Visual Designer

The Visual Designer is the heart of AIVory Architect. It provides a canvas where you can design your infrastructure by placing and connecting cloud resources.

Opening the Designer

The Canvas

The canvas is your design workspace where you place and connect resources.

Navigation Controls

Grid Settings

Resources automatically snap to a grid for clean alignment:

• Default grid size: 20px
• Configure: Settings → architect.gridSize
• Show/hide grid: Toggle in View menu

Auto-Save

Designs are automatically saved as you work:

• Files stored in .aivory/designs/ in your project
• Auto-save interval: 30 seconds
• Manual save: Ctrl/Cmd + S

Adding Resources

Method 1: Resource Palette

1. Open the resource palette (left sidebar)
2. Browse resources by cloud provider (AWS, Azure, Hetzner, etc.)
3. Click a resource to add it to the canvas center, or
4. Drag a resource to position it exactly where you want

Method 2: Right-Click Menu

1. Right-click anywhere on the canvas
2. Select Add Resource
3. Choose the resource type from the submenu

Resource Categories

Cloud Providers

Selecting and Moving Resources

Selection

Moving

• Single resource: Drag to reposition
• Multiple resources: Select all, then drag any one to move them together
• Precise positioning: Use arrow keys to nudge by grid size

Deleting

• Select resources and press Delete or Backspace
• Right-click → Delete

Connecting Resources

Connections represent relationships between resources (e.g., a web server connecting to a database).

Creating Connections

1. Hover over a resource to reveal its connection ports (small circles on the edges)
2. Click and drag from an output port (right side) to an input port (left side) of another resource
3. Release to create the connection

Connection Auto-Detection

Removing Connections

• Click on a connection line to select it
• Press Delete or right-click → Remove Connection

Dependency Resolution

When you generate Terraform, connections become depends_on relationships and resource references:

resource "hcloud_server" "web" {
  # ...
  network {
    network_id = hcloud_network.main.id  # Connection to network
  }
}

Editing Resources

Double-click a resource to open its configuration panel.

Common Properties

All resources have these properties:

Provider-Specific Properties

Each resource type has additional properties:

Validation

Property panels validate your input in real-time:

• Required fields are marked with *
• Invalid values show error messages
• Some fields have dropdowns with valid options
• Pricing estimates update as you change options

Saving and Loading Designs

Automatic Saving

Designs are automatically saved to .aivory/designs/ in your project folder.

Manual Save

• Press Ctrl/Cmd + S
• Click File → Save Design

Opening Existing Designs

• Click File → Open Design
• Browse to a .json file in .aivory/designs/
• Or double-click a design file in the file explorer

Design File Format

Designs are stored as JSON files containing:

• Resource definitions and positions
• Connection mappings
• Canvas settings (zoom, pan position)

Multi-Select Operations

Selecting Multiple Resources

• Click + Drag: Draw a selection box around resources
• Shift + Click: Add/remove resources from selection
• Ctrl/Cmd + A: Select all resources

Bulk Operations

With multiple resources selected:

• Delete: Remove all selected resources
• Move: Drag to reposition together
• Copy: Ctrl/Cmd + C to copy, Ctrl/Cmd + V to paste
• Duplicate: Ctrl/Cmd + D

Layers

Organize complex designs with layers:

• Show/Hide: Toggle layer visibility
• Lock: Prevent accidental edits
• Naming: Give layers descriptive names (e.g., “Production”, “Staging”)

Working with Existing Terraform

AIVory Architect can visualize existing Terraform configurations:

1. Open a project containing .tf files
2. The designer automatically parses and visualizes the infrastructure
3. Resources appear on the canvas with their connections
4. View properties and dependencies visually

Keyboard Shortcuts

Tips

Next Steps