---
sidebar_position: 3
keywords:
- EventCatalog domains
sidebar_label: Adding services to domains
title: Adding services to domains
description: Creating and managing domains within EventCatalog.
---

import AddedIn from '@site/src/components/MDX/AddedIn';

Adding [services](/docs/development/guides/services/introduction) to your domains is a great way to group services within a particular domain.

When adding services to your domain EventCatalog will:

- Show the services in the domain sidebar
- Visualize all the services within that domain using the visualizer

## Adding services using frontmatter

To add services within a domain you need to add them to the `services` array within your domain frontmatter API.

```md title="/domains/Orders/index.mdx (example)"
---
id: PaymentDomain
... # other domain frontmatter
services:
    # id of the service you want to add
    - id: PaymentsService
    # (optional) The version of the service you want to add.
      version: 0.0.1

    # Note: version is optional. If no version is given the latest version of the service will be used.
    - id: NotificationsService
---

<!-- Markdown content... -->

```

The `services` frontmatter in your domain tells EventCatalog that these documented services belong to this domain.

In the example above we can see that the services `PaymentsService` and `NotificationsService` belong to the `PaymentDomain`.

### Using semver versioning

<AddedIn version="2.4.0" />

You can also use semver to match the version of the service you want to add.

<details>
  <summary>Example of using semver versioning</summary>

  ```md title="/domains/Orders/index.mdx (example)"
---
id: PaymentDomain
... # other domain frontmatter
services:
    # Latest minor version of PaymentsService will be added
    - id: PaymentsService
      version: 0.x.1
    # Minor and patches of this version will be linked
    - id: NotificationsService
      version: ^1.0.1
    # Latest version of this service will be shown by default.
    - id: PaymentsService
---

<!-- Markdown contents... -->

```

Although it's recommended to link to a version of a service it is now optional. If no version is given **latest** is used by default.
</details>




### Visualizing services within a domain

When you view your domain in EventCatalog, the services will be visualized for you.

![Example](../../img/domains/visualiser.png)



## Making changes and versioning

You can make as many changes as you want, but if you are adding/removing services you may want to consider versioning your domain. This allows you to keep historic changes, and let others understand why services are coming in/out of a particular domain.

