Explore Project Entities

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6 min readUpdated 2026-07-20

You can explore the entities extracted from a project’s source to understand how its user interface, business logic, data models, and APIs fit together. This helps you quickly locate components, services, models, and endpoints when investigating a project or planning documentation work.

Overview

Project entity exploration gives you a structured way to inspect the building blocks discovered in a project. Instead of reviewing source files one at a time, you can use the project workspace to search for entities and move between source-oriented views.

Entities may represent different parts of an application, including frontend components, hooks, pages, layouts, routes, contexts, providers, stores, controllers, services, repositories, and middleware. The entity type helps you recognize the role an item plays in the overall system. For example, a component is typically part of the visible interface, while a service commonly contains business operations and a model represents structured data.

Relationships provide additional context about how entities work together. You may see relationships such as RENDERS, USES HOOK, USES CONTEXT, PROVIDES CONTEXT, USES STORE, DISPATCHES ACTION, CALLS API, IMPLEMENTS API, DEPENDS ON, USES SERVICE, INJECTS, or QUERIES MODEL. Reviewing these connections is useful when you need to assess the impact of a change or trace how a feature reaches its supporting services and data.

📷 Screenshot pending: The project Source view with the “Search entities…” field available for finding extracted entities.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that:

You have access to Atloria and the project you want to inspect.
The project is available in the Projects area.
You have selected the correct project from the project list or opened its dashboard.
The project’s source has been processed so extracted entities are available to browse or search.
You know at least one useful search term, such as a component name, service name, model name, route-related term, or endpoint-related term.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Open the project workspace.

Start from Projects. If you are viewing a list of projects, use Search projects... to find the project by name. You can also use Search across all projects... when you need to locate a project or item across your available projects.

Select the project you want to investigate. Depending on where you start, you may see navigation cues such as 1. Hub: All Projects, 2. Focused Project, or 1. Active Project that help distinguish the project list from the currently selected project.
Open the selected project’s dashboard.

Click Open Project Dashboard to enter the focused workspace for the project. The dashboard provides the project-specific navigation you need before examining its source intelligence.

If you opened the wrong project, use ← Back to Projects to return to the project list and choose another one.

📷 Screenshot pending: The project area showing the “Open Project Dashboard” action and project navigation.
Select Source from the project navigation.

In the project sidebar, select Source. This is the appropriate area for inspecting information derived from the project’s source.

The sidebar may be described in your workspace as 2. Project Sidebar. Use it to stay within the current project while moving between areas such as source, product-oriented information, and other project views.
Search for an entity.

Locate the Search entities… field. Enter the name of an entity or a relevant keyword.

Use specific terms when possible. For example, search for:
- A visible UI component, such as a profile or statistics component.
- A service associated with a business capability.
- A model or data concept used by the application.
- A route, controller, or endpoint-related name when investigating API behavior.
- A technical term such as “context,” “store,” or “repository” when tracing application structure.
Start with the most recognizable name. If you do not find the expected entity, try a shorter keyword or a related functional term.
Review the entity’s type and role.

Open or select a matching entity to inspect its classification. The type tells you how the item participates in the application. A project may contain entities across the following areas:
- Component, Hook, Page, Layout, Route, Context, Provider, and Store for frontend structure and state.
- Controller, Service, Repository, and Middleware for backend behavior and request handling.
- Models and API-related entities for data and interface analysis.
Use this classification to decide where to continue your investigation. For example, begin with a Component when you are trying to understand what users see, then follow its relationships to find the hooks, contexts, stores, services, or APIs it uses.
Inspect relationships to trace dependencies.

Review the relationships associated with the entity. Relationship labels explain the direction and nature of the connection.

For example, a component may RENDERS another component or USES HOOK. A service may QUERIES MODEL, while another entity may CALLS API or USES SERVICE. These connections help you follow a feature from the visible interface toward its state, business logic, and data access.

When evaluating potential changes, review both the entities an item uses and the entities that use it. This gives you a more complete view of possible downstream effects.
Use adjacent project tools when needed.

Use ⚙️ Components when you want to focus on component-oriented information. Use ⚡ API Explorer when your investigation needs to move from source entities toward API exploration. If you need user-facing context for a capability, select 📋 User Manuals or User Guides.

Use View Source when you need to verify details in the underlying project source after identifying the relevant entity.

📷 Screenshot pending: An extracted entity selected in the Source area, showing its entity type and relationship connections.

Tips and Best Practices

Search by business capability as well as by technical name. A direct entity name is often fastest, but terms related to a feature can help you find supporting services, models, and API-related entities.
Start from the user-facing entity when investigating behavior. Begin with a Component, Page, or Route, then follow relationships such as USES HOOK, USES CONTEXT, USES STORE, and CALLS API.
Start from a service or model when investigating data behavior. Follow USES SERVICE, DEPENDS ON, INJECTS, and QUERIES MODEL relationships to understand how backend logic and data access are connected.
Do not assume that similarly named entities have the same role. Check the entity type before drawing conclusions; a component, service, route, and model can all use related names while serving different purposes.
Use View Source to validate your understanding when relationship information identifies an area that needs closer review.
Keep your investigation within the correct project. The Projects list and Open Project Dashboard action help you confirm that you are exploring the intended project rather than another available project.

Troubleshooting

No results appear after using “Search entities…”

Check the spelling and try a shorter or broader keyword. Search for a related concept, such as a feature name, service term, route term, or model term. Confirm that you are in the correct project and that you selected Source before searching.

I found an entity but cannot tell what it does

Review its entity type first, then inspect its relationships. A Component may lead you to hooks, contexts, or stores, while a Service may lead you to APIs or models. Use View Source if you need additional confirmation.

I am viewing entities for the wrong project

Use ← Back to Projects to return to Projects, locate the intended project with Search projects..., and then select Open Project Dashboard. Return to Source and repeat your search.

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