Structurizr

Structurizr is a publishing platform for software architecture diagrams and documentation based upon the C4 model; available as a free/paid cloud service and an on-premises installation - see pricing for details.

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Software architecture diagrams as code

Unlike traditional modeling tools, Structurizr does not provide a "drag and drop" editor to create diagrams. Instead, you create a software architecture model using code and upload it as a JSON document via the web API.

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    Workspace workspace = new Workspace("Getting Started", "This is a model of my software system.");
    Model model = workspace.getModel();

    Person user = model.addPerson("User", "A user of my software system.");
    SoftwareSystem softwareSystem = model.addSoftwareSystem("Software System", "My software system.");
    user.uses(softwareSystem, "Uses");

    ViewSet viewSet = workspace.getViews();
    SystemContextView contextView = viewSet.createSystemContextView(softwareSystem, "SystemContext", "An example of a System Context diagram.");
    contextView.addAllSoftwareSystems();
    contextView.addAllPeople();

    Styles styles = viewSet.getConfiguration().getStyles();
    styles.addElementStyle(Tags.SOFTWARE_SYSTEM).background("#1168bd").color("#ffffff");
    styles.addElementStyle(Tags.PERSON).background("#08427b").color("#ffffff").shape(Shape.Person);

    StructurizrClient structurizrClient = new StructurizrClient("key", "secret");
    structurizrClient.putWorkspace(25441, workspace);
}

And here's the resulting diagram when you open it in Structurizr, where the layout of the diagrams can be modified.

A diagram key is automatically generated for you, based upon the styles and shapes defined in the model.

The code used to create the software architecture model can be thought of as an executable domain specific language, or an executable architecture description language. This offers a number of opportunities over using a static textual description, such as the ability to use the programming language's reflection and static analysis capabilities to find and extract components from the codebase being documented. There are currently two client libraries; Structurizr for Java and Structurizr for .NET, both of which are open source. The web API is open and documented too, providing you the ability to create your own tooling if desired.

Explore your software architecture model

Once you have a model of your software system, extracted from your code using reflection and static analysis techniques, you can additionally visualise the model in a number of different ways. Structurizr provides some explorations to help you explore the elements and their relationships in the model.

Far too many teams allow their codebases to grow without having an insight into the structure of the code. The result is often the proverbial "big ball of mud"; a codebase that is tangled, hard to understand, hard to work with and hard to change. Visualising the structure of your code is the first step towards improving it.