Store architecture diagrams in Git alongside your code. Same repo, same branches, same review process. Mermaid & PlantUML — AI-generated and version-controlled.
your-project/
├── src/
├── tests/
├── docs/
│ └── architecture/
│ ├── system-context.mmd # C4 Level 1
│ ├── containers.mmd # C4 Level 2
│ ├── api-components.puml # C4 Level 3
│ ├── auth-sequence.mmd # Auth flow
│ ├── data-flow.mmd # Data pipeline
│ └── deployment.puml # Infrastructure
├── README.md
└── .github/
└── workflows/
└── render-diagrams.yml # CI renderingBranch, commit, push, PR, merge. No new tools or processes to learn.
See exactly what changed in the architecture: new services, removed connections, renamed components.
Architecture docs live next to the code they describe. No sync drift.
GitHub Actions renders diagrams on every push. Always up-to-date visuals.
CODEOWNERS rules for architecture files. Architects review diagram changes.
Git blame shows who changed the architecture and when. Full accountability.
Three steps to version-controlled architecture diagrams that evolve with your codebase.
Define your architecture using Mermaid or PlantUML syntax directly in your repository. Treat diagrams as first-class source files that sit alongside the code they describe, following the same directory structure and naming conventions your team already uses.
Push diagram files to Git just like any other code change. Every architecture update gets a commit message, an author, and a timestamp. Your diagrams now have a complete audit trail showing who changed what and when, with the ability to revert any modification.
Review architecture changes in pull requests with full diff support. See exactly which components, connections, or services were added or removed. Compare any two versions of your architecture side by side, and use Git blame to understand the reasoning behind each decision.
Teams use Git-tracked diagrams across every stage of the software lifecycle.
Maintain a complete history of every architecture decision. When a service is added or a dependency changes, the commit log tells the full story—no separate changelog required.
Include architecture updates in the same pull request as code changes. Reviewers see both the implementation and the structural impact, making reviews more thorough and informed.
Propose architecture changes on feature branches before committing to them. Teams can review, discuss, and iterate on structural decisions using the same workflow they use for code.
Add diagram linting and rendering to your CI pipeline. Catch syntax errors, broken references, and rendering issues automatically before they merge into your main branch.
Use CI hooks to render diagrams on every push, generating up-to-date PNG or SVG files automatically. Documentation sites and wikis always display the latest architecture.
Embed diagram source files in your docs-as-code pipeline. Architecture visuals render alongside written documentation, ensuring both are versioned, reviewed, and deployed together.
Architecture diagrams stored outside of version control have a shelf life measured in weeks. They live in design tools, shared drives, or wiki pages that nobody updates after the initial creation. Within a few sprints, they no longer reflect reality. Git-tracked diagrams solve this by tying documentation to the same workflow that produces the code—every architecture change is a commit, reviewed and merged just like a feature.
The real power of diagrams in Git is diffability. When a text-based diagram changes, you can see exactly what was added or removed. A new microservice shows up as a few lines in a Mermaid file. A deprecated dependency disappears in a clean deletion. This granularity is impossible with image-based diagrams, where a single-pixel change produces an entirely new binary blob with no meaningful diff.
Teams that adopt Git-tracked diagrams report a compounding benefit: because updating a diagram is as easy as editing a text file, developers actually do it. The friction of switching tools, exporting images, and uploading to a wiki disappears entirely. Architecture documentation becomes a living artifact maintained by the people closest to the code, not a stale deliverable owned by no one.
Free to start. 50 AI credits/month. No credit card required.
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