Last updated September 7, 2026

Organization Settings

Organization settings define shared vocabulary and visual style for boards. Manage them from Settings.

Configure your organization

For a new organization:

Define your core element archetypes (Service, Database, API Gateway, etc.)
Create context tags for cross-cutting concerns (team ownership, compliance scope, lifecycle status)
Add field templates for custom metadata you want to track on nodes
Upload icons for your archetypes (or use the built-in icon library)
Configure insight skills if you plan to run automated analysis

Settings categories

Element archetypes

Archetypes define board element types. Each archetype controls:

Property	What it does
Name	Identifier used across the platform (e.g., "Service", "Database", "API Gateway")
Description	Explains what this archetype represents
Visual primitive	The shape type: node, container, region, or edge
Icon	Custom icon displayed on board elements
Color / styling	Default appearance when placed on a board
Containment rules	Which archetypes this one can contain (e.g., a "System" can contain "Services")

Archetypes keep boards consistent. The Code Plugin references them by name. Manage the catalogue and proposals in Archetypes.

Context tags

Tags are org-wide taxonomy labels for filtering and grouping, such as "team-payments", "deprecated", or "pci-scope".

Advanced config

Containment rules

Archetypes support containment rules for parent-child relationships between element types.

Containment rules are enforced in the UI and Code Plugin pushes. Invalid nesting is rejected.

Visual primitives control rendering behavior:

Primitive	Behavior
Node	Standard element with fixed size, icon, and label
Container	Expandable group that can hold child nodes
Region	Background zone for visual grouping without strict containment
Edge	Connection between nodes, with an optional label

Icon storage backends (self-hosted)

For self-hosted deployments, icons can be stored locally or in S3. The backend is selected via the ICON_STORAGE_BACKEND environment variable.

Local filesystem (default, good for development):

BASH

# Defaults to public/icons relative to the server root
ICON_STORAGE_PATH=public/icons

AWS S3 (recommended for production / ECS deployments):

BASH

ICON_STORAGE_BACKEND=s3
AWS_BUCKET_NAME=your-bucket-name
AWS_REGION=us-east-1
# When running in ECS, credentials are auto-discovered from the task IAM role.
# Explicit keys are only needed for local dev with S3:
# AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
# AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...

SVGs are stored organized by {provider}/{version}/{filename} (e.g., aws/2024-01/s3.svg) and served with aggressive CDN caching headers in production.

Note

Start with a few core archetypes and tags. You can add more later. Too much upfront configuration usually leaves many archetypes unused.

What's next

Enterprise SSO

Set up single sign-on with your identity provider and require it org-wide.

Permissions & Access

Control who can view and edit boards, internally and when published.

Integrations Reference

Connect external tools and source systems to provide context for your boards.

Boards Guide

Learn how boards and layers organize your architectural views.