The techniques disclosed herein provide a contextual toolset for use in canvases of collaboration applications. The techniques also provide smart hooks for pinning tools to specific locations on content opened in a canvas. The contextual toolset may include tools specific to an application opened in a canvas and/or tools for implementing the functionality of external applications. The smart hooks maintain linkages between an instance of tool usage and an object in a file or other content. The linkages maintain the tool in the same location relative to the object even if the object is moved. Instances of external applications opened in a canvas may be presented in a dedicated user interface region that passes data to and from the external application.