The subject invention provides a system and/or method that facilitates prescribing a navigation within an application utilizing a topology and a navigation path. The topology is created based upon received metadata and is a network of node objects and link objects. The navigation path is a sequential list over the topology that represents a sub-graph thereof. A prescribing component can create the topology and navigation path such that a prescribed navigation can be utilized by an application during navigation (e.g., exploration) during runtime.