Build Designs on Layer5 Documentation

Add and Configure Components

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A component is one piece of infrastructure in a design, and its configuration is what Kanvas applies when you deploy. This guide covers placing components on the canvas, editing their configuration, and moving them around by duplicating, copying, and pasting.

You need a design open in Designer mode. Designer is the only mode that allows authoring.

Add a component 🔗

Kanvas offers several ways to place a component. All of them produce the same result: a component in the design, with its configurator open beside it.

Create Relationships

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Relationships record how components connect, and Kanvas keeps related configuration in sync once they exist. You create some relationships by hand and Kanvas creates others when it evaluates the design. This guide shows which is which, how to create each kind, and how to remove or hide them.

Relationships work only in Designer mode. For what each kind means, read Relationships.

Kind	You create it by	You remove it by
Edge (network, mount, reference, and other edge subtypes)	Picking an edge from a component’s handle and dragging to a target	Selecting the edge and choosing Delete
Hierarchical, inventory	Dropping a component onto a compatible parent	Dragging it out, or choosing Move Out of Parent
Hierarchical, wallet	Dropping a component onto a compatible host	Deleting the component, or choosing Move Out of Parent
Hierarchical, alias	Kanvas creates it during evaluation	Deleting the alias component
TagSets (shared labels)	Giving components matching labels	Changing the labels so they stop matching
Annotation edge	Drawing with the Pen tool	Selecting the edge and choosing Delete

Create an edge relationship 🔗

Edge relationships connect components that exchange traffic or depend on one another, such as a Service and a Deployment.

Whiteboard on the Canvas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whiteboarding in Kanvas (3:41) follows one late-night incident from page to postmortem on a single live design. Its page has chapters and a transcript.

Whiteboarding lets you diagram freely on the same canvas as your infrastructure. You draw shapes, text, freehand strokes, and lines to explain intent, and they sit beside real components in one design. It is on by default and available on every plan.

Pin Models to the Dock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pinning a model puts its icon in the dock at the bottom of the canvas, so you can reach its components without opening the full palette. Pins belong to your account. They are not stored per design or in the browser, so they follow you across designs, browsers, and devices.

Pinning works in Designer mode. In Operator mode the dock does not show pinned models.

Pin a model 🔗

Hover a model row in the component palette and use the pin icon. Its tooltip reads “Pin To Dock”. The shape palette offers the same pin on each shape category row.

Work with Tags

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tags are the key-value labels and annotations on a component. When components share matching labels, Kanvas groups them in a TagSet, a shaded region drawn around the matching components. Use tags to see which components belong together, such as the Service and Deployment of one application.

Add labels and annotations 🔗

Open a component’s configurator and go to its Labels tab. It holds two key-value maps: