01The app

Every panel hangs off the left sidebar. The mock is clickable and each panel has its own section below.

Sidebar items follow permissions. Command Station needs apply and destroy; Users and Backup need manage_users. Array sign-on also hides Users and Sign Out.

02Concepts

Each part is set up once and reused across deployments.

The usual order

1. Packages: upload or build the Terraform code.
2. Credentials: add a cloud login and press Test.
3. Tfvar Tables: pick the package, fill in values.
4. Deploy: choose all three, name the deployment, press Run Plan. If the plan looks right, Approve & Apply.
5. Deployments: drift checks, re-applies, outputs and destroy.

03Getting Anvil

Deployed from Nectere Array with Menu › Deploy › Nectere Anvil. Name the tile (say Anvil Prod), pick a sign-in mode and press Deploy. When it shows Running, press Open. Updates, restarts and logs are on the back of the tile.

Settings

Edited with the tile's .env button in Array. Saving restarts Anvil for a few seconds without losing anything.

04Sign-in and setup

Array sign-on needs no setup. With Application sign-in, the first visit to a new tile opens the setup screen, which creates the first account with all eight permissions. After that everyone uses Sign In.

Array sign-on

Opening the tile from Array signs you in. An expired Array session lands on "Sign in through Nectere Array" (the Array mode screen above), and reopening the tile from Array fixes it.

05Sidebar and notifications

06Dashboard

1. 1Active Runs. The orange count pulses while anything runs. Click a line for its log. Empty: No runs in progress.
2. 2Deployments. Totals by status. Unapplied plans don't count.
3. 3Count tiles. Click one to open that panel.
4. 4Recent Runs. The 8 newest runs across all deployments. VIEW ALL → opens Deployments.

Refreshes every 20 seconds while open.

07Packages

Terraform code for one kind of thing. Leave *.tfvars files out: values come from tfvar tables at run time, which is how one package serves many environments.

Upload and New

my-package.zip
├── plan.tf
├── provider.tf
└── vars.tf

Inspect

Lists what Terraform will need. Provider sources link to registry docs. Variables show type, default and a sensitive badge where it applies. Each file has Edit, which opens a full-width Ace editor, and × to delete it.

Editing a file

Build Outputs

Writes outputs.tf from resource attributes you pick, replacing any existing one on save. For resources using count or for_each, tick [*] to output every instance.

output "cluster_name" {
  value = azurerm_kubernetes_cluster.aks.name
}
output "kube_admin_config_raw" {
  value     = azurerm_kubernetes_cluster.aks.kube_admin_config_raw
  sensitive = true
}

08Tfvar Tables

One set of values for one package. Pick the package first; the list filters to its tables. Runs get the table as terraform.tfvars.json.

Deploy opens the Deploy panel with package and table preselected. Download saves <name>.tfvars.json. Copy asks for a name and suggests <name>-copy. Edit, Copy and Delete need manage_varsets; Deploy needs plan.

The form

One row per variable block. An orange ⚠ marks variables with no default. A validation { contains(…) } rule becomes a dropdown, bools are checkboxes, and lists and objects get nested editors. Dropping in an existing .tfvars file fills the form; the file isn't kept. Blank rows are left out on save so Terraform uses the default.

subscription_id    = "0f3a9c2e-5b71-4d1e-9a6c-8e2f4b7d1c90"
location           = "eastus"
cluster_name       = "aks-csi-test"
node_count         = 3
node_vm_size       = "Standard_D4s_v5"
storage_node_ips     = ["10.20.4.11", "10.20.4.12"]
storage_username      = "admin"
vnet_name          = "vnet-lab-eastus"
subnet_name        = "snet-aks"

09Env Tables

Environment variables set before Terraform runs: proxy settings, tokens for providers that read the environment, TF_LOG. A deployment can attach any number. Credential variables go on last and win a name clash.

10Credentials

Terraform logs in with the credential picked at deploy time, so packages carry no secrets. Fields named secret, password, key or token are encrypted on save and never shown again. Leave one blank when editing to keep its value.

Per-provider fields

# Grab your subscription id first
az account show --query id -o tsv

# Create the SP scoped to the subscription with Contributor
az ad sp create-for-rbac --name "anvil-terraform" \
    --role "Contributor" \
    --scopes "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>"

{
  "appId":    "xxxxxxxx-...",   <- Client ID
  "password": "xxxxxxxxxxxx",   <- Client Secret
  "tenant":   "xxxxxxxx-..."    <- Tenant ID
}

Test

Test makes a real login call and reports in a sidebar notification. A pass means the secret works and the cloud is reachable.

Access report

Access (Azure, AWS, Google) reports what the identity can actually do. It runs read checks from the tenant or organization down to the subscription, account or project, then billing. Denied or partial results with a known fix get an i button that shows the granting command. A check takes 10 to 40 seconds. The last result stays, marked cached, until Refresh.

11Private providers

For providers not on the public registry. Upload the binary and terraform init will find it. Only linux_amd64 builds work.

Packages reference it like any other provider: source = "acme/objstore", version = "1.4.2".

12Deploy

New deployments start here. Nothing changes in the cloud until Approve & Apply.

1. Run Plan. The Output badge goes running and the log streams in.
2. When it finishes the console switches to Tree, the deployment is planned, and Approve & Apply and Topology are enabled.
3. Approve & Apply applies the saved tfplan. On success the deployment is applied, its outputs and a state snapshot are captured, and it moves to Deployments.

Unapplied plans don't appear in Deployments or on the dashboard. Ones older than 24 hours are deleted the next time a deployment is created or Anvil restarts.

13Reading a plan

View raw is the full log, Anvil's own lines included. Tree shows one collapsible node per resource with an action pill, errors and warnings first, summary pinned on top.

When a run errors, the summary turns grey and gets (not applied - see errors above). Its counts only show how far Terraform got before stopping. A log with no plan in it shows No structured plan detected — use View raw.

14Deployments

Every deployment applied at least once. Rows show status, parallelism if set, package id and last run. The remaining actions are under More ▾.

The run modal

Log, Re-apply, Status and Destroy share one modal: run history dropdown on top, console in the middle, hint line and confirm button at the bottom. A run in progress also gets Cancel run.

Status, drift and destroy

Status opens with read-only checks. Destroy is enabled only after one of them finishes.

Schedules are checked every minute. Hourly fires 60 minutes after the last check; daily fires in the chosen hour if 2 hours have passed. Destroyed deployments are skipped. Drift and status runs time out at 5 minutes, plan, apply and destroy never do. Each deployment keeps its 10 newest drift-check runs.

What drifted?

Before and live values for each drifted resource, plus the live value as HCL. Accepting drift only updates state. Paste the HCL into the package too or the next plan reverts it.

6

4

replicas = 4

Outputs, env tables and remove

15Topology

Left-to-right dependency graph from the last captured plan. Outline colour is the planned action; dashed boxes are data sources. Clicking a node traces it: what it needs turns purple, what depends on it teal, and the rest fades.

• Search glows orange on nodes whose name, type or values match.
• Variable highlights resources using the chosen tfvar value.
• Values switches between config, planned and applied (state) values. State is disabled until there is some.
• Only changes + neighbours hides untouched resources unless they border a changing one. On by default when only part of the deployment changes.
• Hovering a node shows its reconstructed resource "type" "name" { … } block; 📌 keeps it open for copying. References are tinted, drifted values get # live · state was …, unknowns read (known after apply).
• The side panel lists live names, instance values and both directions of dependency. Drag its left edge to resize, double-click to reset.

16Command Station

A bash shell in the deployment's working directory with its credential and env tables loaded, for jobs like terraform import, state mv or a targeted apply. The session is recorded in run history as a console run.

• An open console blocks plan and apply on that deployment and counts toward the run limit.
• Only users with access to the tile can reach the terminal, shared link or not.
• A -var table applies to plan, destroy, import and refresh in the console, but not apply.
• Closing the tab ends the session, as does Close Session after a confirm. The transcript is saved either way.

17Users and permissions

No roles, just eight permissions ticked per user. The first account has all of them; new users start with view.

Under Array sign-on the panel shows User accounts are managed in Nectere Array.

18Backup and restore

• Exports are named nectereanvil-meta-YYYYMMDD-HHmmss.zip and hold everything Anvil knows about what it built. Store them carefully.
• Import asks This OVERWRITES all current configuration with the uploaded backup. Continue?, then needs a restart: State › Restart on the tile in Array.

19Deployment lifecycle

Run dropdown labels: plan, apply, destroy, drift-check, accept-drift, console, or one of the three status checks.

Limits

20Activity log

Sign-ins, plans, applies, drift checks and console sessions are logged. Read it from the tile's Logs button in Array.

[2026-05-24T22:13:30.1773433+00:00] [INFO] [AUTH] Admin user 'admin' created via setup with full permissions
[2026-05-28T17:19:13.3113728+00:00] [INFO] [AUTH] Login: admin
[2026-05-28T17:20:02.4410215+00:00] [WARN] [AUTH] Failed login for 'mreyes'
[2026-07-27T14:55:44.5596122+00:00] [INFO] [BUILDER] Provider load requested: hashicorp/azurerm 4.81.0 (docs)
[2026-07-27T14:57:53.0138285+00:00] [INFO] [BUILDER] Package 'builder-smoke-test' saved from the builder (61add7492904)
[2026-07-27T17:02:44.8181906+00:00] [INFO] [BUILDER] Package 94e69f3a1fe1 copied into builder workspace 946cd9d7d6fb
[2026-10-26T03:00:04.1027731+00:00] [INFO] [DRIFT] Scheduled drift check started for 'aks-csi-test' (94c0e1b27d3a)
[2026-10-26T09:41:12.9041127+00:00] [INFO] [DEPLOY] Plan started for deployment 5d21c8e0a4f7
[2026-10-26T09:47:55.0019843+00:00] [WARN] [RUN] Run 20261026094250e1d7 (drift-check) on deployment 7a1f03c9b2e4 exceeded 5 minutes - timed out
[2026-10-26T10:05:31.7752040+00:00] [INFO] [CONSOLE] Console 20261026100531f00a opened on 94c0e1b27d3a by admin

Categories: AUTH, PACKAGE, BUILDER, DEPLOY, RUN, DRIFT, CONSOLE, Access, Backup.

21Things to know

• Apply uses the reviewed plan. If anything changed since, it fails and asks for a new plan.
• Deployments keep their own copy of the code. Package edits reach them only on re-apply. Edit Plan changes one deployment.
• Deployments lists package ids. The Packages panel maps them to names.
• Remove is not destroy. Anvil forgets the deployment and its resources keep running. Destroy first.
• Schedules use server time. That's the sidebar clock, usually UTC.
• Credentials in a backup are encrypted with the tile's ANVIL_CREDENTIAL_KEY. The zip holds no readable secrets. Restore onto a tile with the same key value in its .env, or the credentials won't open.
• Saving a tfvar table says "Varset". Old name, same thing.

22Troubleshooting