Grouping and Boundaries

In enterprise architectures, services rarely exist in isolation. They belong to VPCs, Kubernetes namespaces, availability zones, or business domains (e.g. Billing, Identity, Checkout). Rekhic provides grouping tools to structure these boundaries.

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1. Grouping Nodes (Cmd/Ctrl + G)

To group related nodes:

1. Hold Shift and click each node you wish to group, or drag a marquee selection over them.
2. Press Cmd + G (macOS) or Ctrl + G (Windows/Linux), or click Group in the multi-select toolbar.
3. Rekhic bundles the elements into a single logical cluster.
4. Dragging the cluster moves all constituent nodes and internal connections synchronously.

Ungrouping

To break a group apart:

• Select the group and press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + G, or click Ungroup.

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2. Boundary Containers

You can also use container rectangles to create explicit visual boundaries:

1. Select the Rectangle tool (shortcut R).
2. Draw a container enclosing the target services.
3. In the context toolbar, set the stroke to Dashed and reduce fill opacity.
4. Press Cmd/Ctrl + [ (Send Backward) so internal nodes remain fully selectable on top.
5. Add a label at the top left of the container (e.g. EKS Cluster - Production).

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3. Best Practices for Architecture Boundaries

• Use dashed containers for Network Boundaries (e.g., Public DMZ vs. Private VPC).
• Use distinct stroke colors to denote Third-Party Vendors (e.g. Auth0, Stripe, Datadog).
• Keep bounding containers spacious to accommodate future service additions.

Next: Learn about large canvas navigation in Minimap.