# Build Designs

> Task guides for the work you do on the Kanvas canvas - placing and configuring components, connecting them, annotating a design, and organizing your workspace.


These guides cover the tasks you perform while authoring a design in Designer mode. Each one accomplishes a single task and assumes you know what a design, a component, and a relationship are. If you do not, read [Designs and Components](/kanvas/concepts/designs/) and [Relationships](/kanvas/concepts/relationships/) first.

Authoring happens only in Designer mode. Operator mode shows live cluster state and blocks adding, editing, duplicating, and deleting components.

| Goal | Guide |
|---|---|
| Add components, edit their configuration, lock, duplicate, copy, and paste them | [Add and Configure Components](/kanvas/guides/designing/configuring-components/) |
| Connect components and remove connections | [Create Relationships](/kanvas/guides/designing/creating-relationships/) |
| Draw, label, and annotate a design with shapes, text, and lines | [Whiteboard on the Canvas](/kanvas/guides/designing/whiteboarding/) |
| Keep frequently used models one step away in the dock | [Pin Models to the Dock](/kanvas/guides/designing/pin-model-to-dock/) |
| Group components by shared labels | [Work with Tags](/kanvas/guides/designing/tagsets/) |

For how Kanvas decides which relationships exist and keeps their configuration in sync, read [Policy Evaluation](/kanvas/concepts/relationship-evaluation/).