Boards Guide

Boards are the canvas where your architecture lives. Every system diagram, context map, ADR, and knowledge base article starts as a board — and you can nest boards inside boards to model any level of detail.

Where you land: hub or canvas

Opening a board doesn't always start at the diagram. A board connected to a repo — an app board — opens on its hub instead, a front page showing intents, insights, aspects, sources, and skills next to the diagram. A root board whose layers contain app boards opens on the command center, one tile per app. Every other board opens straight onto the canvas.

You can switch any time: Open canvas from a hub, or the Hub button in the canvas toolbar. The rest of this guide covers the canvas — creating boards, nodes, layers, and layouts.

Board types

When you create a board, you pick a type that tells the board how to treat its contents:

Creating a board

Your first board checklist

• Pick a board type that matches your goal
• Choose a short, descriptive name (2–100 characters)
• Set a URL-friendly slug (lowercase, hyphens only)
• Select a layout — dashboard for visual, page for written content
• Add a description so teammates know the board's purpose
• Place at least one node or content block to get started

Layout settings

Every board has a layout — dashboard or page — that controls how content is arranged.

Layout presets

Dashboard layout

Best for diagrams and visual canvases. Supports width presets:

Preset	Description
Full width	Edge-to-edge canvas
2XL	Extra-wide container
XL	Wide container
LG	Standard container
Custom	Specify both width and height

Page layout

Best for written content — ADRs, reports, knowledge base articles.

Preset	Description
Narrow	Focused reading width
Standard	Comfortable article width
Wide	Expanded content area
Full width	Edge-to-edge
Custom	Specify width

Section templates

Each layout also uses a section template to define the internal structure — single diagram, single content block, title + content, title + diagram, multi-column, etc.

Pick the template that matches what the board is for; you can change it later without losing content.

Adding nodes and edges

Once your board is created, you can populate it:

1. Add nodes — Click the canvas to place a new node (system, service, database, etc.)
2. Connect with edges — Drag from one node's handle to another to create a relationship
3. Edit properties — Click any node or edge to set its name, slug, description, and tags

Layers (nested boards)

Any node on a board can have a child layer — a full board nested inside it. This is how you model depth without cluttering a single view.

• Right-click a node and select Create Subsystem Layer to create a nested board
• Navigate between layers using the breadcrumb trail at the top

Layers are also where app boards usually live: connect a repo to a layer board and that layer gets its own hub. Drilling around from the canvas keeps you on the canvas — hubs only take over once you arrive at an app board.

Organizing with folders

Boards can be grouped into folders. Create folders from the workspace sidebar to keep things tidy — group by domain, team, or lifecycle stage.

Tags and featured boards

• Apply context tags to boards for filtering and discovery
• Mark boards as featured to highlight them on your org's public profile
• Opt in to listing to get your board curated and surfaced

What's next