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Entities are the foundational building blocks that represent the components of your software ecosystem—services, domains, teams, and more—giving your organization a shared way to describe what exists and how it connects. Defined in YAML and enriched with live data from your existing tools, entities come together to form a catalog that serves as a single source of truth. Cortex provides a set of built-in entity types that cover the most common building blocks of a software organization. These defaults give you a strong foundation out of the box, so you can start cataloging your ecosystem without needing to design a schema from scratch. Learn how to add built-in entity types and how to create your own custom entity types in the sections below:
Want to learn more? Check out the Cortex Academy course on Catalogs, Entities, and Relationships.
Last modified on September 9, 2026