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Archify

Turn a codebase or system description into a polished, interactive system map — directly in chat.

Archify is an agent skill for Cursor, Claude Code, Codex CLI, and OpenCode. Give it a system description or repository; get an interactive, shareable technical map.

• Open it and present — five technical diagram types, four visual presets, dark/light themes, and optional finite motion
• Review architecture changes before merge — compare two validated snapshots as Before / Delta / After, with exact added, removed, changed, moved, and rerouted facts
• Every interaction stays grounded — search nodes, optionally open revision-verified source, trace upstream/downstream authored reach and exact routes, compare roles, and play guided stories without inventing topology
• One file, ready to trust and share — typed JSON IR and deterministic checks produce self-contained HTML plus PNG, SVG, WebM, and 1200×630 share cards

Project page · Scenario guide · Proof Lab

npx skills add tt-a1i/archify -g

Using Cursor? Open the agent-aware quick start for exact global and project commands.

Then ask your agent: Use archify to map this repository's runtime architecture.

See Archify in action

These are generated Archify artifacts, not product mockups. Click a frame to open its live, shareable state.

_{Three real generated artifacts. Signal Flow · Blueprint · Classic · open the interactive Proof Lab ↗}

Guided story	Route probe	Semantic lens
Play one finite named chapter.	Inspect the shortest authored directed path.	Compare real traffic between semantic roles.

The Proof Lab contains all 11 checked-in scenarios, their JSON sources, named views, and validation receipts.

A real repository, mapped from source

Archify traced mco-org/mco at 9f1a1cf and produced this checked map. Open it ↗ · trace reach ↗ · typed source

Preview

Same diagram, two themes, one click to switch:

Dark	Light

The Export menu copies PNG to the clipboard and downloads static or motion formats:

Use Copy Share Card when you want a canonical 1200×630 image for a README, release, or social post.

After tracing a route, Export → Route Share Card downloads that authored path as a 1200×630 PNG with the full diagram retained for context.

After tracing authored Upstream or Downstream reach, Export → Reach Share Card captures that exact reading without claiming runtime impact.

Open examples/web-app.html locally to try the complete viewer.

Quick start

1. Install

npx skills add tt-a1i/archify -g

For an explicit, non-interactive Cursor install:

npx -y skills add tt-a1i/archify --skill archify --agent cursor --global --copy --yes

To try it without a permanent install:

npx skills use tt-a1i/archify@archify --agent codex

The same Skill works with cursor, codex, claude-code, and opencode; the quick-start agent switcher generates the exact command without maintaining vendor-specific forks. The packaged archify.zip also works without npm install.

2. Ask for one bounded view

Analyze this repository, then use archify to create a high-level runtime architecture diagram.
Show 8–12 core components, one primary path, external dependencies, and trust boundaries.
Put supporting detail in cards instead of adding more edges.

For a focused flow:

Use archify to draw this login flow: Browser -> Web App -> API -> JWT validation ->
Redis session lookup -> PostgreSQL fallback. Keep the cache-miss path secondary.

3. Refine in chat

Continue with focused requests such as add Redis, move auth to the left, or highlight the rollback path. Archify keeps the typed source available for targeted iteration.

Choose the right diagram

Type	Best for	Include in your prompt
Architecture	Components, services, storage, boundaries	Scope, core components, primary path
Workflow	CI/CD, approvals, tool calls, runbooks	Participants, order, branches, exceptions
Sequence	API calls, cache fallback, auth, async traces	Callers, callees, returns, timing
Data Flow	Pipelines, lineage, PII, consumers	Sources, transforms, stores, boundaries
Lifecycle	States, retries, waits, terminal outcomes	States, events, retry and cancellation paths

For a production deployment review, Architecture can optionally enable the deployment-ownership engineering profile. It fails closed when owners, single-region placement, private database scope, or named boundary crossings are missing. It is never enabled silently and validates authored facts—not live infrastructure. See the checked deployment proof.

For design or PR review, Architecture Delta compares validated Before / Delta / After snapshots with a machine receipt. Select an exact authored change or play one finite Review—viewer-only, with no impact, risk, or merge-safety inference.

node archify/bin/archify.mjs compare architecture base.json head.json architecture-delta.html --json

Not sure which one fits? Use the interactive scenario guide, or ask the zero-dependency CLI:

node archify/bin/archify.mjs guide "Show an API request with Redis cache miss"
node archify/bin/archify.mjs guide "Map Kafka topics, consumer groups, replay, and DLQ" --json

Workflow keeps the happy path clear across lanes:

Sequence explains one interaction over time:

Data Flow makes movement and sensitivity boundaries explicit:

Lifecycle separates progress, waits, retries, and terminal outcomes:

Architecture examples: web-app · Archify pipeline · grid placement · desktop agent

Why Archify

• Layout judgment over generic auto-layout — the agent chooses hierarchy, spacing, routes, and emphasis; shared automatic endpoints spread deterministically instead of piling arrows on one midpoint.
• Typed JSON IR — every renderer-backed mode has a schema and reproducible source.
• Atomic validation before delivery — schema, layout, HTML/SVG, route, and label-to-route clearance checks must all pass before a showcase artifact replaces the last known good output.
• Failures come with a repair receipt — validate --json and deliver --json return stable rule codes, the exact subject, measured evidence, and only supported repair controls instead of a Node stack or an unstructured retry guess.
• Last-good live preview — an optional desktop loop watches one JSON file, refreshes only after the latest candidate passes every gate, and keeps the previous verified diagram visible when a save is incomplete or invalid.
• Truthful interaction — focus, upstream/downstream reach, exact routes, role comparison, and stories reuse authored nodes and relationships instead of inventing topology or claiming runtime impact.
• Source evidence, only when requested — Evidence-backed Architecture nodes mark themselves SRC n and open Git-verified files and line ranges pinned to one public commit; ordinary artifacts stay source-free.
• Portable by default — the result is one HTML file; exports remain full-diagram and free of temporary viewer state.

Archify is not a general-purpose drawing editor or a Mermaid theme. It turns technical intent into a communication artifact.

How it works

Step	What happens
Generate	The agent creates typed JSON IR from your description.
Validate	Bundled validators and layout rules check the source; failures identify the exact local repair in machine-readable JSON.
Preview (optional)	A loopback-only desktop session watches one source and reloads only verified revisions; failures keep the last-good artifact.
Deliver	A same-directory candidate is rendered and checked; only a passing artifact atomically replaces the target, then optional --open launches that exact file.
Iterate	The agent updates the source while unrelated structure stays stable.

Useful repository commands:

cd archify
node bin/archify.mjs doctor
node bin/archify.mjs demo /tmp/archify-demo
node bin/archify.mjs guide "Show CI/CD checks, approval, deploy, and rollback"
node bin/archify.mjs validate workflow examples/agent-tool-call.workflow.json --quality showcase --json
node bin/archify.mjs preview workflow examples/agent-tool-call.workflow.json /tmp/workflow.html --quality showcase
node bin/archify.mjs deliver workflow examples/agent-tool-call.workflow.json /tmp/workflow.html --quality showcase --open --json

preview is an explicit desktop authoring mode, not a default background service: it binds only to 127.0.0.1 on a random port, watches the one named JSON file, preserves the last verified output through failures, and stops with Ctrl-C. Add --no-open for tests or when you will open the printed local URL yourself. It adds no runtime to the generated HTML.

Use deliver --open for a one-shot interactive local handoff. It is off by default, runs only after the verified artifact is committed, and never turns a successful delivery into a failure when the OS opener is unavailable; JSON stays on stdout and the absolute manual-open path goes to stderr.

On failure, validate --json and deliver --json still emit exactly one JSON object. Read diagnostics[] and change only the named subject using its supportedFixes; do not rewrite the whole diagram or exceed the Skill's two focused correction rounds. Deterministic diagnostics remain separate from visual review.

Optional motion and presentation styling are explicit:

{
  "meta": {
    "animation": "trace",
    "visual_preset": "signal-flow"
  }
}

Omit animation for a truly static diagram. classic remains default; editorial adds a warm publication look.

Explore and share the output

Action	Control
Open the factual Diagram Guide	?
Find and focus a semantic node	/
Trace upstream/downstream authored reach	Focus a node → Upstream / Downstream
Probe a directed route and inspect its journey	R or PATH
Compare one or two semantic roles	L or LENS
Open the live overview radar	M or MAP
Play a guided story / change chapter	P / [ ]
Enter Presentation Stage	F
Choose visual style (S cycles) / toggle theme / open Export	S / T / E
Zoom or reset	+ / - / 0

Stable links can restore #focus=<id>, #focus=<id>&reach=upstream|downstream, #relation=<id>, #route=<source>~<target>, #lens=<kind>~<kind>, and #view=<view-id>. Reader-driven motion is finite, respects prefers-reduced-motion, and never enters canonical exports.

The complete generation and viewer contract lives in archify/SKILL.md.

Installation options

Surface	Install location or method	Capability
Claude Code	~/.claude/skills/ or .claude/skills/	Full renderer + validation workflow
Codex CLI	~/.agents/skills/ or .agents/skills/	Full renderer + validation workflow
opencode	~/.config/opencode/skills/, .opencode/skills/, or .agents/skills/	Full renderer + validation workflow
Claude.ai	Upload archify.zip under Settings → Capabilities → Skills	Depends on Node.js access in the sandbox
Project Knowledge	Upload archify.zip to the project	Prompt-driven architecture fallback

Reference and scope

• Schema reference
• Skill and renderer contract
• Examples
• Changelog
• Roadmap
• Generated Proof Lab

Archify 2.12 includes typed IR across all five modes, real-repository proof, deterministic exact-ID Architecture Delta review, verified live preview, authored reachability, optional finite motion, guided views, semantic search and relationship exploration, shareable deep links, 1200×630 diagram and route cards, browser-native WebM recording, explicit standard / showcase quality profiles, and an opt-in deployment ownership contract.

Automatic Mermaid parsing, general-purpose auto-layout, hosted sharing, and WYSIWYG editing are intentionally outside the current scope.

Attribution

Archify is a fork and rewrite of Cocoon-AI/architecture-diagram-generator v1.0. The original visual language remains credited to Cocoon AI; Archify 2.x adds themes, exports, typed renderers, validation, accessibility, interaction, and a unified CLI. Both projects use the MIT License.

License

MIT — free to use, modify, and distribute.

Contributing

Issues, pull requests, and shared diagrams are welcome. For generated-output problems, include the prompt, diagram type, and Archify version. Run node scripts/build-gallery.mjs after changing bundled examples or the standalone viewer.