Get your bearings
A quick tour of the Fabrik interface — the top bar, the collapsible sidebar, the command palette, and where each module lives.
Fabrik's interface is built around three fixed pieces: a top bar that stays put no matter where you are, a sidebar that slides in from the left on demand, and a workspace area in the middle that changes to host whatever module you're using. Everything else is a detail of one of those three.
This page is a map — after it, you know where to go without hunting.
The top bar
The top bar is always visible, pinned to the top of the viewport. It has three zones.
On the left you'll find a menu button and the Fabrik wordmark. The menu button slides the sidebar open; the wordmark takes you back to Home from anywhere in the app.
In the centre (on screens wide enough to show it) sits the Quick actions button — a search-style affordance with a keyboard hint: ⌘K on macOS, Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux. Clicking it or pressing the shortcut opens the command palette (see below). On narrow screens this button is hidden; the palette is still available via the keyboard shortcut.
On the right are the notification bell and your avatar. The bell shows a badge whenever there's something unread and surfaces the most recent alerts inline; for the full history, jump to the Notifications page from the sidebar. The avatar opens the user menu.
The command palette
The command palette is the fastest way to move around Fabrik once you know your way. Press ⌘K or Ctrl+K from anywhere and a searchable list of commands appears — jumping to modules, opening saved queries, starting common actions without drilling through menus.
You don't need it on day one. But by day three, you'll use it for almost every navigation.
The sidebar
The sidebar lives on the left edge. By default it's collapsed off-screen to keep your workspace wide; hover the left edge (or click the menu button in the top bar) to peek at it, and click the pin icon at the top to keep it open. Clicking the pin again releases it.
What you see in the sidebar depends on your role and on which modules are enabled for this deployment:
| Section | Where it takes you |
|---|---|
| Home | Your operational dashboard at / |
| Library | Saved queries and templates — the things you and your team have built |
| Task Management | Scheduled tasks and background job history |
| Notifications | The full notification centre — every alert, digest, and escalation delivered to your account |
| Time Machine | Snapshots and drift detection (visible when the Time Machine feature is enabled) |
| Ansible | Templates, requests, executions, and validation rules (visible when Ansible integration is enabled) |
| Administration | User management and audit logs — admin only |
| Settings | Profile, preferences, APIC and AWX connections, notifications, AI, security, MIM Management |
| Help | In-app help and links |
Items you don't have permission for simply don't appear. If a colleague sees a section you don't, it's almost always a role or feature-flag difference — not a bug.
The user menu
Clicking your avatar opens a dropdown with everything tied to your account:
- Profile — your display name, email, and personal settings (goes to
Settings → Profile). - Settings — the full Settings index.
- APIC Connections — a direct shortcut to the APIC connection list, since you'll use it often.
- Help & Support — opens the external support page in a new tab.
- Documentation — opens this site in a new tab.
- Sign out — invalidates your refresh token on this device and sends you back to the sign-in page.
Home — your operational dashboard
The Home page at / is not the query builder. It's a dashboard: shortcuts to what you use most, recent activity, and signals about the health of your fabric and your scheduled work.
The Query Builder lives at /builder and is reached a few different ways — from Home, from the Library when you open a saved query, or directly through the command palette. You won't build queries on Home itself; you'll launch them from there.
Where each module lives
A one-page map of the main workspaces:
| Module | Route | How to get there |
|---|---|---|
| Home | / | Fabrik wordmark, or sidebar → Home |
| Query Builder | /builder | Home shortcut, Library, or ⌘K |
| Library | /saved | Sidebar → Library |
| Task Management | /tasks | Sidebar → Task Management |
| Notifications | /notifications | Sidebar → Notifications, or the bell in the top bar |
| Time Machine | /time-machine | Sidebar → Time Machine |
| Ansible Templates | /awx/templates | Sidebar → Ansible → Templates |
| Ansible Requests | /awx/requests | Sidebar → Ansible → Requests |
| Ansible Executions | /awx/executions | Sidebar → Ansible → Executions |
| User Management | /users | Sidebar → Administration → User Management |
| Audit Logs | /audit-logs | Sidebar → Administration → Audit Logs |
| APIC Connections | /settings/connections | Sidebar → Settings → APIC Connections |
| AWX Connections | /awx-connections | Sidebar → Settings → AWX Connections |
| MIM Management | /settings/mim-management | Sidebar → Settings → MIM Management (admin only) |
| Settings (index) | /settings | Avatar → Settings |
Light and dark mode
Fabrik ships with a light theme and a dark theme. Switch between them under Settings → Preferences → Theme. The choice is per user and persists across sessions; it doesn't affect anyone else in your organisation.
Keyboard shortcuts
The one keyboard shortcut you'll hit every day is ⌘K / Ctrl+K for the command palette. Module-specific shortcuts — zoom and fit-view on the Query Builder canvas, keyboard navigation inside the class browser — are documented on the relevant pages.
With the layout mapped out, the next step is to get data flowing. Move on to Load the MIM to prepare Fabrik for its first APIC connection.