hierarchy

Powerpipe is now the recommended way to run dashboards and benchmarks! Mods still work as normal in Steampipe for now, but they are deprecated and will be removed in a future release:

A hierarchy allows visualization of queries using types such as tree. Hierarchies are node/edge visualizations. The data to be displayed is specified using a series of nodes and edges. The nodes define the vertices of the graph, and the edges define the connections between them.

Hierarchy blocks can be declared as named resources at the top level of a mod, or be declared as anonymous blocks inside a dashboard or container, or be re-used inside a dashboard or container by using a hierarchy with base = <mod>.hierarchy.<hierarchy_resource_name>.

Example Usage

dashboard "tree_ex_nodeonly" {
input "vpc" {
width = 4
sql = <<-EOQ
select
title as label,
vpc_id as value
from
aws_vpc
EOQ
}
hierarchy {
title = "AWS VPC Subnets by AZ"
node {
sql = <<-EOQ
select
vpc_id as id,
vpc_id as title
from
aws_vpc
where
vpc_id = $1
EOQ
args = [self.input.vpc.value]
}
node {
sql = <<-EOQ
select
distinct on (availability_zone)
vpc_id as from_id,
availability_zone as id,
availability_zone as title
from
aws_vpc_subnet
where
vpc_id = $1
EOQ
args = [self.input.vpc.value]
}
node {
sql = <<-EOQ
select
availability_zone as from_id,
subnet_id as id,
subnet_id as title
from
aws_vpc_subnet
where
vpc_id = $1
EOQ
args = [self.input.vpc.value]
}
}
}

Argument Reference

ArgumentTypeOptional?Description
argsMapOptionalA map of arguments to pass to the query.
baseHierarchy ReferenceOptionalA reference to a named hierarchy resource that this hierarchy should source its definition from. title and width can be overridden after sourcing via base.
categoryBlockOptionalcategory blocks that specify display options for nodes with that category.
edgeBlockOptionaledge blocks that define the edges in the hierarchy.
nodeBlockOptionalnode blocks that define the nodes in the hierarchy.
paramBlockOptionalparam blocks that defines the parameters that can be passed in to the query. param blocks may only be specified for hierarchies that specify the sql argument.
queryQuery ReferenceOptionalA reference to a query resource that defines the query to run. A hierarchy may either specify the query argument or the sql argument, but not both.
sqlStringOptionalAn SQL string to provide data for the hierarchy. A hierarchy may either specify the query argument or the sql argument, but not both.
titleStringOptionalA plain text title to display for this hierarchy.
typeStringOptionalThe type of the hierarchy. Can be tree or table.
widthNumberOptionalThe width as a number of grid units that this item should consume from its parent.
withBlockOptionalwith blocks that define prerequisite queries to run. with blocks may only be specified when the hierarchy is defined as a top-level (mod level), named resource.

Common Hierarchy Properties

category

PropertyTypeDefaultValuesDescription
colorstringThe matching color from the default theme for the data series index.A valid color value. This may be a named color, RGB or RGBA string, or a control status color.The color to display for this category.

Data Format

Data Format

Hierarchy data must be provided in a format where each row represents a node (vertex), an edge (connecting 2 vertices), or both. Hierarchy queries have the same basic structure as flow queries, but unlike flows hierarchies are restricted to a strict single parent structure; a given node may have only a single from_id.

Note that both column names and their relative position are important in hierarchy queries; Steampipe looks for columns by name in the result set, however Postgres union queries will append the rows based on the column's position, not the name of the column. All the union queries must return the same columns, in the same order.

Significant columns are:

NameDescription
idA unique identifier for the node. Nodes have an id, edges do not.
titleA title to display for the node.
categoryA display category name. Both nodes and edges may specify a category to dictate how the item is displayed. By default, items of the same category are displayed with the same appearance (color), distinct from other categories. You can specify display options with a category block.
from_idThe id of the source side of an edge.
to_idThe id of the destination side of an edge.

Generally speaking, there are 2 data formats commonly used for hierarchies. It is usually simplest to specify results where each row species a node (with an id, and optionally title, category, and/or depth) and an edge, by specifying a from_id:

from_ididtitlecategory
<null>1fooroot
12barwidget
13bazwidget
24foobarfidget

Alternately, you may specify nodes and edges as separate rows. In this case, nodes will have an id and optionally title, category, and/or depth, but to_id and from_id will be null. Edges will populate to_id and from_id and optionally category, and will have null id, depth, and title:

from_idto_ididtitlecategory
<null><null>1fooroot
<null><null>2barwidget
<null><null>3bazwidget
<null><null>4foobarfidget
12<null><null>widget
13<null><null>widget
24<null><null>fidget

Common Hierarchy Properties

category

PropertyTypeDefaultValuesDescription
colorstringThe matching color from the default theme for the data series index.A valid color value. This may be a named color, RGB or RGBA string, or a control status color.The color to display for this category.

More Examples

Tree via monolithic query

hierarchy {
type = "tree"
title = "AWS VPC Subnets by AZ"
width = 6
sql = <<-EOQ
with vpc as
(select 'vpc-9d7ae1e7' as vpc_id)
select
null as from_id,
vpc_id as id,
vpc_id as title,
0 as depth,
'aws_vpc' as category
from
aws_vpc
where
vpc_id in (select vpc_id from vpc)
union all
select
distinct on (availability_zone)
vpc_id as from_id,
availability_zone as id,
availability_zone as title,
1 as depth,
'aws_availability_zone' as category
from
aws_vpc_subnet
where
vpc_id in (select vpc_id from vpc)
union all
select
availability_zone as from_id,
subnet_id as id,
subnet_id as title,
2 as depth,
'aws_vpc_subnet' as category
from
aws_vpc_subnet
where
vpc_id in (select vpc_id from vpc)
EOQ
}

Tree with color by category [monolithic]

hierarchy {
type = "tree"
title = "AWS VPC Subnets by AZ"
width = 6
category "aws_vpc" {
color = "blue"
}
category "aws_availability_zone" {
color = "red"
}
category "aws_vpc_subnet" {
color = "green"
}
sql = <<-EOQ
with vpc as
(select 'vpc-9d7ae1e7' as vpc_id)
select
null as from_id,
vpc_id as id,
vpc_id as title,
0 as depth,
'aws_vpc' as category
from
aws_vpc
where
vpc_id in (select vpc_id from vpc)
union all
select
distinct on (availability_zone)
vpc_id as from_id,
availability_zone as id,
availability_zone as title,
1 as depth,
'aws_availability_zone' as category
from
aws_vpc_subnet
where
vpc_id in (select vpc_id from vpc)
union all
select
availability_zone as from_id,
subnet_id as id,
subnet_id as title,
2 as depth,
'aws_vpc_subnet' as category
from
aws_vpc_subnet
where
vpc_id in (select vpc_id from vpc)
EOQ
}