Icon Lexicon (Category-First)
A category-first icon set for documentation, architecture diagrams, and minor website usage.
The UI/app can choose any variant within a category (emoji, Lucide, FontAwesome, SVG, etc.).
🏛️ Architecture & Structure
Use for: architecture, system shape, standards, foundations, composition, “built environment”
- Foundation / Base: 🧱 🪨 🗿 🧬
- Blueprint / Design / Precision: 📐 📏 🧭
- Construction / Assembly: 🏗️ 🧩 🧰 🧲
- Buildings / Institutions: 🏛️ 🏢 🏰 🏦 🏚️
- Boundaries / Zones: 🚧 🚪 🧱
- Patterns / Reuse: ♻️ 🧩 🧱
Suggested consistent meanings (optional):
- 🧱 = foundation / primitive / base layer
- 📐 = design/spec rigor
- 🏗️ = in-progress / evolving architecture
- 🏛️ = governance/enterprise architecture
🗺️ Context, Landscape & Navigation
Use for: bounded context, scope, domain map, routes, “where does this live?”
- Map / Context Boundary: 🗺️ 🧭
- Location / Anchor / Ownership: 📍 🏷️
- Routing / Traffic / Flows: 🛣️ 🛤️ 🚦 ➡️
- Direction / Discovery: 🧭 🔎 🧵
- Crossing / Edges: 🌉 🚪 🚧
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 🗺️ = domain/context map
- 📍 = authoritative source / ownership point
- 🚦 = decision gate / policy check / control point
- 🌉 = integration boundary crossing
📚 Knowledge, Docs & Reference
Use for: documentation, ADRs, standards, how-tos, “institutional memory”
- Library / Reference: 📚 📖
- Notes / Doc: 🗒️ 📝 📄
- Knowledge Store / Index: 🗃️ 🗄️ 🗂️
- Learning / Study: 🧠 🎓 🔍
- Guidance / Rules: 📌 ✅ ⚠️
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 📚 = canonical reference / docs hub
- 🗒️ = working doc / internal notes
- 🗃️ = indexed knowledge / repository catalog
📜 Contracts, Specs & Interfaces
Use for: OpenAPI, schemas, events, SLAs, “this is the agreement”
- Contract / Spec: 📜 📃 🧾
- API / Interface / Surface: 🔌 🧩
- Schema / Shape: 🧬 📐
- Versioning / Compatibility: 🏷️ 🔖 ♻️
- Validation / Guarantees: ✅ ☑️ 🧪
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 🗂️ = folder
- 📜 = contract/spec (API/event/schema)
- 🔌 = integration point / port
- 🧬 = schema/data shape (esp. domain/event)
🧩 Components, Modules & Boundaries
Use for: services, packages, modules, slices, assemblies
- Component / Part: 🧩
- Module / Package / Unit: 📦 🗂️
- Composition / Assembly: 🧩 ➕ 🏗️
- Seams / Adapters: 🔌 🔗 🧷
- Ownership / Team boundary: 🏷️ 👥
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 📦 = deployable/module boundary
- 🔗 = link between modules / dependency
🌀 Flow, Lifecycle & Dynamics
Use for: pipelines, orchestration, state changes, eventing, async
- Flow / Process: 🌀 🔄 ➡️
- Orchestration / Coordination: 🎛️ 🧭 🧵
- Async / Events: 📣 📨 🛰️
- State / Status: 🟢 🟡 🔴 ✅ ⚠️
- Time / Scheduling: ⏱️ ⏳ 🕒
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 🌀 = system dynamics / workflow motion
- 🔄 = lifecycle/retry/loop
- ⏱️ = latency/perf
Use for: capacity, “heat”, stability, maturity, resilience, evolution
💧 Stability / Cooling / Calm
- 💧 🌊 🧊 🫧
Use for: reliability, smoothing, buffering, “cooling down incidents”
🔥 Heat / Risk / Urgency
- 🔥 ⚡ 🚨 💥
Use for: incidents, hotspots, bottlenecks, “this is dangerous”
🌱 Growth / Maturity / Sustainability
- 🌱 🌿 🌳 ♻️
Use for: evolution, adoption, long-term maintainability, sustainability
☀️🌙 Visibility / Diurnal cycles
- ☀️ 🌙 ✨ 🌥️
Use for: uptime windows, “day/night ops”, monitoring clarity
🌬️ Wind (Change / Variability)
- 🌬️ 💨 🪁
Use for: change, churn, “winds of requirements”, variable traffic
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 🔥 = operational risk / urgent issue
- 💧 = stabilizing work / hardening
- 🌱 = iterative improvement / growth
- 🌬️ = change pressure / variability
🌐 World & Worldbuilding (Scope, Terrain, Externalities)
Use for: environments, regions, external deps, geography metaphors, “the world outside the system”
- World / Global: 🌐 🌍 🌎 🌏
- Space / External / Remote: 🛰️ 🪐 ✨
- Mountains / Hard constraints: 🏔️ ⛰️ 🗻 🪨
- Settlements / Habitats: 🏕️ 🏘️
- Biomes / Regions: 🏞️ 🏜️ 🏝️ 🏖️ 🌋
- Exploration / Frontier: 🧭 🗺️ 🔭
Suggested meanings (optional):
- 🛰️ = external system / third-party / remote dependency
- 🏔️ = immovable constraint (legal, physics, compliance)
- 🏝️ = isolated subsystem / “island architecture”
🛡️ Security, Trust & Compliance
Use for: authn/authz, secrets, privacy, policy enforcement
- Security / Guarding: 🛡️ 🔐 🔒
- Identity / Access: 🪪 🗝️
- Policy / Compliance: 📜 ✅ ⚖️
- Threat / Attack: 🐞 🧨 🚨
🧪 Quality, Testing & Verification
Use for: tests, validation, correctness, confidence
- Test / Experiment: 🧪 🔬
- Verify / Approve: ✅ ☑️ ✔️
- Bug / Defect: 🐞
- Measurement: 📏 📐 📊
📦 Delivery, Ops & Observability
Use for: CI/CD, deploys, runtime, telemetry, incidents
- Deploy / Release: 🚀 📦 🏁
- Runtime / Infra: 🖥️ ☁️ 🗄️
- Logging / Metrics / Tracing: 🧾 📈 📊 🧵
- Alerting / Incidents: 🚨 🔥 ⚠️
- Tools / Maintenance: 🛠️ 🔧 🧰
Canonical Meaning Set (Optional)
If you want a small set that’s always consistent:
- 🏛️ = Architecture / Governance
- 🧱 = Foundation / Primitive
- 🗺️ = Context / Domain Map
- 📍 = Ownership / Source-of-truth anchor
- 📚 = Reference / Docs hub
- 📜 = Contract / Spec
- 🗂️ = Folder
- 🧩 = Component
- 🔌 = Port / Integration seam
- 🌀 = Workflow / System dynamics
- 🛰️ = External dependency
- 🔥 = Hotspot / Incident / Risk
- 💧 = Stabilization / Hardening
- 🌱 = Growth / Evolution