Design navigation
A space's navigation decides what its members can reach and where they start. It has four parts: the apps pinned to the header, the organization sidebar, the modules inside every environment, and the landing page. Together they cover everything from a lightly trimmed platform for developers to a single app with no sidebar at all for line operators.
Navigation is presentation only. Hiding a page removes it from members' sidebars, command palette and links, and sends direct visits to the landing page, but it doesn't remove access. Showing a page doesn't grant it either. See What a space doesn't control.
Everything you change in the space designer is a draft. Members see nothing until the space is saved.
Header apps
The header app strip is the row of plugin apps in the portal's top bar. For an audience that works in one or two apps, it is the main way around the portal. A pinned app opens inside the portal, with the organization sidebar still visible if the space shows one.
Inside a space, the strip shows only the apps the space pins, so a space that pins nothing shows none. Outside a space the strip is empty, except for users with only the deprecated Operator role, so a space is the only way to choose which plugin apps appear in the header. Pinning doesn't affect search: the command palette offers every app the member can open, whatever the space pins.
Only organization plugins can be pinned. These are deployments with the Organisation plugin setting turned on, which sets plugin.organisationItem.show: true in YAML. If no deployment in the organization is an organization plugin, there is nothing to pin.
Each app can be pinned once, up to 20 pins per space. A pin can override the app's label and icon, and the order you set is the order members see. If a pinned plugin is later removed, members stop seeing the pin, and the designer keeps it so the pin returns if the app does.
When a plugin is deployed in more than one environment, a pin points at one of those deployments, chosen in its Environment field. Members open that deployment, not whichever one happens to be the plugin's default. The same applies to plugin apps in the organization sidebar and to a plugin landing page.
Organization sidebar
The organization sidebar is the sidebar on organization-level pages such as Home and Projects. A space can keep the platform's standard sidebar (Stock), curate its own list (Custom) or remove it (Hidden).
Stock follows the platform: when Quix adds a module, Stock sidebars show it automatically. A Custom list changes only when an admin edits it, so new modules don't appear in it until someone adds them. Choose Stock for any audience that should always get the full, current platform.
Users, Spaces, Settings and Audit are admin-only. Non-admin members never see them, whatever the space says, but a space can hide them from admins. That includes you, if you belong to the space, so keep a way back. See What a space doesn't control and Switch to Spaceless.
What a custom sidebar can hold
A Custom sidebar starts as the stock sidebar: nine modules under the headings Core, Quix Lake, Users and Governance. You curate it by clearing modules and adding your own entries. A cleared module keeps its place in the list, so selecting it again puts it back where it was.
| Entry | What it gives members |
|---|---|
| Module | A built-in organization page, such as Projects or File Explorer. |
| Plugin app | An organization plugin that opens inside the portal with the sidebar visible, in the environment you choose when the plugin is deployed in more than one. It can open at a path inside the app, for example /dashboard, and can carry pages: extra links under the app to specific paths, such as /test-runs. A path must start with / and can't contain ... |
| Environment link | A shortcut straight into one environment of a project, opening on the page you choose (Pipeline by default). Useful for the production pipeline a line operator watches. |
| Heading | A caption, up to 16 characters, that groups the entries below it down to the next heading. Removing a heading leaves its entries in place. |
Entries outlive the things they point to. If a plugin app is removed or an environment is deleted, its entry stays in the sidebar but renders disabled for members, and the designer flags it so you can remove it or keep it for when the target returns. An entry with no app or environment chosen yet also renders disabled.
An environment link that opens on Topics, Connectors, Templates or Data Lake depends on the environment having a Kafka broker. In an environment without one, members don't see that page. See Kafka-dependent modules.
The designer caps how many entries and headings a sidebar can have.
Hidden sidebar
A Hidden sidebar suits audiences who live in header apps and a landing page. With no sidebar, those are the only ways around the portal, so pin at least one header app and set a landing page first. Without them, members can reach only Home and the command palette.
Saving with Hidden deletes the sidebar's custom entries. If you belong to the space, hiding the sidebar also hides Users, Spaces, Settings and Audit from you.
Environment modules
The Environment section controls what members see inside every environment of every project: the environment sidebar, the YAML sync button in the environment header, and the Settings row at the foot of the sidebar. A Custom list groups the modules under Core, Library, Quix Lake and Environment, where the Environment group holds YAML and Settings. Modules reorder only within their own group.
An environment can't be set to Hidden, but clearing every module has the same effect. Members then get no environment sidebar at all, including its Plugins section, and no YAML sync button or Settings row.
When a space hides an environment module:
- It disappears from the sidebar and the command palette, and links to it elsewhere in the portal no longer open. Panels that open inside another page, such as the project variables panel, stay available.
- If it's
Pipeline, members who open an environment start on the first module the space shows. - If it's
Deployments, theView in environmentaction on header apps and theView deploymentaction on the plugin toolbar disappear too.
Kafka-dependent modules
Topics, Connectors, Templates and Data Lake need a Kafka broker. A space can hide them, but it can't show them in an environment that has no broker.
Environment plugins aren't curated
Environment plugins, the plugin apps a deployment adds to the Plugins section of the environment sidebar, appear whatever the space says, as long as the environment sidebar is shown. The Environment section controls only the built-in modules.
Landing page
The landing page is where members arrive when they sign in and when they switch into the space. It can be an organization page or an organization plugin. The default is Home.
The landing applies at two moments:
- After sign-in, once per session, and only when the member opens the portal's home page. A bookmark or a link to a specific page still opens that page.
- On switching into the space. See Work in a space.
Where members end up depends on what the landing is and what the space shows:
flowchart TD
A["Member signs in or<br/>switches into the space"] --> B{"Landing page"}
B -->|"Organization page"| P["Opens that page"]
B -->|"Plugin app"| Q{"Organization<br/>sidebar hidden?"}
Q -->|"No"| R["Opens inside the portal,<br/>sidebar beside it"]
Q -->|"Yes"| F["Opens full width,<br/>header only"]
B -->|"Plugin no longer exists"| X["Home, or the first<br/>sidebar entry if the<br/>space hides Home"]A plugin landing opens in the same place as any plugin app in the space. The space's organization sidebar shows beside it, whether or not the app itself is in the sidebar or pinned in the header. In a space with a Hidden sidebar, the app fills the page under the header, which is what makes a single-app space feel like a dedicated tool.
A space that hides Home but leaves the landing as Home sends members to the first entry in its sidebar instead.
A landing page doesn't have to appear anywhere else in the space. Members still land on it, but if it isn't in the sidebar or pinned in the header, they can't find their way back to it later. The designer flags this case.
Copy a section from another space
Header apps, Organization sidebar and Environment can each be copied from another space. Copying replaces the whole section in your draft: copying from a space whose sidebar is Stock makes yours Stock too. Copying the organization sidebar brings its modules, plugin apps, environment links, headings and order together.
Before you commit, the designer compares your section with the other space's and shows what would be added, removed and kept. A space whose section already matches yours can't be chosen, and the option is unavailable when there are no other spaces. As with any draft change, nothing reaches members until the space is saved.
A copy replaces what you had. After copying, switching the organization sidebar back to Custom no longer restores the entries you had before the copy.
Live preview
The live preview in the middle of the designer shows the organization sidebar, or the environment sidebar while the Environment section is selected, and doubles as an editor. You can open an entry's settings beside it, drag entries to reorder a Custom section, and use an entry's context menu for the actions it supports. Editing a Stock sidebar here switches it to Custom.
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