---
alias: user-guide-navigation
description: "The application navigation organizes access to various system functionalities and data views"
---

# Navigation

This area contains the main application navigation functionalities. It consists of menus that group Critical Manufacturing MES buttons. The navigation pane can be seen as a bookmark browser for application pages.

![Diagram representing the navigation bar UI element in Critical Manufacturing MES](../images/navigation_bar_layout.png)

The navigation pane contains the following menus:

1. **AI** - provides a dedicated workspace where you can start and manage conversations with available **AI Agents**;
2. **Administration** - contains pages typically accessed by the application administrator or by power users;
3. **Low Code** - provides quick access to configuration and creation of entities related to Low Code functionalities in the system;
4. **Business Data** - a generic object browser for all entity types in the system, such as **Facility**, **Material**, **Product**, **Step**, **Flow** and other;
5. **Manufacturing** - provides access to **fabExplorer**, **My Workgroup** and **Barcode Identification**;
6. **Maintenance** - provides access to **Execution** and **Management**;
7. **Quality** - provides access to **Documents**, **Change Sets**, **Inspection Orders** and other;
8. **Planning and Logistics** - provides access to the groups **Material Logistics**, **Order Management**, **Scheduling** and **Warehouse Management**;
9. **Business Intelligence** - provides access to **Reports**;
10. **Automation** - provides access to the automation area view and enables you to manage the automation instances in the system OR - provides access to **Connect Iot** and **Factory Automation**;
11. **Data Platform** - provides access to functionalities specific to Data Platform, including **Data Sets** and **IoT Event Definitions**;
12. **Apps** - provides access to the **Apps** that are installed in Critical Manufacturing MES.

In this area, you can also see the status of the Message Bus functionality in the antenna icon in the bottom right of the Status area; if the antenna is transmitting, then the Message Bus is active. Next to the antenna icon, on the bottom left, you will see the name of the Environment.

![Screenshot showing the antenna icon and name of the current Environment.](../images/antenna_icon.png)

Each menu group has an associated menu icon. You can expand/collapse the navigation pane by selecting the :material-menu: icon on the top left corner of the navigation pane.

=== "Expanded View"

    ![Screenshot showing the navigation zone with links to Data Platform and other related areas.](../images/navigation_zone.png)

=== "Collapsed View"

    ![Screenshot showing a collapsed navigation menu with options for accessing Data Platform, which includes Asset Management and Asset Administration.](../images/navigation_zone_collapsed.png)

!!! info
    You can customize the navigation pane. For more information, see [Developer Portal](https://developer.criticalmanufacturing.com/explore/guides/customizations/presentation/menu/).