Getting started

Start with a document for a service you know. Draw its dependencies, then turn the services you reuse into objects.

Create a document

Create an account and finish setting up your organization.
On Home, select New doc to open the canvas.
Press Shift+N to open the insert menu. Add an ERD entity, a REST endpoint or a sequence diagram, depending on what you need to describe.

You can draw shapes and arrows on the same canvas. A shape is enough for a note or a component that appears only here. Use an object and a reference when the same service belongs in several documents.

Write a diagram as YAML

Open Edit document as YAML in the editor toolbar. For example, this document describes a customer calling an API:

apiVersion: archdocs/v1
title: Customer API
nodes:
  - id: customer
    type: c4-node
    kind: person
    label: Customer
  - id: api
    type: c4-node
    kind: service
    label: Customer API
relationships:
  - from: customer
    to: api
    label: Calls

Review the validation messages before selecting Apply. Applying YAML to a hand-drawn document replaces the canvas and asks for confirmation. Later recompiles can move elements whose positions aren't pinned.

The YAML reference lists the node types. The editor guide explains document editing and Mermaid conversion.