Add custom entity types

Every entity you add to your workspace is associated with an entity type. Cortex comes with several built-in entity types, but you can create unlimited custom entity types to extend your catalogs.

There are two distinct parts of this process: Creating the entity type itself (via the UI or API), then creating entities of that custom type (via the UI, GitOps, or API).

View entity types

To view all entity types, go to Catalogs > All Entities then click the Entity types tab.

A Cortex logo appears next to built-in entity types. When you hover over the logo, you will see a "Powered by Cortex" banner:

The other entity types in the list are custom types.

Create custom entity types

You can create custom entity types:

• Manually in the Cortex UI

• Via the API

When creating an entity type, keep in mind that these will ultimately dictate how you import specific entities later on. After creating the type itself, you will be able to create entities of that type (via the UI, API, or GitOps).

To create, edit, and delete entity types, your user or API key must have the Edit entity types permission.

Cortex UI

Create entity types in the Cortex UI

1. In Cortex, navigate to Catalogs > All entities.

2. Click the Entity types tab, then click Create entity type.

   
3. Configure the form:

   • Name: Enter a human-readable name that will appear in the catalog for this entity type.

   • Type: Enter a unique identifier that corresponds to the entity type. This will be used to specify the type defined in the YAML definitions for imported entities.

   • Description: Optionally, enter a description for the entity type.

   • Display icon: Select an icon to appear alongside the entity type throughout the app.

   • Schema: Define a JSON schema that will be used to validate the x-cortex-validation block of a given entity’s YAML.

     • This can be used to enforce certain attributes about entities, such as a region or version number. Attributes defined in the schema will be required when creating an entity of that type, which can then be validated in Scorecards. Learn more under JSON schema for custom entity types.
     • In the example screen shot below, we’ve created a custom entity type called Employee — this is what we’ll use to represent individuals at our organization. In the schema section, you can see that each profile is required to include an employee’s location. This means every time you create an entity of type "Employee," you will define the employee's location.

       
4. At the bottom of the page, click Create.

After saving, the entity type will appear in the Entity types tab under Catalogs > All entities, and you are now able to import entities of that type.

If you want entities of the new entity type to automatically belong to a specific catalog, you can configure the catalog's defined entity types while creating a new catalog or you can edit an existing catalog to update the entity types.

API

Create entity types via the API

You can create, update, and delete entity types using the Cortex API.

Learn more about the JSON schema below.

JSON schema for custom entity types

Entity type definitions require a JSON schema that outlines the attributes that entities should conform to.

Custom entity type definitions are powered by the open-source JSON Schema project.

The JSON schema for a custom entity type ensures consistency and validation when creating entities of that type. The attributes listed under required in the schema must be defined for entities of that type according to the outlined properties.

In the example below, location is required when creating this type of entity, but the schema also includes department as a possible property.

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "location"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "location": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "department": {
      "type": "string"
    }
  }
}

Field	Definition	Required
type	Type of entity and/or required component: array, boolean, integer, null, number, object, or string	Yes
required	Required specs for the entity type
properties	Properties of the required specs (including type)	Yes only if the required field is not null

Adding an entity schema for new custom entities

When creating a new entity of the custom type, if the entity type's JSON schema requires certain attributes, you must include the metadata for those attributes on that entity.

Add attributes via JSON schema

While creating a custom entity in the Cortex UI, you can enter JSON for the entity's schema into the Schema field.

Based on the example above, the entity schema format would look like the following:

{
    "location": "San Diego",
    "department": "Engineering"
}

Add attributes via YAML

If you are following a GitOps workflow, or if you are editing the entity's YAML directly in the Cortex UI, you can update the custom entity's metadata in the YAML.

Based on the example above, the entity YAML would look like the following:

x-cortex-type: org-employees
x-cortex-definition:
   location: San Diego
   department: Engineering

When creating a custom entity, the x-cortex-type (the custom entity type) and the x-cortex-definition are required. Learn more under Create custom entities in the entity descriptor.

Metadata in the entity details page

Defining a JSON schema enables visibility on an entity's detail page. The schema and the defined properties will appear under the Metadata section on the entity's overview, making it easy for you to identify key specs.

In the example below, the entity "Sally S" displays metadata for the property "location."

Create custom entities

After creating your custom entity type, you can create entities of that custom type:

• in the Cortex UI

• in the entity descriptor YAML via GitOps
• via the Cortex API

To create custom entities, your user or API key must have the Edit entities permission.

Cortex UI

Create custom entities in the Cortex UI

Before creating a custom entity in the UI, make sure you have UI-based editing enabled for this entity type in Settings > GitOps.

1. In the main nav of Cortex, click Catalogs > All entities.

2. At the top of the Services page, click +Import entities.

3. Choose Create entities manually.
4. Configure the form:

   • Type: Select your custom entity type.

   • Schema: Enter a JSON schema to define your custom entity.

     • For example, if the entity type's schema requires location and department, your new entity's schema might look like this:

       
     • See JSON schema for custom entity types for more information.
   • Entity name: Enter a human readable name for your entity.

   • Identifier: This field is auto-populated based on your entity name. It is a unique identifier for your entity. This is also known as the x-cortex-tag.

   • Description: Enter a description of the entity to help others understand its purpose.

   • Groups: Select groups to segment your entity.
   • Owners: Define ownership for your entity. We recommend selecting team owners to keep your ownership information up-to-date through any future personnel changes.
   • Links: Add links to external documentation, such as runbooks, docs, logs, or custom categories.

   • Parents: Define parent domains. This is where you configure the hierarchy for your entity. These can be visualized in the relationship graph.
   • Dependencies: Select entities that this entity depends on. These can be visualized in the relationship graph.
   • On-call: Configure on-call information.

   • Repository: Select the repository associated with this entity.

5. When you are finished, click Confirm import at the bottom of the page.

Entity descriptor

Create custom entities in the entity descriptor

Before creating a custom entity via GitOps, make sure you have UI-based editing disabled for this this entity type in Settings > GitOps.

If your entity is of a different type, you must specify x-cortex-type and x-cortex-definition.

The x-cortex-definition field is validated against the entity type definition that you created via the UI or API. If your custom entity type does not have specific requirements, entities of that type still need a non-null definition specified, like x-cortex-definition: {}.

Example cortex.yaml

openapi: 3.0.1
info:
  title: Sally S
  description: Technical writer
  x-cortex-tag: employee-sally
  x-cortex-type: org-employees
  x-cortex-definition:
    location: San Diego
    department: Engineering

API

You can create, read, update, and delete entities via the Cortex API.

To delete entities, your API key must have the Delete entities permission.

Managing custom entities

Edit custom entities

It is possible to edit entities after creating them:

1. Navigate to the entity's page.

2. In the upper right corner, click Configure entity.

3. Make any desired changes.

   • Note: The only field you cannot edit is the identifier.

4. At the bottom of the screen, click Save changes.

Add custom entities to catalogs

After an entity is imported or created, it will automatically belong to a catalog based on the entity type criteria set for each catalog. When you create a custom catalog, you can set the entity type criteria.

By default, any custom entity types you create will belong to the Infrastructure catalog. If you do not want the entity type to belong to this catalog, you can add the entity type to a different catalog's definition.

Using custom entity types or custom data

In some instances, you may want to use custom data instead of a custom entity type. This is recommended if you need more flexibility for these entity types; they may not always require specific metadata.

While a custom entity type's metadata will appear on the overview of an entity's details page, custom data does not appear there. Instead, it appears in the Custom data sidebar of an entity details page.

It is possible to create an entity type with an empty properties schema:

{
  "type": "object",
    "required": []
    "properties": {}
}

This entity type will display in the catalogs, but entities of this type won't be validated against certain specs. Such properties can instead be defined using custom data.

A schema is ideal for enforcing static properties across all entities, while custom data allows users to augment and update attributes.