buildonce.app
DocumentationAPI reference
Importing templates

Importing from Canva

CCanva

Import a Canva design by pasting its public view link — not the edit link, which requires being signed in as the designer.

  1. Open the design in Canva.
  2. Click Share in the top right.
  3. Choose More → Public view link.
  4. Paste that link into buildonce.app's import dialog.
A private or edit link won't work — buildonce.app fetches the design the same way any anonymous visitor would, so it has to be public. A shortened canva.link/… share link works the same as the full public view link.
The import dialog's Canva tab with a public Canva design link pasted into the field
Import → Canva — paste the public view link, then Fetch design.

Text layers, images, and vector shapes (borders, icons, decorative graphics) all carry over, including each text layer's font, size, weight, color and spacing. Layers import as plain editable objects — they don't become template variables automatically; mark the ones you need afterward in the studio's Properties panel.

Importing templates

Exporting from inside Canva

The Canva App “Export to BuildOnce” is a separate path from pasting a link: it runs inside Canva's own editor and sends the open design straight into a new buildonce.app template, with every page carried over automatically and no preview/confirm step.

  1. Install or open the BuildOnce app from within Canva's editor.
  2. Configure it with an buildonce.app API key for the workspace you want to import into.
  3. Use the app's export action to send the current design to buildonce.app.
This path doesn't carry over fonts — text imports with its size, weight and color, but no font file, so font rehosting only happens when importing via a pasted public link.

Under the hood the app calls POST /v1/canva-app/import with your API key (X-Api-Key, template:write scope) plus a Canva-issued token proving the call came from inside Canva's editor. This route exists only for the Canva App itself — it isn't a general-purpose import endpoint, so it isn't documented further in the API reference.

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