Archify: AI Turns Codebase Into System Diagrams

Why You Should Care About Archify#

Ever spent hours manually drawing system architecture diagrams, only to watch them become outdated the moment your code changes? Archify solves this — just describe what you want in natural language, and AI turns your codebase into beautiful, interactive architecture diagrams.

[!TIP] Archify is currently trending on GitHub with thousands of stars. It’s one of the hottest AI agent skills available today.

What Is Archify?#

Archify is an open-source rendering and validation system that works as an agent skill for Cursor, Claude Code, Codex CLI, and OpenCode. Instead of hand-drawing diagrams or wrestling with Mermaid syntax, you simply tell your AI: “Map this repository’s runtime architecture” — and Archify will:

Generate typed JSON IR — The AI describes your system as structured data
Validate automatically — Schema, layout, HTML/SVG, route, and label clearance checks
Render to HTML — A single self-contained HTML file you can open and share

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

Five Diagram Types#

Archify supports five primary diagram types:

Type	Best For	Example
Architecture	Components, services, storage, boundaries	Runtime architecture
Workflow	CI/CD, approvals, tool calls	Approval processes
Sequence	API calls, cache fallback, auth	API call chains
Data Flow	Pipelines, lineage, PII	Data pipelines
Lifecycle	States, retries, waits	Request lifecycle

Installation and Usage#

npx skills add tt-a1i/archify -g

bash

Once installed, simply ask your AI agent in chat:

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.

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What Makes Archify Different#

Intelligent Layout#

Instead of generic auto-layout, AI chooses hierarchy, spacing, routes, and emphasis. Endpoints spread deterministically rather than piling arrows on one midpoint.

Typed JSON IR#

Every renderer-backed mode has a schema and reproducible source. You can diff, validate, and reproduce any diagram.

Atomic Validation#

Before delivery, Archify runs five validation steps:

Schema validation
Layout rules check
HTML/SVG rendering
Route clearance
Label-to-route clearance

Last-Good Preview#

An optional desktop loop watches your source, refreshing only after passing every gate. If a save is invalid, the previous verified diagram stays visible.

Comparison With Other Tools#

Feature	Archify	Mermaid	Lucidchart	Draw.io
Auto from code	✅	❌	❌	❌
Auto validation	✅	❌	❌	❌
Export HTML	✅	❌	❌	❌
Before/After Delta	✅	❌	❌	❌
Free & Open Source	✅	✅	❌	✅

Real-World Example#

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

text

Archify generates an interactive HTML file with:

Dark/Light theme switching
Zoom and pan
Node search
Route tracing
Export to PNG, SVG, WebM

Conclusion#

Archify is changing how we communicate system architecture. Instead of hand-drawing and manually updating diagrams, AI now handles everything — from analyzing your codebase to rendering beautiful, shareable diagrams.

[!WARNING] Archify is currently in dev version (v2.16.0-dev.0). Watch the repository for updates.

🔗 Repository: github.com/tt-a1i/archify ↗