Over the past months, I have been working on a project that addresses a challenge I have encountered many times throughout my career: keeping architecture documentation up-to-date and accessible.

Today, I am excited to introduce Archyl, an AI-powered architecture documentation platform that helps organizations visualize, understand, and maintain their entire software ecosystem.

The Problem

In every organization I have worked with, architecture documentation has been a recurring pain point. Teams struggle with:

• Outdated diagrams: Architecture diagrams are created once and rarely updated, becoming obsolete as systems evolve
• Scattered documentation: Documentation lives in wikis, Confluence pages, README files, and developers' minds
• Onboarding friction: New team members spend weeks understanding the system landscape before becoming productive
• Knowledge silos: Only a few senior engineers truly understand how all the pieces fit together
• Communication gaps: Stakeholders and developers speak different languages when discussing architecture

I have seen organizations spend countless hours in meetings trying to explain their systems, drawing diagrams on whiteboards that are photographed and forgotten, or maintaining Visio files that nobody opens.

The Vision

Archyl's vision is simple: architecture documentation should be a living, collaborative asset that evolves with your codebase.

Instead of treating documentation as a separate artifact that requires manual maintenance, Archyl integrates directly with your repositories and uses AI to automatically discover and document your architecture.

The platform is built around the C4 model, a powerful yet simple approach to visualizing software architecture at different levels of abstraction:

1. System Context: The big picture showing how your system interacts with users and external systems
2. Container: The high-level technical building blocks (applications, databases, message queues)
3. Component: The internal structure of each container
4. Code: The implementation details when needed

This hierarchical approach allows different stakeholders to zoom in and out based on their needs. Executives can understand the system landscape without technical details, while developers can drill down to specific components.

What Archyl Does

AI-Powered Discovery

The core feature of Archyl is its AI-powered discovery engine. Connect your repositories from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or even self-hosted instances, and Archyl analyzes your codebase to automatically generate C4 documentation.

The discovery process:

• Traverses your repository structure
• Analyzes code patterns, imports, and dependencies
• Identifies services, databases, and external integrations
• Generates relationships between components
• Creates initial documentation that you can review and refine

This means you can have a first draft of your architecture documentation in minutes, not weeks.

Interactive Diagrams

Archyl provides stunning, interactive diagrams that let you navigate your architecture with smooth transitions between levels. Click on a system to see its containers, then drill down to components.

The diagrams are not static images but live, editable visualizations that your team can collaborate on in real-time.

Multi-Provider Git Integration

Archyl supports a wide range of git providers:

• GitHub (cloud and Enterprise)
• GitLab (cloud and self-hosted)
• Bitbucket
• Azure DevOps
• Gitea

This ensures that regardless of where your code lives, Archyl can help document it.

Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)

Beyond diagrams, Archyl supports Architecture Decision Records linked directly to your C4 elements. Document why decisions were made and connect them to the affected systems and components.

Team Collaboration

Architecture is a team sport. Archyl enables real-time collaboration with features like:

• Shared workspaces for teams
• Shareable links for stakeholder reviews
• Change history tracking
• Team-based access control

Why I Built This

After years of helping organizations with their architectures, whether through consulting, open-source contributions, or building internal tools, I realized that the tooling gap was significant.

Existing solutions were either:

• Too complex and heavyweight for most teams
• Static diagramming tools without intelligence
• Expensive enterprise solutions out of reach for smaller teams

I wanted to build something that:

• Gets teams started quickly with AI-assisted discovery
• Uses a proven methodology (C4 model)
• Integrates with modern development workflows
• Is accessible to organizations of all sizes

Archyl is the tool I wished I had on every project.

Conclusion

Architecture documentation does not have to be a chore. With the right tools and approach, it can become a valuable asset that improves team communication, accelerates onboarding, and helps organizations make better technical decisions.

If you are tired of outdated diagrams and scattered documentation, give Archyl a try. I would love to hear your feedback and learn about your architecture documentation challenges.

You can find more information and try Archyl at archyl.com.