Introduction

StructurizrX is a Rust toolchain for describing software architecture as a plain-text model and generating diagrams from it — a re-implementation of Structurizr and the C4 model, evolving into an LLM-native architecture description system: one master model, views as queries over it, and tool feedback precise enough that both humans and LLM agents can self-correct from error messages alone.

structurizrx validate ws.dsl
parse error at line 5, column 17: unknown element identifier 'shoop'
in relationship (did you mean 'shop'?)

Why a master model

Diagrams rot because they state each fact once per diagram. If api calls billing and that fact lives only inside a hand-drawn box-and-arrow picture, nothing stops a second diagram from drifting out of sync the moment the relationship changes. StructurizrX keeps the model as the single source of truth and treats views as selections over it — stored as queries (auto focus api, auto slice element.status==idea), generated deterministically, never hand-maintained.

Mermaid and PlantUML remain excellent outputs — a generated view exported to Mermaid renders natively in GitHub READMEs and PRs — but neither is a model language: there’s no way to state a fact once and derive many views from it. StructurizrX’s DSL is the model layer; Mermaid/PlantUML/DOT/SVG are projections of it.

Progressive fidelity

The same format holds a napkin sketch (“there’s a shop, it talks to billing somehow”) and a detailed spec (typed ports, connector semantics, quality-attribute annotations, milestones). Start with arrows:

customer -> shop "buys things"
shop -> billing "somehow charges" ?

and grow into a full model with containers, ports, relationship kinds, and generated views, all under the same identifiers — a placeholder becomes a softwareSystem, later grows containers, without ever renaming anything downstream.

Where to go next

• Install and Quickstart to get running.
• The CLI reference for every subcommand.
• The Language reference for the full DSL — both the parts inherited from upstream Structurizr and StructurizrX’s own extensions (ports, relationship kinds, status, milestones, generated views).

The full extended design, including the reasoning behind each extension, lives in docs/SPEC.md in the repository.