Architecture Chat: Ask Your Architecture Anything
Your C4 diagrams just learned to talk.
We built Archyl to make software architecture visible. Diagrams, relationships, ADRs, documentation — all in one place. But we kept noticing the same pattern: teams would document their architecture beautifully, then still ping each other on Slack to ask "which service handles payments?" or "why did we pick Kafka over RabbitMQ?"
The information was there. Finding it was the problem.
Today we're launching Architecture Chat — an AI assistant that knows your entire architecture and answers questions about it in seconds.
How it works
Hit Cmd+I (or click the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner) from anywhere in your dashboard. Ask a question in plain English. Get an answer grounded in your actual architecture — your systems, containers, components, relationships, ADRs, documentation, flows, and insights.
No hallucinations about services that don't exist. No generic advice pulled from the internet. Every answer comes from what your team has actually documented.
A few examples of what you can ask:
- "What databases does the payment system use?"
- "Why did we choose PostgreSQL over MongoDB?" — pulls directly from your ADRs
- "How does the auth flow work step by step?"
- "Are there any critical insights I should look at?"
- "Compare the API gateway setup across our two projects"
Context-aware by default
Architecture Chat knows where you are. If you're viewing a specific project, the assistant focuses on that project's architecture. Mention another project by name, and it pulls that context in too. Ask a broad question, and it reasons across all your projects.
No manual selection. No switching modes. It just works.
It reads your ADRs and documentation
Architecture Chat doesn't just know your C4 model. It searches through your Architecture Decision Records, project documentation, flows, and insights to find relevant information. When you ask "why did we pick this technology?", it surfaces the relevant ADR with its decision number and status. When you ask about a flow, it walks you through each step.
This means the decisions your team has carefully documented become instantly queryable. No more digging through pages of docs to find one ADR from six months ago.
Streaming responses
Answers arrive token by token — you start reading while the assistant is still thinking. Responses are rendered in full Markdown with bold text, lists, and code blocks. For most questions, you'll have a complete answer in under two seconds.
Keyboard-first
Architecture Chat is designed for speed:
- Cmd+I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (Windows/Linux) to toggle the chat from anywhere
- Enter to send a message
- Shift+Enter for multi-line input
- Escape to close the panel
No context switching. No leaving your diagram. Just ask and get back to work.
Great for onboarding
New team member joining the project? Instead of scheduling a 2-hour architecture walkthrough, point them to Archyl and let them ask questions at their own pace. Architecture Chat gives them accurate, context-rich answers from day one — grounded in what the team has actually documented, not tribal knowledge that lives in someone's head.
Pairs with the MCP Server
Architecture Chat gives you a conversational interface inside the dashboard. But if you prefer working from your IDE or terminal, don't forget that Archyl also ships an MCP Server that connects to Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.
The MCP Server gives you the full Archyl API — listing projects, managing C4 elements, creating ADRs, querying insights — directly from your development environment. Between the chat and the MCP server, your architecture documentation is always one question away, wherever you work.
Read more about the MCP Server in our dedicated blog post.
Availability
Architecture Chat is available on Business and Scale plans.
| Plan | Monthly Queries |
|---|---|
| Business | 200 |
| Scale | 1,000 |
| Custom | Unlimited |
What's next
This is the first version. We're already working on clickable references that link answers directly to elements on your diagrams, persistent conversation history, and deeper retrieval for large documentation sets.
For now, open Archyl, press Cmd+I, and ask your architecture a question. You might be surprised how much it already knows.