In this paper, we define an explicit basis for the 𝔤𝔩n-web algebra Hn(k) (the 𝔤𝔩n generalization of Khovanov’s arc algebra) using categorified q-skew Howe duality.
Our construction is a 𝔤𝔩n-web version of Hu–Mathas’ graded cellular basis and has two major applications: it gives rise to an explicit isomorphism between a certain idempotent truncation of a thick calculus cyclotomic KLR algebra and Hn(k), and it gives an explicit graded cellular basis of the 2-hom space between two 𝔤𝔩n-webs. We use this to give a (in principle) computable version of colored Khovanov–Rozansky 𝔤𝔩n-link homology, obtained from a complex defined purely combinatorially via the (thick cyclotomic) KLR algebra and needs only F.