Last updated October 24, 2026
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The Board Tree
The board tree is the nested set of boards that models a whole system: the root board, its layers, and the app boards among them.
The tree
Every tree starts at a root board. From there, any node can open into a layer: a full board nested inside that node. A layer can hold layers of its own.
The tree holds three kinds of board:
Most trees use three levels: L0 for the landscape, L1 for one board per system, and L2 for subsystems. App boards usually live at L1. Use L3 only when a subsystem needs its own map.
Where you land
Where a board opens depends on its kind:
Only the workspace's root board has a root hub. A context board, decision record, or board created from the listing sits outside the tree. It opens on its canvas without a hub, aspects, or work items.
On a context board, the Map button becomes Context maps, and its dock lists the workspace's context boards.
The tab strip
Above every board, a tab strip lists that board's screens:
An app board's Skills screen opens from the board menu (⋯); its tab shows on the strip only while you're on it. Two tabs show waiting work: Work items has a count, and Hub has an attention marker.
On the root board, Aspects shows system aspects: the events and calls that pass between your apps.
The Hub tab's icon says whose hub it is: a tan disc marks an app board, and a plain solid disc marks the root board. The same tan disc marks an app board's tile on the root hub and, on the canvas, the control on a node that opens its app board.
There is no Insights screen in the strip. Insights appear in the Insights Bar on the canvas, on the elements they concern; only the published viewer has a standalone insights surface. Insights covers how to read them.
Moving around
Three places show where you are: the breadcrumb, the tab strip, and the board map.
[ and ] cycle through the screens of the current board. The back and forward arrows follow your in-app history board by board. ⌘K jumps straight to a board, screen, node, aspect, work item, or insight by name.
When you move to another board, you stay on the same screen if that board has it. From a hub you arrive on the next board's hub, and from the canvas on its canvas. A shared canvas link opens the viewport or selected insight exactly as the sender saw it.
An app board's hub has a Root hub link beside its title that takes you back up. A dot on Map means another board in the tree changed while you were elsewhere; the board map shows which.
The board map
Select Map in the board bar to open a left panel with the whole tree: every board, which ones are apps, and one-click access to each. Layers don't appear in the workspace sidebar; open them from here.
- 1
Each row says what the board is
An app board shows a type badge and a pulse dot; a plain layer shows the icon of the node that owns it.
- 2
Hover a row for its screens
Screen icons appear at the right edge; click one to open that screen of that board.
- 3
The current row stays quiet
Your own board shows no icons, because the tab strip is already visible.
One app, one repo — and no nesting
An app board is bound to one repo, pinned to one branch, and everything beneath it describes that repo. Give a second repo its own sibling app board under the root, not a child layer; the root then gains its root hub. A monorepo is still one repo and one app board; model web and server as layers inside it.
The rule holds in both directions, at any depth. You cannot bind a repo to a board with an app board anywhere above or beneath it; siblings are fine. On a board inside an app board, a note replaces the bind option and points to the app board above it.
What's next
App Boards & the Hub
What a board becomes when you bind a repo — six facets and a hub that fronts them.
Boards
Board types, layouts, and how layers appear.
Pages
The screen between Canvas and Work items — an app's front-end surface, mapped.
Connecting Sources
Bind a repo and turn a layer into an app board.
Chat
Ask about any board in the tree, scoped to where you are.