The agent writes typed JSON, Archify compiles the HTML
Archify is a skill for coding agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, OpenCode) that turns a prompt, or a pass through a repository, into an interactive diagram. The agent never draws SVG by hand. It writes a typed JSON source, and Archify validates it before compiling it into one self-contained HTML file. Version 3.1 raised the count to ten diagram types, ERD and waterfall among them, and 3.2 added one-page answers that state the conclusion first and give each question its own panel. Edits go through the agent as well: "add Redis", "move auth to the left".
Machine-readable failures and Before / Delta / After reviews
- Failures the agent can fix:
validate --jsonreturns a rule code, the offending element, the measured evidence and only the fixes the renderer supports. The skill caps repairs at two rounds. - Atomic delivery: the target file is replaced only when the new render passes every check.
preview, bound to 127.0.0.1, watches one JSON file and keeps the last valid version on screen. - Reading built on declared relationships: upstream and downstream reach from a node, the route between two components, role comparison, each with a stable link such as
#route=web~db. None of it claims to measure runtime impact. - Architecture review in pull requests:
comparelays two validated JSON snapshots out as Before / Delta / After and says nothing about risk or whether the change is safe to merge. - Commit-pinned sources, on request: a node can link to the files and line ranges behind it, checked through Git, on GitHub, Gitee or GitLab.
- Sharing: light and dark themes, PNG, SVG or WebM export, and a 1200×630 card for a traced route. The HTML opens in a browser without Archify installed.
A Node and Chromium toolchain, with no auto-layout by design
Node 18 and a Chromium-based browser are required. The renderer needs Node 18 or later. finalize, the delivery command the skill runs, ends with a check in Chrome, Chromium or Edge. With no browser found, that stage is skipped and finalize stops there. On Claude.ai, everything depends on whether the sandbox gives access to Node.
Layout is left to the agent on purpose. The roadmap rules out dagre and elk-js: an April 2026 experiment found that auto-layout styled with Archify's CSS was not meaningfully better than stock Mermaid. Mermaid input is therefore read by the agent rather than parsed. WYSIWYG editing and hosted sharing are out of scope, and a dedicated mobile interface sits on the project's "not planned" list.
Six viewer languages ship in the package. English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Arabic are bundled. French, German, Japanese and a few others exist as example catalogs to pass through meta.translations; without one, the interface falls back to English. Authored text is never translated.
Apache-2.0 since October 25, 2026. The main branch left MIT that day; releases published earlier, 3.2.0 included, stay under MIT according to the NOTICE file.
Release 3.2.0, October 19, 2026, labelled stable. It came after 3.0.0 on September 28 and 3.1.0 on October 13. 3.0.0 removed guided story views and ordinary share cards; HTML files generated before then keep the viewer embedded in them. The 3.1.0 changelog notes that automated validation does not establish visual quality.
An update check that can be turned off. Roughly once a day, the skill fetches a fixed manifest to flag a newer stable release, and the server only sees the request's IP address and time. ARCHIFY_UPDATE_CHECK_DISABLED=1 disables the call.