Scopes and syncing
Scopes and syncing
A scope is what one Continuum diagram covers. On AWS it is one account paired with one region. On Azure it is one subscription paired with one location.
A diagram can carry several, but they must all come from the same provider. Adding an Azure scope to an AWS tab is refused: "This Continuum tab was created from a different cloud provider. Add the scope to its own Continuum tab instead."
Choosing scopes
Pick accounts or subscriptions, then regions. Every combination becomes its own scope, so three accounts and two regions is six scopes. The picker shows the running total.
Two optional narrowings apply on top:
| Control | Provider | Default |
|---|---|---|
Refine VPCs / subnets | AWS | Every VPC in the scope |
Refine resource groups | Azure | The whole subscription |
Tag filter | Both | No filter |
A resource is imported when every tag listed matches. The filter applies to all selected scopes.
The tag filter fails open. A resource whose payload carries no tag data is imported anyway, so untagged resources, and resources whose list API returns no tags at all such as route tables and log groups, still appear. EC2 instances are the exception, because AWS filters them server-side, so an untagged instance is dropped. Do not use the tag filter to keep anything out of a shared diagram.
There is no resource-type picker. Continuum discovers the types it supports and you narrow by place and by tag, not by service.
Scope to the thing you are explaining, not to the account. An unscoped account produces a diagram of everything in it, which nobody can read.
One commit fans out to at most 12 scopes on AWS and 4 on Azure, and the picker says so when you go over.
On Teams the plan cap of three scopes per diagram bites first, and the picker does not know your plan. A selection of four or more still shows as valid and the server refuses it after you press create. Narrow the selection, or add the rest as extra scopes afterwards.
Adding, re-syncing and removing scopes
Open the Continuum tab's settings cog and choose Settings…. Each scope has Re-sync, and + Add another scope adds more.
Every control here needs edit access on the blueprint plus cloud_connections.manage on each scope's connection. Without the permission the buttons do not appear.
Remove drops that scope's resources from the diagram and deletes the strata attached to them. Other scopes are untouched, and the deletion cannot be undone. The confirmation dialog says so.
Remove is disabled on the last remaining scope: "Cannot remove the last scope. Delete the Continuum tab instead."
Syncing is manual
Sync now from the cog re-discovers every scope and reports the result, for example "Synced, +3 added, 1 changed, 0 missing."
Scheduled syncing does not work on any plan. The Auto-sync picker offers Off, Every 1h, 4h, 12h and 24h, but choosing any cadence returns "Scheduled polling is not available yet - Continuum runs one-time scans." That is not a plan gate and no upgrade lifts it. Turning it Off is always accepted.
Reading a sync
Each scope's discovery is recorded as its own Poll run, reachable from the history list in Settings…, so one Sync now across three scopes produces three runs. Removing a scope writes one too.
A run reports what it found, what changed since the last one, and an Adapter errors section listing every read that failed.
Check that section before concluding something was decommissioned. A permission error produces a smaller diagram with an explanation, not a silent gap. Once the permission is fixed, choose Sync now again.
The ten most recent runs are listed. There is no view that compares two runs side by side.