Visio diagrams go stale. Tribal knowledge walks out the door. HelixGate replaces both with a live, interactive dependency graph that stays current because it is part of your governance workflow — not a side artefact.
This is how a real dependency graph looks in HelixGate. Every line represents a governed relationship — click any node to see what it connects to.
Powered by Cytoscape.js, the dependency graph renders your entire service topology as an interactive, navigable visualisation. Click any node to drill into its relationships. Pan, zoom, and filter by relationship type — all in the browser.
Model your architecture precisely with typed edges: depends_on, calls, data_flow, integrates_with, hosts, manages, provides_data_to, consumes_data_from, owned_by, and monitors. Each type carries distinct semantics for impact analysis.
Select any service as the focal node and explore its neighbourhood up to N hops. The ego-network view strips away noise and surfaces the immediate dependency chain — upstream providers, downstream consumers, and transitive links that would otherwise stay hidden.
Answer both questions at once: "What does this service depend on?" and "What depends on this service?" Bi-directional traversal makes decommissioning assessments, supplier exit planning, and change impact reviews fast and defensible.
Export the full graph or a filtered subset as JSON (for tooling integration), GraphML (for enterprise architecture tools), PNG at configurable resolution (for presentations), or PDF in A4 or A3 (for audit packs and board papers). Every export is timestamped and logged.
Before you decommission a service, change a supplier, or modify an integration, understand the blast radius. HelixGate traverses the dependency graph to show every service that would be affected — directly or transitively — so you can plan with confidence, not guesswork.
Stop maintaining Visio diagrams that diverge from reality within days. The dependency graph is derived from live service data, so architecture reviews reference what actually exists — not what existed three months ago.
Know exactly which services will be affected before you deploy a breaking change or decommission a dependency. Ego-network mode lets you drill into any service's immediate neighbourhood without navigating the entire graph.
When the board asks "what is the risk of switching supplier X?", answer with data. Export the affected dependency chain as a PDF, attach it to the business case, and move forward with evidence — not assumptions.
SOC 2, ISO 27001, and NHS DSP Toolkit all require understanding of inter-service dependencies and their risk implications. HelixGate's typed, timestamped relationship records provide audit-ready evidence of your dependency posture — including who created each relationship, when, and the full change history. The immutable audit trail answers "who connected what and when" instantly.
The interactive graph is rendered client-side using Cytoscape.js with two layout algorithms: COSE-Bilkent for organic, force-directed layouts that reveal natural clustering, and a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) layout for strict hierarchical views. Layout selection is user-configurable per session. All graph interactions — zoom, pan, node selection — operate at 60fps with no server round-trips.
Relationships are stored as directed edges with a typed relationship_type enum covering all 10 supported types. Each edge references source and target services by ID, ensuring referential integrity. Relationship creation, modification, and deletion are fully audited. Bulk relationship import via CSV is supported alongside manual creation. Cross-module graph mode — visualising relationships across modules — is on the roadmap.
See every service relationship visualised, query impact in both directions, and export audit-ready dependency maps — all in a single governed platform.