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Arch3 methodology

Arch3 is the diagramming methodology published by arch3-diagram.

It is inspired by the C4 Model, but defines its own notation, model, and renderer contracts.

Arch3 is independent from PlantUML. PlantUML is only one extension target for rendering.

Goal

Provide a pragmatic, AI-first approach with only three layers:

  1. context
  2. containers
  3. components

Principles

  • versionable diagram as code
  • rich metadata on containers
  • drill-down expansion from containers to components
  • library dependency visibility at component level
  • a schema designed for both humans and LLMs