 <p>In Autofac you use Modules for this purpose. Groups of related components are encapsulated in a module, which is configured by the programmatic API.</p> <p>Autofac's XML configuration has support for modules, so once you've decided to use one in an applicaiton, you can register the module (rather than all the components it contains) in the config file.</p> <p>Modules support parameters that can be forwarded to the components inside, e.g. connection strings, URIs, etc.</p> <p>The documentation here should get you started: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/autofac/wiki/StructuringWithModules" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://code.google.com/p/autofac/wiki/StructuringWithModules</a></p> <p>HTH</p> <p>Nick</p>