Your first canvas

This walkthrough takes you from an empty canvas to your first applied change. By the end, you will have created a server, attached it to a private network, reviewed what CrossXCloud planned to do, and applied that plan to your real cloud account.

You need the desktop app open, the vault unlocked, and at least one provider connected. If you do not have those, start at Install.

1. Add a compute node

   Open the resource palette on the left of the canvas and drag a compute node onto the canvas.

   The inspector on the right opens for the new node. Give it a name like web-01. Pick a provider, a location such as fsn1, and a server type such as cx32. The dropdowns are filled from the real provider catalog, so what you see is what your account can actually create.

2. Add a private network

   Drag a private network node onto the canvas. Name it vpc-eu and set its IP range to 10.0.0.0/16.

3. Wire the compute node into the network

   Drag from the network node’s handle onto the compute node. This draws a membership edge.

   A connection between a private network and a compute node is the membership. The compute node is now in that network. There is no field to type a network ID into. The edge is the membership. See The canvas model for why.

4. Set the public IP option

   With the compute node selected, use the inspector to enable its public IP. A primary IP companion node appears next to the compute node automatically. It is a canvas artifact, not a separate resource you manage.

5. Open Plan

   Open the Plan action from the menu bar at the top. CrossXCloud reads your current infrastructure, compares it against the canvas, and lists the operations that close the gap.

   You see a diff summary with badges: green for create, blue for update, red for delete, and purple for attach or detach. Each row is one operation in dependency order. Networks are created before servers, and servers are created before their attachments.

   If the plan shows something you did not expect, edit the canvas and Plan again. A plan is always computed fresh against live state.

   See Plan and Apply for how to read the diff in detail.

6. Apply

   Apply runs every operation in the plan, in order, against your provider. CrossXCloud shows live progress as it goes.

   If any operation fails, the remaining operations are cancelled. Your canvas is unchanged. Fix the cause, open Plan again to recompute against the now partially applied live state, and Apply again. There is no resume from a failed operation.

   When every operation finishes, CrossXCloud writes a commit to your project history. See Version history.

7. Look at what you built

   The compute node now shows its real resource ID and public IP address, read back from your provider. The primary IP companion shows that address too. Your canvas now reflects live state.

Next

You have built and applied one change. From here:

• The canvas covers the palette, the inspector, and edit-on-change.
• Networking goes deeper into private networks, primary IPs, and floating IPs.
• Plan and Apply explains the diff, the ordering, and the failure model.