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Master Relationship Verbs Reference

Scapius provides 16 strictly typed relationship verbs aligned with The Open Group ArchiMate 3.2 specification.

1. composed_of (ArchiMate: Composition)​

  • Semantics: Hierarchical decomposition where the target entity is exclusively owned by or part of the source entity.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Composition Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, system, app, environment
  • Allowed Destination Entities:
    • capability → capability
    • system → app, component, agent
    • app → component, agent
    • environment → infrastructure
  • Semantic Constraint: An entity can only be the target of a single composed_of relationship. Multiple parents trigger an error.
system core_banking "Core Banking" {
    relationships {
        this composed_of app_ledger "Ledger App"
    }
}

2. realizes (ArchiMate: Realization)​

  • Semantics: The source entity functionally implements or delivers the business target.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Realization Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, process, system, app, component, agent
  • Allowed Destination Entities: capability, goal, stage
app payment_api "Payment API" {
    relationships {
        this realizes cap_payment "Realizes digital payment capability"
    }
}

3. serves (ArchiMate: Serving)​

  • Semantics: The source entity provides services or functionality to the target persona or downstream system.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Serving Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, actor, process, system, app, component, infrastructure, agent
  • Allowed Destination Entities: actor, process, system, app, agent
app portal "Customer Portal" {
    relationships {
        this serves customer_retail "Serves retail consumer personas"
    }
}

4. hosts (ArchiMate: Assignment)​

  • Semantics: The source infrastructure or environment provides physical or virtual hosting for the target workload.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Assignment / Hosting Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: environment, infrastructure
  • Allowed Destination Entities:
    • environment → system, app, component, agent
    • infrastructure → system, app, component, agent, trust_boundary
environment aws_prod "AWS Production" {
    relationships {
        this hosts sys_ecommerce "Runs production ecommerce workloads"
    }
}

5. reads & writes (ArchiMate: Access)​

  • Semantics: Access or manipulation of persistent data assets.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Access Relationship (Read / Write)
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, actor, process, system, app, component, agent
  • Allowed Destination Entities:
    • For actor: data_object, system, app, component, infrastructure
    • For others: data_object
app billing_service "Billing Service" {
    relationships {
        this reads data_customer "Reads billing address"
        this writes data_invoice "Generates invoice record"
    }
}

6. flows_to (ArchiMate: Flow)​

  • Semantics: Asynchronous or synchronous transfer of data payloads or control messages.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Flow Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, process, system, app, component, data_object, agent
  • Allowed Destination Entities: system, app, component, process, data_object, agent
data_object transaction_event "CDC Transaction Log" {
    relationships {
        this flows_to sys_data_lake "Streamed to lakehouse for analytics"
    }
}

7. triggers (ArchiMate: Triggering)​

  • Semantics: Direct synchronous event invocation or business process execution.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Triggering Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, actor, process, system, app, component, agent
  • Allowed Destination Entities:
    • For capability, actor: process, agent
    • For others: process, system, app, component, agent
actor customer "Shopper" {
    relationships {
        this triggers proc_checkout "Initiates checkout flow"
    }
}

8. influences (ArchiMate: Influence)​

  • Semantics: Drives strategic outcomes, increases or decreases measurable KPIs.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Influence Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, actor, process, system, app, component, goal, kpi, agent, policy
  • Allowed Destination Entities: goal, kpi
goal goal_cloud_modernization "Cloud Migration" {
    relationships {
        this influences kpi_infrastructure_spend "Reduces on-premise compute costs"
    }
}

9. migrates_to (ArchiMate: Specialization / Transformation)​

  • Semantics: Models migration trajectories and target-state architecture paths.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Transformation / Specialization Relationship
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, process, system, app, component, environment, infrastructure, agent
  • Allowed Destination Entities: system, app, component, infrastructure, environment, agent
system legacy_mainframe "Legacy Mainframe" {
    relationships {
        this migrates_to sys_cloud_core "Target cloud-native microservices platform"
    }
}

10. depends_on (ArchiMate: Dependency)​

  • Semantics: Functional or operational prerequisite.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Dependency / Association
  • Allowed Source Entities: capability, process, system, app, component, agent, control
  • Allowed Destination Entities: system, app, component, infrastructure, environment, process, capability, control

11. governed_by (ArchiMate: Governance)​

  • Semantics: Mandates compliance with an architectural standard or regulatory policy.
  • ArchiMate Equivalent: Governance Association
  • Allowed Source Entities: All entity types
  • Allowed Destination Entities: policy, standard

12. mitigates (Open Group Security)​

  • Semantics: A security control directly neutralizing a threat or risk scenario.
  • Allowed Source Entities: control
  • Allowed Destination Entities: threat, risk_scenario
control waf "Web Application Firewall" {
    relationships {
        this mitigates threat_sql_injection "Blocks malicious injection patterns"
    }
}

13. protects (Open Group Security)​

  • Semantics: Safeguards a digital asset against unauthorized access, corruption, or loss via cryptographic protection, authentication, telemetry monitoring, or access control.
  • Allowed Source Entities: system, app, component, infrastructure, agent, control, trust_boundary
  • Allowed Destination Entities: system, app, component, infrastructure, data_object, process, agent, trust_boundary
  • Protection Mechanism (mechanism property): protects supports an explicit mechanism property specifying the security technique:
    • "Authentication": Validates identities (targets actor, system, app, component, agent).
    • "Encryption": Cryptographic protection at rest or in transit (targets data_object, infrastructure, system, app, component).
    • "Monitoring": Telemetry collection and anomaly probing (targets system, app, component, infrastructure, environment, process, agent, trust_boundary).
    • "Access Control" / "General": Authorization and firewall policies (targets system, app, component, infrastructure, data_object, process, agent, trust_boundary).
  • Auto-Derivation for control Entities: When declared on a control, the compiler automatically derives the mechanism from control_category:
    • control_category "Cryptography" → auto-derives mechanism "Encryption"
    • control_category "Identity & Access Management" → auto-derives mechanism "Authentication"
    • control_category "Security Monitoring" → auto-derives mechanism "Monitoring"
control ctrl_vault "Card Vault Encryption" {
    control_type "Preventive"
    control_category "Cryptography"

    relationships {
        # Auto-derives mechanism "Encryption" from control_category
        this protects data_card_pan "Encrypts card numbers with AES-256"
    }
}

agent ai_sentinel "Security Sentinel" {
    relationships {
        # Explicit mechanism for non-control sources
        this protects app_payment_gateway "Monitors API stream for anomalies" {
            mechanism "Monitoring"
        }
    }
}

14. targets (Open Group Security)​

  • Semantics: An attack vector or threat exploiting a vulnerable asset.
  • Allowed Source Entities: threat, risk_scenario, vulnerability
  • Allowed Destination Entities: capability, process, system, app, component, infrastructure, data_object, actor, agent, trust_boundary
threat threat_sql_injection "SQL Injection" {
    relationships {
        this targets app_customer_portal "Exploits unescaped query parameters"
    }
}

15. encloses (Open Group Security)​

  • Semantics: Explicit containment within a security perimeter or trust boundary.
  • Allowed Source Entities: trust_boundary
  • Allowed Destination Entities: actor, process, system, app, component, infrastructure, data_object, agent, trust_boundary
trust_boundary dmz_zone "Public DMZ" {
    boundary_type "DMZ"
    trust_level "Untrusted"

    relationships {
        this encloses sys_web_store "Encloses public web servers"
    }
}

16. depends_on & Additional Modifiers​

For full combinations of source and destination entity matrices, see the Master Relationship Matrix.