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Catalogs are the foundation of everything else. This section walks through how to create them, customize them, and link them together.

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Creating a new Catalog

To create a new Catalog, navigate to Catalog in your Rootly settings and click + New catalog. Give it a name that reflects what it represents, for example, “Product Areas” or “Supported Regions”. Add a description to your Catalog so teammates know what it’s for and when to use it.
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Properties let you describe what makes each entity unique. For example, a “Region” Catalog might have a “Cluster” property that tells you which infrastructure clusters belong to that region. To add properties, open a Catalog and click Edit catalog, and click Add Property. You can choose from several property types, including text, boolean, and importantly references to other Catalogs.
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One of the most powerful things you can do in Catalog is connect different Catalogs to each other. This lets you capture real-world relationships between your business entities. For example:
  • A “Teams” Catalog can have a property for “Owned Services”, where each value is drawn from your “Services” Catalog.
  • A “Customer Tier” Catalog can include a “Related Products” property that references your “Product Areas” Catalog.
To link Catalogs, add a new property to your Catalog and choose the other Catalog as the property type. Once linked, you’ll be able to select entities from that Catalog when filling in property values.

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Adding entities to a Catalog

Once your Catalog is set up, start populating it with entities. Each entity represents one specific item in that category: for example, “Payments API” in your Services Catalog.
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For each entity, fill in the properties you’ve defined. If a property references another Catalog, you’ll select the relevant entity from a dropdown of what’s already in that Catalog.
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