Entity Nodes vs. Stickies

The difference between plain whiteboard nodes (sticky, shape, text) and Entity Nodes that wrap a live m18t record, plus what happens when a source changes.

What you'll learn

  • The difference between a plain node (sticky, shape, text) and an Entity Node.
  • How to add each kind to a whiteboard.
  • How to turn a sticky you already wrote into a real record, in place on the board.
  • What happens when the record behind an Entity Node changes or is deleted.

Two kinds of node

A whiteboard holds two fundamentally different kinds of node, and knowing which is which is the key to using boards well.

Plain nodes are dumb on purpose. They hold whatever you put in them and nothing more:

  • Sticky notes — colored notes for free text.
  • Shapes — square, circle, and diamond, plus lines, for diagramming.
  • Text — bare text labels on the canvas.
  • Rich text — a rich-text note for longer formatted writing, and section frames to group things.

These are for thinking out loud. They don't know about your data and they never change unless you edit them.

Entity Nodes are live. An Entity Node wraps a real m18t record — a PD Solution, Feature, Model, Controller, or a content piece, asset, event, or artifact — and shows that record's type, name, and current status, with a click-through to open the real thing. It's a window onto something that exists in your workspace, not a copy of it.

That's the whole distinction: a sticky is text you typed; an Entity Node is a reference to live data.

How to add each

Plain nodes

The toolbar at the bottom of the canvas has buttons for each plain node type — sticky, square, circle, diamond, line, text, rich text, and a section frame. Click one to drop it on the board, then type or style it. Each has a keyboard shortcut shown in its tooltip.

Entity Nodes

  1. On the canvas, open the Studio Entities panel (the orbit button in the toolbar).
  2. Filter by entity type — All, Product Dev, Artifacts, Content, Assets, Emails, Events, Tags. For Product Dev you can narrow further to Solutions, Features, Models, Views, Controllers, Policies, Roles.
  3. Search for the record you want.
  4. Drag it onto the canvas. It lands as an Entity Node showing the record's type, name, and status.

Because it's a reference, the node reflects the record. Open it later and the status badge shows wherever that record stands now.

Turning a plain node into a record

There is a second route to an Entity Node, and it runs the opposite way. Dragging from Studio Entities puts a record that already exists onto the board. Transforming creates a record that did not exist before, out of a sticky you already wrote.

Right-click any plain node and choose Transform to Entity. The wizard asks three things:

  1. Domain. An operational artifact (tasks, docs, notes, and whatever other artifact types your brand uses), a publisher content piece (blog post, social post, news post, web page), or a product development entry (solution, feature, model, view, controller, policy, role, event).
  2. Type. The specific type inside that domain. Artifact types are read from the board brand's own artifact vocabulary, so a custom type you added shows up here and a retired one does not.
  3. Details. The title, prefilled from the sticky's text, and whether to write a link back to this board into the new record.

Choose Generate Record and m18t creates the record in the board's brand, then morphs the sticky in place. It becomes an Entity Node bound to the record it just created, with the same type label, status badge, and click-through as any other Entity Node. The sticky's original text is carried into the new record, so cutting the title down to something readable does not lose what you wrote. Undo restores the sticky.

The board has to be tied to a real brand for this, because the new record has to belong somewhere. If it is not, the transform stops and asks you to set the board's brand first.

Both routes are real, and picking between them is simple. Drag when the record already exists. Transform when the thinking on the board is the thing that should become the record.

When the source record changes

An Entity Node points at a live record. Two cases worth knowing:

  • Status changes — the node's status badge reflects the record's current status, colored from the shared status set.
  • Record deleted or renamed — the node can't resolve its source anymore. It marks itself Source deleted, greys out, and becomes the last-known snapshot. It stops being a live window. This is intentional, so a board never quietly shows a record that no longer exists as if it were current.

Plain nodes have none of this — there's no source to drift from.

Choosing between them

  • Brainstorming, rough flows, labels, grouping → plain nodes.
  • Mapping real structure, showing status, anything you want to click through to → Entity Nodes.
  • A mix is normal: stickies to annotate, Entity Nodes for the real records they annotate.
  • A sticky that turned out to be real work → transform it in place, and it becomes the Entity Node for the record it creates.

FAQ

What's the practical difference? A sticky/shape/text node is static content you typed. An Entity Node references a live record and shows its current status with a click-through. One drifts from nothing; the other tracks real data.

How do I add an Entity Node? Open the Studio Entities panel from the canvas toolbar, find the record, and drag it onto the board.

What entity types can I put on a board? PD entities (Solutions, Features, Models, Views, Controllers, Policies, Roles), plus Artifacts, Content, Assets, Emails, Events, and Tags.

What does "Source deleted" mean on a node? The record that node referenced was deleted or renamed, so the node can't resolve it. It greys out and becomes a last-known snapshot rather than a live node.

Can I turn a sticky into an Entity Node? Yes. Right-click it, choose Transform to Entity, and pick what to create: an operational artifact, a content piece, or a product development entry. m18t creates that record and the sticky becomes an Entity Node bound to it. Dragging from the Studio Entities panel is the other route, for records that already exist.

What's next

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