Concepts

This is the user-facing answer to “what is CardBoard made of.” CardBoard is built from a small set of primitives — learn these and the rest of the product follows.

The primitives

Primitive	What it is
Card	The unit. The thing you write on, move around, link to a tracker.
Board	The named, shareable container.
Map	The canvas inside a board.
Map type	The kind of canvas (story map, sitemap, kanban, persona…).
Divider	A line or frame that names and bounds a region.
Outcome	A named group of cards.
Connection	A line between two cards.
Reaction	An emoji on a card.
Text sticker	A free-floating piece of text.
Image sticker	A free-floating image.
Workspace	The team container; the billing and access boundary.
Collaborator	A member or guest’s role on a specific board.
Tracker	The integration to ADO or Jira.

Two rules tell you how they fit

Boards layer up to workspaces; cards layer down inside boards. The workspace owns boards; the board owns the map; the map carries cards, stickers, dividers, outcomes, connections, and reactions. Permissions ladder the same way (workspace role → board collaboration role).

Each primitive is the authority for one dimension. Cards carry content. Outcomes carry membership. Dividers carry geometry. Trackers carry sync. Reactions carry signal. No two overlap — when you change one, you don’t have to wonder whether another stayed consistent.

Tip

If you’re trying to do something and can’t find a primitive for it, that’s usually a sign. Either the right primitive exists under a different name, or you’re trying to do something CardBoard intentionally doesn’t model (execution workflows, sprint planning, real-time chat). Check the list first.