- 4 minutes to read

C4 Designer

The C4 Designer is Nodinite's interactive canvas for creating and editing Architecture Diagrams. Where the View page lets you read, explore, and navigate a diagram, the Designer lets you build it — add elements, draw connections, manage the flows on each connector, reorganise boundaries, and bind shapes to real entities in your Repository.

Every change you make is saved automatically. There is no Save button.

Important

Architecture Diagrams is part of experimental builds. This capability is actively evolving. APIs, UI, and workflows may change between releases. Contact your sales representative to enable this feature.

C4 Designer with the O2C Production Deployment diagram open on the canvas (7.12)
Example of the C4 Designer canvas in edit mode. The View page shows the same diagram read-only; the Designer adds the editing tools.

On the designer canvas, you can open a static built-in Article with tips and guidance for using the Designer. Click the Help button () in the toolbar to open it.

Built-in Designer help Article opened from the toolbar Help button (7.10)
Example of the built-in help Article in the Designer. Its content changes between Nodinite versions.

Two Pages, One Canvas

Every Architecture Diagram in Nodinite has two distinct pages built on the same diagram experience:

Page What you can do
View Read the diagram, inspect elements and the flows on each connector, open linked Message Types, navigate drill-through links, generate Dynamic diagrams, export, and print
Designer Everything in View, plus create and edit elements, draw connectors, add or remove flows, link flows to Message Types, manage boundaries, review Diagram Assistance, and control the diagram lifecycle

The Designer navigates to a /design URL suffix for the same diagram. Switch between them using the View and Designer buttons in the toolbar.

When Diagram Assistance is available, the Designer also adds a right-docked workspace for Built-in Suggestions and, when enabled, AI Assistance.

graph LR subgraph "View Page — Read & Navigate" V1["fa:fa-eye Inspect elements"] V2["fa:fa-link Drill-through navigation"] V3["fa:fa-file-export Export & Print"] V4["fa:fa-diagram-project Dynamic diagrams"] end subgraph "Designer Page — Build & Edit" D1["fa:fa-toolbox Drag shapes from Toolbox"] D2["fa:fa-draw-polygon Draw connectors"] D3["fa:fa-object-group Organise boundaries"] D4["fa:fa-rotate Manage lifecycle"] end V1 --- D1 V2 --- D2 V3 --- D3 V4 --- D4 style V1 fill:#2678BD style V2 fill:#2678BD style V3 fill:#2678BD style V4 fill:#2678BD style D1 fill:#93d16d style D2 fill:#93d16d style D3 fill:#93d16d style D4 fill:#93d16d

Diagram: Both pages share the same canvas engine. The Designer adds editing capabilities on top of the read-only View experience.

The Draft and Active States

The Designer introduces a two-state lifecycle that protects published diagrams from accidental edits.

State Description Designer behaviour
Active The published, approved version of the diagram Opens in read-only mode with a yellow banner
Draft A working copy you are actively editing Full edit mode — toolbox, drag-and-drop, connector drawing
Archived Retired diagram — kept for reference Read-only; no editing allowed
stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Draft : Create new diagram Draft --> Active : Promote to Active Active --> Draft : Create Draft Active --> Archived : Archive Draft --> Draft : Continue editing note right of Active Read-only in Designer Yellow banner shown end note note right of Draft Full edit mode Toolbox visible end note

Diagram: The diagram lifecycle. A Draft is your working copy; promote it to Active when it is ready for the team.

Read Diagram Lifecycle for every lifecycle action, including cloning, comparing revisions, and deleting.

When you open the Designer for an Active diagram, a yellow banner appears:

"This diagram is Active. Create a Draft to make changes."

Click Create Draft in the toolbar to begin editing. When you are satisfied with your changes, click Promote to Active to publish the new version.

Architecture Scope and mode behavior

In the Designer, Architecture Scope is the identity of the architecture the diagram describes.

Mode What happens when you change nodes or boundaries Use it for
Layered Mode Related C4 views in the same scope can maintain inferred cross-view relationships Scope-driven continuity across Context, Container, Component, Dynamic, and Deployment views
Free Draw Edits stay local to the current diagram and don't affect other Draft diagrams, regardless of scope Exploratory design, isolated variants, and manual authoring

Changing scope is not cosmetic. It changes architectural identity and re-evaluates inferred navigation. The Architecture Diagrams overview explains scope and modes in more depth.

What You Can Do in the Designer

The Designer is organised into a set of tasks, each covered in its own guide:

Task Guide
Pan, zoom, and navigate the canvas Navigating the Canvas
Add shapes, elements, and boundaries from the toolbox Building a Diagram
Group elements into Domain boundaries Organising with Boundaries
Draw and configure connections between elements Drawing Connectors
Edit element properties in the inspector panels Editing Elements
Link canvas shapes and connector members to Repository entities Repository Bindings
Review Suggested Additions, Coverage, and Review Impacts Diagram Assistance
Manage the Draft/Active lifecycle and clone diagrams Diagram Lifecycle

From any Architecture Diagram's View page:

  1. Click the Designer button in the toolbar (only visible when the c4DesignerEnabled feature flag is active)
  2. If the diagram is Active, click Create Draft in the Designer toolbar before editing
  3. Make your changes — every change saves automatically
  4. Click Promote to Active when the diagram is ready

Next Steps