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Entities Overview

Entities are the core building blocks of Tendrl. They represent any data source that sends messages to your platform.

What is an Entity?

An entity can be:

Each entity has:

How Entities Fit Together

Everything belongs to your account. Entities are created directly on it -- neither a directory nor a fanout is required to have one:

code

Account
├── Directories   Nestable folders. An entity lives in at most one.
├── Entities      Devices, applications, and external systems.
│   ├── API key   Exactly one, issued automatically at creation.
│   └── Messages  Sent to and received from other entities.
└── Fanouts       Routing targets that hold a member list of entities.

Directories and fanouts both point at entities rather than containing them, and they answer different questions:

Key Concepts

Fanouts

Fanouts are message-routing targets: publish once to a fanout and Contact delivers the message to every entity in it. Use them to address many entities at once, for example sending a command to all devices in a zone or broadcasting an update to a fleet. See Fanouts for details.

API Keys

Each entity has one API key, issued automatically at creation:

Managing Entities

Create an Entity

  1. Navigate to Entities in the sidebar
  2. Click Create Entity
  3. Configure name and role
  4. Click Create

The Create Entity form with Name, Role, Service, Enabled, and Metadata fields Creating an entity from the dashboard.

Edit an Entity

  1. Find the entity in the list
  2. Click the edit icon or entity name
  3. Modify the fields
  4. Click Save

Delete an Entity

  1. Find the entity in the list
  2. Click the delete icon
  3. Confirm deletion
Warning

Deleting an entity is permanent and removes all associated data including messages.

Next Steps

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