Load Dependencies
Load Dependencies pulls related records around a shape you've already placed on the canvas — hierarchies, relationships, references, and related lists — and drops them onto the board with the correct links already drawn. It's the fastest way to grow a diagram outwards from a known starting point.
Opening the Dialog
Select a data-bound shape on the canvas (a shape tied to a ServiceNow record).
Click the Load Dependencies button in the editor toolbar.
When the Button Is Disabled
The button is disabled when the selected shape can't be used as a starting point. Common reasons:
The selection is a future-state item (not yet committed)
The selection is inside a Hierarchy Map group
The selection is inside a Kanban lane
The selection is inside a Context Map
Select a plain canvas shape bound to a ServiceNow record to re-enable the button.
The Four Tabs
Each tab offers a different way to discover related records. You can select items across multiple tabs in one go — everything you tick is loaded when you press Load.
Relationships
What it shows: Parent-child relationship pairs, displayed as an expandable tree.
How you select: Tick the parent checkbox to select the whole relationship group, or expand and tick individual child records.
Use when: You know the relationship you want (e.g., "Depends on") and want every record on the other side of it.
Reference
What it shows: Reference fields on the selected record, shown as a flat list.
How you select: Tick a single checkbox per reference.
Use when: You want to pull in the record referenced by a specific field (e.g., the Owner of an application).
Hierarchy
What it shows: Self-referential parent/child relationships — hierarchy lookups where records point up or down to the same table.
How you select: Tick a single checkbox per hierarchy option.
Use when: You're visualizing a structure like a capability tree or an org chart rooted at the selected element.
Related Lists
What it shows: Many-to-many (M2M) related lists with optional child records.
How you select: Tick the parent checkbox, then optionally expand to pick specific child records.
Include related records toggle: An AirlineStops-style toggle lets you choose between loading only the parent (the related list record itself) or also pulling in the child records attached to it.
Use when: You want to walk across an M2M link (e.g., "Business Applications consumed by Business Services").
Shared Load Options
These toggles apply across all four tabs:
Autolayout
When enabled, runs autolayout on the loaded dependencies so they don't overlap existing content.
Show Unique Relationships
Visible when any relationships are selected. Deduplicates relationships of the same type between the same two elements.
Complement
Visible when items are selected. On: connect to existing elements if already on the board. Off: create duplicates.
Click Load (disabled until you've ticked at least one item) to apply your selection.
What Appears on the Canvas
Nodes — one shape per selected record, positioned around your source element.
Links — drawn between the source element and every loaded dependency, with the appropriate relationship type.
Selection — the newly-loaded nodes and links are auto-selected so you can immediately style or move them.
Layout — Autolayout repositions the whole connected graph if enabled; otherwise only the new nodes get placed.
Limits & Gotchas
No explicit cap on items per load — extremely broad selections (e.g., a reference field with thousands of values) can take a while. Start narrow and expand in follow-up loads.
Duplicates are avoided by default thanks to the Complement toggle — turn it off intentionally if you want parallel copies of an already-loaded element.
Not available on future-state items. If you want to pull dependencies around a shape you've created but not yet committed, Commit it first.
Permissions — no feature-level role gating. ServiceNow ACLs on the underlying records determine what you're allowed to see.
Related
Data Hub — add the starting shape tied to a ServiceNow record
Data Panel — inspect the records you've loaded
HOP (Hover-Over Panel) — another way to explore neighbors of a single record
Relationships — style the links you've loaded
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