> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ctrlplane.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Inventory Overview

> Unified visibility into your infrastructure resources

Ctrlplane's inventory system provides a centralized view of all your
infrastructure resources with custom relationships and dynamic grouping.

## What is the Inventory?

The inventory is a real-time database of your deployment targets — Kubernetes
clusters, cloud functions, VMs, databases, or any custom infrastructure. It
enables:

* **Unified visibility** across providers (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, custom)
* **Dynamic environments** that automatically include matching resources
* **Custom relationships** to model dependencies and ownership
* **Rich metadata** for filtering, grouping, and automation

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart TB
    subgraph Providers["Resource Providers"]
        K8s["Kubernetes"]
        AWS["AWS"]
        Custom["Custom Scripts"]
    end

    subgraph Inventory["Ctrlplane Inventory"]
        Resources["Resources"]
        Metadata["Metadata & Config"]
        Relations["Relationships"]
    end

    subgraph Targeting["Environment Targeting"]
        Staging["Staging"]
        Prod["Production"]
        Regional["Regional"]
    end

    Providers -->|"sync"| Inventory
    Inventory -->|"selectors"| Targeting
```

## Core Concepts

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Resources" icon="server" href="../concepts/resources">
    Deployment targets with metadata and configuration
  </Card>

  <Card title="Environments" icon="layer-group" href="../concepts/environments">
    Dynamic groups of resources using selectors
  </Card>

  <Card title="Relationships" icon="diagram-project" href="./relationships">
    Model dependencies between resources
  </Card>

  <Card title="Selectors" icon="filter" href="../concepts/selectors">
    Query language for matching resources
  </Card>

  <Card title="Resource Providers" icon="rotate" href="../integrations/resource-providers/overview">
    Sync infrastructure into the inventory
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How It Works

### 1. Resources are Synced

Resources are synced into Ctrlplane via resource providers or API:

```yaml theme={null}
type: Resource
name: production-cluster-us-east
kind: KubernetesCluster
identifier: k8s-prod-useast1
metadata:
  environment: production
  region: us-east-1
  team: platform
config:
  server: https://k8s.example.com
  namespace: default
```

### 2. Environments Match Resources

Environments use selectors to dynamically include resources:

```yaml theme={null}
type: Environment
name: Production US-East
resourceSelector: |
  resource.metadata["environment"] == "production" &&
  resource.metadata["region"] == "us-east-1"
```

When new resources are added that match the selector, they're automatically
included in the environment.

### 3. Deployments Target Environments

Deployments create release targets for each resource in each environment:

```
Deployment × Environment × Resource = Release Target
```

## Key Benefits

| Benefit                    | Description                                        |
| -------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **Single source of truth** | All resources visible in one place                 |
| **Dynamic targeting**      | Environments auto-update as infrastructure changes |
| **Rich metadata**          | Filter and group by any attribute                  |
| **Cross-provider**         | Kubernetes, cloud, and custom in one view          |

## Next Steps

* [Resources](../concepts/resources) — Understand resource structure and
  lifecycle
* [Relationships](./relationships) — Model dependencies between resources
* [Environments](../concepts/environments) — Create dynamic resource groups
* [Selectors](../concepts/selectors) — Write powerful resource queries
* [Resource Providers](../integrations/resource-providers/overview) — Sync your
  infrastructure