is a renderer-agnostic TypeScript engine for zoomable 2D grid surfaces: maps, game boards, editors, minimaps, pixel tools, and dense spatial dashboards.

The core package owns camera state, coordinate transforms, gestures, layers, culling, sprite helpers, and the draw API. Renderer packages decide where the frame is drawn: HTML Canvas2D, WebGL, React Native Skia, or a headless Node.js image buffer.

Package Map​

PackageUse it for
@canvas-tile-engine/coreFramework-agnostic engine, camera, events, drawing, sprites, and renderer contracts.
@canvas-tile-engine/reactReact web component, hook, and declarative draw components.
@canvas-tile-engine/react-nativeReact Native component and hook backed by Skia.
@canvas-tile-engine/renderer-canvasHTML Canvas2D renderer. Best default for browser apps.
@canvas-tile-engine/renderer-webglWebGL renderer for batched GPU drawing of dynamic geometry and images.
@canvas-tile-engine/renderer-skiaReact Native Skia renderer used by the native package.
@canvas-tile-engine/renderer-serverNode.js renderer for PNG, JPEG, and WebP buffers without a browser.

Install​

Vanilla web with Canvas2D:

npm install @canvas-tile-engine/core @canvas-tile-engine/renderer-canvas

React web:

npm install @canvas-tile-engine/core @canvas-tile-engine/react @canvas-tile-engine/renderer-canvas

React Native:

npx expo install @shopify/react-native-skia
npm install @canvas-tile-engine/core @canvas-tile-engine/react-native @canvas-tile-engine/renderer-skia

Server rendering:

npm install @canvas-tile-engine/core @canvas-tile-engine/renderer-server

AI Agent Skill​

Canvas Tile Engine ships an Agent Skill that teaches AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and compatible tools) the full engine API, so they can build tile maps, game boards, minimaps, and pixel editors with these packages on the first try.

Install with the skills CLI (works across agents):

npx skills add enesyukselx/canvas-tile-engine

Or as a Claude Code plugin:

/plugin marketplace add enesyukselx/canvas-tile-engine
/plugin install canvas-tile-engine@canvas-tile-engine

Manual copy into a project:

npx degit enesyukselx/canvas-tile-engine/skills/canvas-tile-engine .claude/skills/canvas-tile-engine

Quick Start​

HTML wrapper:

<div id="map">
    <canvas></canvas>
</div>

Engine setup:

import { CanvasTileEngine, type CanvasTileEngineConfig } from "@canvas-tile-engine/core";
import { RendererCanvas } from "@canvas-tile-engine/renderer-canvas";

const wrapper = document.getElementById("map") as HTMLDivElement;

const config: CanvasTileEngineConfig = {
    scale: 48,
    size: { width: 800, height: 500 },
    backgroundColor: "#0f172a",
    eventHandlers: { drag: true, zoom: "pointer", hover: true, click: true },
    coordinates: { enabled: true, shownScaleRange: { min: 16, max: 96 } },
};

const engine = new CanvasTileEngine(wrapper, config, new RendererCanvas(), { x: 0, y: 0 });

engine.drawGridLines(1, 1, "#1e293b", 0);
engine.drawRect({ x: 0, y: 0, size: 1, radius: 0.1, style: { fillStyle: "#22c55e" } }, 1);
engine.drawText(
    {
        x: 0,
        y: -1,
        text: "Spawn",
        size: 0.35,
        style: { fillStyle: "#e2e8f0", fontFamily: "sans-serif", textAlign: "center" },
    },
    2,
);

engine.onClick = (coords) => {
    console.log("Clicked tile:", coords.snapped);
};

engine.render();

React Quick Start​

import { CanvasTileEngine, useCanvasTileEngine } from "@canvas-tile-engine/react";
import { RendererCanvas } from "@canvas-tile-engine/renderer-canvas";

const tiles = [
    { x: 0, y: 0, size: 1, style: { fillStyle: "#22c55e" } },
    { x: 1, y: 0, size: 1, style: { fillStyle: "#38bdf8" } },
];

export function Map() {
    const engine = useCanvasTileEngine();

    return (
        <CanvasTileEngine
            engine={engine}
            renderer={new RendererCanvas()}
            config={{
                scale: 48,
                size: { width: 800, height: 500 },
                eventHandlers: { drag: true, zoom: true, click: true },
            }}
            center={{ x: 0, y: 0 }}
            onClick={(coords) => console.log(coords.snapped)}
        >
            <CanvasTileEngine.GridLines cellSize={1} strokeStyle="#1e293b" layer={0} />
            <CanvasTileEngine.Rect items={tiles} layer={1} />
        </CanvasTileEngine>
    );
}

Next Steps​