Architecture Views & Visual Projections

Architecture models often contain hundreds of interconnected entities spanning business, software, infrastructure, security, and governance domains. Views in the Scapius DSL allow architects to define declarative, repeatable visual projections tailored to specific stakeholder audiences and technical disciplines.

Views are authored inside a views { ... } block within the root workspace.

workspace enterprise_architecture "Corporate Architecture" {
    # Architecture entities, layers, and groups...

    views {
        landscape v_core_landscape "Core Banking Landscape" {
            include system
            include capability
            auto_layout TopToBottom
        }
    }
}

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13 Specialized View Types

Scapius provides 13 purpose-built projection types. Explore the dedicated reference guide for each:

View Type	Primary Audience	Supported Entity Types	Key Relationships
landscape	Enterprise Architects, Executives	Any explicitly selected entity kind	composed_of, realizes, serves, hosts, depends_on, migrates_to, influences, triggers
container	Solution Architects, Tech Leads	system, app, component, data_object	composed_of, reads, writes, flows_to, depends_on
integration	Integration Engineers, API Designers	system, app, actor, environment, agent	reads, writes, flows_to, depends_on, triggers
capability_map	Business Architects, Product Leaders	capability	composed_of
value_stream_map	Business Architects, Transformation Leads	value_stream, stage, capability, process, app, system, agent, data_object, kpi	realizes, serves, flows_to, triggers, reads, writes, influences
lifecycle_roadmap	Enterprise Architects, Portfolio Managers	Any entity with lifecycle phases (system, app, capability, etc.)	migrates_to
portfolio_matrix	IT Strategists, CIOs, Enterprise Architects	Any scored entity with business value and technical fit (app, system, capability)	None
threat_model	Security Architects, AppSec Teams	capability, process, system, app, component, infrastructure, data_object, actor, agent, trust_boundary, threat, risk_scenario, vulnerability, control	targets, mitigates, protects, flows_to, reads, writes, depends_on, encloses
risk_heatmap	Risk Officers, GRC Leads	threat, risk_scenario	targets, mitigates, governed_by
compliance_matrix	Compliance Officers, Auditors	standard, policy, system, app, data_object	governed_by
data_flow	Data Architects, Privacy Officers	data_object, system, app, component, actor, agent	reads, writes, flows_to, protects
attack_surface	SecOps, Cloud Security Engineers	app, system, trust_boundary, control, threat, vulnerability, infrastructure	encloses, protects, mitigates, targets
dashboard	Metadata only in v1; use workspace_home for the functional dashboard	Runtime metadata; does not scope dashboard metrics	None for dashboard rendering

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Universal View Syntax & Capabilities

Every view type shares the following declarative statements:

views {
    <view_type> <view_id> "<View Title>" {
        # 1. View Metadata
        description "<text>"
        owner "<team>"
        tags ["tag1", "tag2"]
        attr <key> <value>

        # 2. Inclusion & Exclusion Filtering
        include <target> (where <predicate>)?
        exclude <target> (where <predicate>)?

        # 3. Relationship Verb Filtering
        include_verb <verb> (incoming | outgoing | both)?
        exclude_verb <verb> (incoming | outgoing | both)?

        # 4. Layout Direction
        auto_layout TopToBottom | LeftToRight

        # 5. View-Scoped Style Rules (entity kinds, verbs, or specialized data elements: phase.* in lifecycle_roadmap, time.* in portfolio_matrix)
        style <selector> (where <predicate>)? { ... }

        # 6. Text Annotations (Canvas-Rendered Views)
        text <note_id> """
            Markdown annotation content
        """ {
            anchor <target_entity_id>
        }
    }
}

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Theme-Aware Diagram Support

All Scapius diagram projections support automated Light and Dark themes. Toggling the theme switch in the documentation header toggles the visual diagram renderers in real time.

Click to explore

Interactive theme-aware architectural projection

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Reactive Living Projections & Auto-Updates

Unlike static drawings or manually exported images, Scapius views are declarative projections of the underlying architecture AST:

• Automatic Propagation: Modifying an entity's name, owner, properties, or relationships in any .ea file automatically propagates to every view referencing that entity.
• Dynamic Inclusions: Views using selector queries (e.g. include where ... or include_verb ...) automatically detect and incorporate newly declared entities when the workspace is compiled.
• Real-Time IDE & Web Sync: In both the Scapius Web Workspace and the VS Code extension, saving source changes immediately triggers incremental recompilation, hot-updating the visual canvas without requiring manual diagram edits or page reloads.