Last updated October 27, 2026
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Archetypes
An archetype is the type of a board element, such as "API Gateway" or "Message Queue", carrying its styling, structure rules and standards. Every element of a type looks and behaves the same on every board, and the plugins, and ProvenMap in chat, create elements from the types in your catalogue. Nodes & Edges covers how elements use archetypes.
The catalogue screen
Open Settings → Element Archetypes. The Catalogue tab holds your archetypes, and the Proposals tab the types plugins suggest.
In an empty catalogue, Load Default Archetypes copies in the shipped library. Read the rollout caveat before you press Sync Defaults.
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Sync Defaults
Brings your catalogue up to date with the current shipped library. Read the rollout caveat first.
- 2
Create Archetype
Opens the form for a type of your own when nothing shipped fits your systems.
- 3
Filter down to what you need
The stack and element-type filters narrow 262 archetypes to the 27 you need right now.
Archetypes you create belong to your org. Shipped ones are read-only: editing one gives your org its own copy, and you can delete only your org's archetypes.
Start with a handful of archetypes that match the names your team already uses for its systems.
Anatomy of an archetype
The form has four tabs.
Basic Info sets the archetype's identity: name, slug, description and default tags. Nodes and plugins refer to an archetype by its name. The provided archetypes have no default tags (changed 26 October 2026); a tag you add here lands on every new node or edge of the archetype.
Fields lists the metadata each element of this type should carry, such as engine on a Database or runtime on a Function. You compose them from reusable field templates.
Styles sets shape, size, fill and colour, plus connection shape and markers for edges.
Advanced holds governance: the containment rules and standards that the plugins, and ProvenMap in chat, follow when they create this type.
Containment nests elements within one board; a layer puts a separate board behind a node.
Rolling a colour change out
A change to the shipped colour system reaches your boards in two steps, and you run both by hand.
- Sync Defaults updates your org's catalogue with the current shipped archetypes. Anything drawn after this step uses the new colours.
- A separate resync, run by hand against the deployment, repaints the nodes and edges already on boards. Until someone runs it, existing boards keep their colours.
The resync repaints each element from its archetype, so it overwrites styling anyone customized by hand on an individual element. It defaults to a dry run: review what it will change before you apply it, and tell the people whose boards it touches.
Proposals
/analyze-archetypes scans your code for component types your catalogue is missing and submits each as a proposal for an admin to review in Proposals.
- 1
The pending review queue
Types the plugin found no match for, waiting for an admin instead of being invented silently.
- 2
Where each proposal came from
NEW says the catalogue has no such type; CODE says a code plugin raised it; PENDING says nobody has ruled yet.
- 3
Approve & merge, or reject
Approving adds the type to the catalogue. Rejecting dismisses it and sends your notes back to the plugin.
Proposal kinds:
- New: a type the catalogue is missing. Approving it creates an org-owned archetype you can refine like any other.
- Improvement: a change to a type you already have. A rename or description update applies when you approve it. A split or merge you handle by hand, because it moves existing nodes between types.
Where else archetypes turn up
- Organization Settings: the other org-level libraries, such as context tags, field templates and icons.
- The Boards API: how a plugin fetches the archetype names it can push.
- Import and export: how an imported diagram's elements are matched to your catalogue, and how an export carries archetypes out.