Infrastructure Shapes

Available Shapes

Compute & Servers

Networking

Storage & Data

Users & Clients

Security

Placing Infrastructure Shapes

Infrastructure and cloud shapes live in the Architecture group on the toolbar (the unified Infrastructure + Cloud-Native picker). Add them to the canvas like any other shape:

1. Open the Architecture shape group in the toolbar (or press / to open the command palette and search for a shape by name, e.g. "Load Balancer").
2. Pick a shape such as Server, Database, or Kubernetes.
3. Click once on the canvas to drop it at a default size, or click-drag to size it as you place it.
4. Double-click the shape to add a label, and use the Properties panel to set stroke, fill, and drawing style.
5. Connect shapes with the Arrow or Line tool — connectors bind to a shape's edge and follow it when you move it.

Common Architecture Patterns

Three-Tier Architecture

┌─────────────────┐
│   Presentation  │  ← Browser, Mobile App
├─────────────────┤
│    Application  │  ← API Server, Business Logic
├─────────────────┤
│      Data       │  ← Database, Storage
└─────────────────┘

Microservices

Use hexagon shapes for individual services, connected through an API Gateway and message queues.

Event-Driven

Show event producers → Event Bus → event consumers using message queue and event bus shapes.

Cloud Provider Diagrams

Yappy's infrastructure shapes work well for diagramming across major cloud providers:

AWS Style

• Lambda → AWS Lambda functions
• Storage Blob → S3 buckets
• Message Queue → SQS
• Database → RDS, DynamoDB

Azure Style

• Lambda → Azure Functions
• Storage Blob → Blob Storage
• Kubernetes → AKS
• Event Bus → Event Grid

GCP Style

• Lambda → Cloud Functions
• Storage Blob → Cloud Storage
• Kubernetes → GKE
• Message Queue → Pub/Sub

Network Diagrams

Create network topology diagrams showing how components connect.

Connection Types

Styling Recommendations

• Color coding - Use consistent colors for component types
• Blue - Compute resources (servers, functions)
• Green - Databases and storage
• Orange - Networking components
• Red - Security components
• Gray - External systems or users

Scripting (API)

Every infrastructure shape can be created and updated from code through the global window.Yappy object. Use the generic Yappy.createElement(type, x, y, width, height, options) with one of the infrastructure element type strings, then tweak it with Yappy.updateElement(id, { ... }).

Element Types

Build a Mini Architecture

// window.Yappy is the global scripting entry point.

// A web client talking to a load balancer, two app servers and a DB
const browser = Yappy.createElement('browser', 60, 200, 90, 90, {
    containerText: 'Client'
});

const lb = Yappy.createElement('loadBalancer', 220, 210, 120, 70, {
    containerText: 'ALB',
    strokeColor: '#ea580c'        // orange = networking
});

const app1 = Yappy.createElement('server', 420, 120, 110, 80, {
    containerText: 'app-1',
    strokeColor: '#2563eb'        // blue = compute
});
const app2 = Yappy.createElement('server', 420, 260, 110, 80, {
    containerText: 'app-2',
    strokeColor: '#2563eb'
});

const db = Yappy.createElement('database', 620, 190, 110, 90, {
    containerText: 'Postgres',
    strokeColor: '#16a34a'        // green = data
});

// Wire them together with bound connectors
Yappy.connect(browser, lb);
Yappy.connect(lb, app1);
Yappy.connect(lb, app2);
Yappy.connect(app1, db);
Yappy.connect(app2, db);

Update a Shape Later

// Recolour, relabel or move any element by id
Yappy.updateElement(app1, {
    backgroundColor: '#dbeafe',
    fillStyle: 'solid',
    containerText: 'app-1 (primary)'
});

Best Practices

• Flow direction - Left-to-right or top-to-bottom
• Group by function - Cluster related components
• Show boundaries - Indicate network/security zones
• Label connections - Add protocols (HTTPS, gRPC, etc.)
• Include legends - Explain color/shape meanings