Creating a Meshery Design

A Meshery Design is the primary unit of configuration management in Meshery. It is a declarative document that describes the desired state of your infrastructure and applications — the components you want, their configuration, and their relationships. Designs can be deployed, shared, versioned, exported, and imported.

See Meshery Designs for a full description of design capabilities.

Ways to Create a Design

You can create a Meshery Design in two ways:

Using the Design Configurator in Meshery UI

The Design Configurator is a built-in tool in Meshery UI. It lets you browse infrastructure categories and models, add components to a design, configure each component through guided forms, and save the resulting design — all without writing YAML by hand.

Step 1 — Open the Design Configurator

1. Log in to Meshery and go to the Designs page (left navigation).
2. Click + New Design (or open an existing design to edit it).
   The Design Configurator opens with an empty canvas and a component panel on the left.

Step 2 — Name Your Design

Give your design a meaningful name in the Design Name field at the top of the configurator. This name is used when saving, sharing, or deploying the design.

Step 3 — Add Components

1. In the Category dropdown, select the infrastructure category you want to work with (for example, Kubernetes, AWS, Prometheus).
2. In the Model dropdown, select the specific model within that category (for example, Deployment, Service, ConfigMap within the Kubernetes category).
3. Click the model or component name to add it to your design. The component appears in the design document on the right.

Repeat this process to add as many components as your design requires.

Step 4 — Configure Components

Click any component in the design panel to open its configuration form. The form is generated from the component's schema and includes:

• Required fields (highlighted)
• Optional fields with defaults
• Nested sub-properties (expand to configure)

Fill in the fields for your environment. Changes are applied to the design document in real time.

Step 5 — Save the Design

Click Save (floppy disk icon) to save your design. Meshery stores the design in your account. Use Save As to create a copy under a new name.

Your saved design appears on the Designs page, where you can deploy, export, share, or further edit it.

Using the Design Configurator to Edit YAML Directly

The Design Configurator also exposes a code editor panel alongside the form view. If you prefer to write or paste YAML directly:

1. Open or create a design.
2. Switch to the YAML/Code view in the configurator toolbar.
3. Enter valid Meshery Design YAML (following the Meshery Schemas spec).
4. Click Save.

Changes made in the code editor are reflected immediately in the form view, and vice versa.

Using mesheryctl

You can also create and manage designs from the command line using mesheryctl.

Import a design from a file

mesheryctl design import -f your-design.yaml

Apply a design by file

mesheryctl design apply -f your-design.yaml

Apply an already-imported design by name

mesheryctl design apply MyDesignName

List saved designs

mesheryctl design list

See the mesheryctl design reference for the full subcommand reference.

Seed Designs

When you start Meshery for the first time, a set of seed designs is available. These cover common Kubernetes patterns and serve as a starting point for exploration.

You can also import community designs from the Meshery Catalog or from a Git repository.

Related

• Meshery Designs concept
• Importing Designs
• Deploying a Design
• mesheryctl design reference
• Meshery Catalog