Architecture View

Terracotta AI scans your .tf files and generates an interactive dependency graph, giving you a visual topology of your infrastructure — resources, relationships, and risk hotspots — all in one view.

🚀 Overview

The Architecture View transforms your Terraform codebase into a navigable infrastructure map. Terracotta parses resource definitions, data sources, and module references to build a complete dependency graph, then overlays drift status, compliance findings, and risk analysis on top.

Use it to:

Understand how resources depend on each other before making changes
Identify single points of failure and critical dependency chains
Spot resources with active drift or compliance violations in context
Onboard new team members with a visual map of the infrastructure

🔍 Three Tabs

The Architecture View is organized into three tabs, each offering a different lens on your infrastructure.

Topology

An interactive graph where:

Nodes represent Terraform resources (e.g., aws_instance.web, aws_security_group.api)
Edges represent references between resources (e.g., a security group attached to an instance)

Click any node to expand its configuration details, including attributes, module path, and current drift status. Drag nodes to rearrange the layout. Zoom and pan to navigate large graphs.

Resources

A flat, sortable table listing every resource in the scanned Terraform codebase:

Column	Description
Type	Resource type (e.g., `aws_instance`)
Name	Resource name (e.g., `web`)
Module	Module path, if the resource is inside a module
Dependency Count	Number of inbound + outbound references

Filter by resource type, module, or name to narrow the view. Click any row to highlight that resource in the Topology tab.

Risks

Identified architectural risks across your infrastructure:

Single Points of Failure (SPOFs) — Resources with high fan-in that many other resources depend on. If this resource fails, dependent resources cascade.
Critical Paths — Chains of sequential dependencies where a failure at any link breaks the entire path.
High Fan-Out Resources — Resources that reference many others, indicating broad blast radius on misconfiguration.

Each risk entry includes the affected resources, severity, and a description of the potential impact.

🧠 Reading the Graph

Color Coding

Color	Meaning
Green	Compliant — resource matches its Terraform state
Amber	Warning — resource has non-critical drift or advisory finding
Red	Critical — resource has high-severity drift or violation

Drift Tinting

Resources with active drift display a tinted overlay on their node. The tint intensity reflects the number of drifted fields — a resource with one drifted attribute appears lightly tinted, while a resource with many drifted fields appears heavily shaded.

Security Borders

Resources with compliance findings from guardrail evaluations display a distinct border style. This visual cue helps you spot policy violations without leaving the graph view.

🛠️ Critical Paths & SPOFs

Terracotta identifies resources that, if deleted or misconfigured, would cascade failures through your infrastructure.

How Detection Works

Terracotta builds the full dependency graph from your .tf files
It calculates fan-in (how many resources depend on this one) and fan-out (how many resources this one references)
Resources exceeding configurable thresholds are flagged as SPOFs or high fan-out risks
Sequential dependency chains are traced to identify critical paths

Where to Find Them

Risks tab — All identified risks listed with severity, affected resources, and impact description
Topology tab — SPOF and critical-path resources display a warning badge on their node

Architecture View is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. The view updates automatically when Terracotta scans your repository.

📋 TL;DR

Architecture View visualizes your Terraform infrastructure as an interactive dependency graph
Three tabs: Topology (graph), Resources (table), Risks (SPOFs, critical paths, high fan-out)
Nodes are color-coded by compliance status — green, amber, red
Drift-tinted nodes and security borders overlay real-time infrastructure state
SPOFs and critical paths are automatically detected and highlighted
Available on Pro and Enterprise plans