Skip to main content

Entities and relations

Entities and relations are the foundation of Caplo. Diagrams and reports become more valuable when they reuse the same shared model instead of creating one-off labels.

Start from the meta model​

Before you create a lot of repository data, agree on a workable subset of entity types, relation types, direction rules, and properties for your workspace.

Use Meta model as the source of truth for:

  • enabled element types
  • relation types
  • canonical relation direction
  • hierarchy
  • entity and relation properties

This page focuses on how to work with entities and relations once that shared structure is in place.

Use entities for reusable things​

Create an entity when the thing should be reused across diagrams, reports, or repository views.

Good candidates include applications, capabilities, processes, data objects, goals, vendors, and other items your team will refer to repeatedly.

If something only matters on one diagram, keep it as a diagram-only label, note, or draw-mode shape instead of turning it into repository data.

Use relations for reusable connections​

Create a relation when the connection between two entities matters beyond one diagram.

Relations are what make reports, graph exploration, and dependency analysis useful. If the connection is only explanatory or temporary, keep it diagram-only.

For relation types, canonical direction, and property configuration, use Meta model.

Reuse before creating new items​

Before creating a new entity or relation, check whether it already exists in the Repository or can be reused from a diagram.

This keeps names, properties, and usage counts consistent across the workspace and avoids slightly different duplicates that weaken reports.

Finding usage​

From an entity detail page, you can see where an entity is used in diagrams and how it connects to other entities. This helps answer questions like:

  • "Where is this application shown?"
  • "Which capabilities does it support?"
  • "What data does it exchange?"
  • "Which diagrams need review if we change or retire it?"

Graph visualization​

The entity detail page includes a Relations tab with a graph visualization. Use it when a flat relation list is too hard to follow.

Entity detail page with the Relations tab open and graph visualization visible

This is especially useful when you want to:

  • trace what sits upstream or downstream of an application, capability, process, or data object
  • inspect one or more hops away from the selected entity
  • focus on specific relation types
  • spot missing structure, unexpected dependencies, or over-connected parts of the model
  • turn the explored subgraph into a diagram for further discussion

Use Graph settings to adjust hop count and direction while you explore. Filtering visible relation types is also possible from Filter graph.

Pro tip: turn exploration into a diagram

You can create a new personal diagram directly from the graph visualization when the explored subgraph is worth keeping or discussing further.

Graph visualization with graph settings open