---
title: "Surface"
description: "one node of the architecture: its route, the object it shows, its owner, its class, who sees it, its nine states"
section: concepts
address: /concepts/surface
contract: 0476e35e6e275db5
---

# Surface

one node of the architecture: its route, the object it shows, its owner, its class, who sees it, its nine states

[figure: Surface is a row at platform scope. The drawing shows its fields and the objects that they point at.]

| property | value |
|---|---|
| kind | row |
| scope | platform |
| key | its node |
| store | postgres |
| family | interfaces |



## Fields


| field | type | required | note |
|---|---|---|---|
| `node` | `text` | yes | N-nn |
| `route` | `text` | yes |  |
| `shows` | [Kind](/concepts/kind) | yes |  |
| `owner` | `text` | yes |  |
| `class` | `one of persistent \| dismissible \| working` | yes |  |
| `slot` | `text` | yes |  |
| `states` | `[one of default \| loading \| empty \| never measured \| partial \| degraded \| refused \| error \| stale]` | yes |  |
| `drawing` | `text` | yes | the figure |



## Routes that use it
No route takes or returns Surface directly. The record holds it, and the objects that point at it reach it.