Navigating the Designer
This page describes how to find your way around the Designer outside the scenario canvas: the side menu, the scenario and component lists, and the command bar. For the canvas itself see Using Designer.
Side menu
The side menu on the left is the main navigation. Use the menu button in the top bar to show it on narrow screens. Entries you have no access to, and entries for features not configured on your installation, are not shown.
Scenarios
| Entry | What it shows |
|---|---|
| All scenarios | All scenarios and fragments you can view. |
| My scenarios | Scenarios whose author (the user who created them) is you. |
| Running | Scenarios that are running, restarting, or being deployed or redeployed. |
| Problems | Scenarios in a problem state, for example a failed deployment. |
| Stopped | Every scenario not covered by Running: canceled, being canceled, finished, never deployed, and also those with problems. |
| Fragments | Fragments only. |
Each entry opens the scenario list with a preset filter, which you can change further:
- Search scenarios... - filters by name.
- Status - filter by status. Tick Archived here to see archived scenarios; they are not listed by default and have no menu entry of their own.
- Processing mode, Category, Author, Label and Type (Scenarios / Fragments).
- Sort - by name, creation date or modification date.
To act on a scenario without opening it, click its ⋮ button or right-click the row. Depending on the scenario state and your permissions the menu offers Deploy (or Deploy to <target> when several deployment targets are configured), Redeploy, Cancel, Archive or Unarchive. Select several rows with the checkboxes on their icons (or Select all) to run the same action on all of them from the ⋮ menu above the list.
Printing the scenario list page from the browser prints a table of the scenarios that match the current filters, together with the filters applied.
Components
The component list shows every component available on the installation, with its group, categories, processing modes and number of usages.
| Entry | What it shows |
|---|---|
| All components | All components. |
| Used | Components used in at least one scenario or fragment. |
| Unused | Components not used anywhere. |
Click the usage count of a component to see where it is used: the list of scenarios and fragments that use it, and in the Nodes column the nodes that use it. The Other filter of this view narrows the list to Show scenarios or Show fragments, and to Show direct usage (the scenario itself contains the node) or Show indirect usage (the node is in a fragment the scenario uses). You can also filter by Status, Category and Author.
Integrations, MCP, Topics
These entries appear only when the corresponding feature is configured on your installation.
- Integrations - define connections to external systems; Nussknacker generates components for them in the Component Palette. See Integrations.
- MCP - create MCP definitions (Create new MCP) that expose selected Request-Response scenarios as tools of an MCP server, and see each definition's Endpoint URL.
- Topics - manage Kafka topics. See Topics.
Monitoring
Operational views (status of the installation, deployment targets, insights, user activity), visible to administrators only.
Help
- AI assistant - opens the in-app AI assistant.
- Documentation - opens this documentation.
- About - versions of the Designer UI and API.
An Examples entry appears above Help when example scenarios are configured for the installation.
Command bar
The command bar is the quickest way to search and act in the Designer. Open it with Cmd+K (macOS) or Ctrl+K (other systems), or by clicking Search, run, ask… in the top bar. Type to filter, use the arrow keys to move, Enter to run the highlighted entry and Esc to close.
What you can find:
- Nodes (when a scenario is open) - nodes are matched by name and also by description, component type, parameter names and values, output variable names, and the conditions on their outgoing edges. Choosing a node opens its details. Show in search panel lists all the matches in the Search panel and highlights them on the canvas.
- Scenarios - scenarios and fragments by name, listed under the Scenarios menu entry next to its filters.
- Navigation - every side menu entry, also by alternative names (for example "deployed" finds Running).
- Components (when you can edit the scenario) - choosing a component adds it to the canvas; the bar stays open on the new node so you can open its details with Enter.
- Actions - for example Save, Save as… and the canvas layout commands.
- AI Assistant - with some text typed, the entry becomes Ask assistant... and sends the text as a question.
- View - Kiosk mode and Toggle sidebar.
- Settings - your personal Designer settings, which you can switch on and off from here.
Some commands have keyboard shortcuts, shown next to them in the bar and usable without opening it:
| Shortcut | Command |
|---|---|
| Cmd/Ctrl+K | Open or close the command bar |
| Cmd/Ctrl+S | Save |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+S | Save as… |
a then i | AI Assistant |
a then x | Layout the scenario |
The command bar can be switched off in Settings → Experimental → Command bar. Without it, the Search panel is always shown on the canvas, with its advanced search form.