C4-notation Alternatives

c4-notation reviews and mentions

• Diátaxis
  4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Aug 2026

  C4[1]? Hadn’t heard of it until now. Thanks!

  Really curious what the major differences are that have you preferring it over other methods / winging it.

  [1]: https://c4model.com/

• Advancing Your Own AWS Architect with DrawIO Skills and Living Documentation
  7 projects | dev.to | 30 Apr 2026

  C4 model is a pragmatic approach to architecture modelling. There are many ways to introduce this into your architecture agent, for instance by using Structurizr syntax plus tooling as they also have official MCP servers. For now we're just going to rely on a simple skill from my GitHub repo and existing DrawIO MCP and skills. Configuration is super-simple, you just have to drop in the skill into .opencode/skills/c4-documentation/SKILL.md and you should be able to use it.

• Show HN: Scryer – Visual architecture modeling for AI agents
  2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Mar 2026

  I've been working on this desktop tool (FSL license, free for commercial use) for the past month because I now spend more time in a terminal prompting Claude Code instead of using a code editor. It generally works quite well if I ask the right questions, but I still often find a lot of dead code, stubs, or poor architectural choices when I finish a session, and understanding the codebase itself can be jarring after making major changes through vibecoding.

  The idea for Scryer is to provide a visual surface using C4 model diagrams to share with an AI so that we both understand the actual state of a codebase, and how proposed changes would affect it. It's basically model-driven development (like UML) but adapted for the LLM era. Because of that, I think using opinionated C4 (https://c4model.com/) is the best approach:

  - It's simple enough to understand without putting the developer into a coma

  - There's just enough context to guide the AI coherently

  - Doesn't try to replace code, but defines structural guardrails and scope

  Also, I've included some newer agent-oriented methodologies like "always/ask/never" contracts (which have turned out to be very useful), task decomposition, MCP + ACP connections, etc.

  This is very experimental and early, so it's quite rough around the edges, but I'm already using it in my own dev workflow and I hope you guys check it out. I honestly think this might be the year of MDE/MDD - as we abstract away the code layer, software architecture fundamentals are becoming more important than ever.

• Solved: Awesome Kubernetes Architecture Diagrams
  1 project | dev.to | 11 Feb 2026

  When you need formal, lasting documentation, you need structure. The C4 model is brilliant for software, and we can adapt it perfectly for Kubernetes. It provides four levels of zoom, and you create a different diagram for each level. This prevents information overload.

• Stop Drawing, Start Coding: Modern AWS Architecture with LikeC4
  2 projects | dev.to | 17 Dec 2025

  The C4 model is an approach for structuring and visualizing software architecture design. It was created by Simon Brown. It aims to provide different levels of detail, much like maps: from a high-level view down to the code. It stands for Context, Containers, Components, and Code. These are the four hierarchical levels of abstraction:

• Understanding Spec-Driven-Development: Kiro, Spec-Kit, and Tessl
  2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 17 Oct 2025

  > Now I'm left trying to define/design what a "spec" for communication between humans and coding agents would look like, to power what Birgitta called spec anchored.

  I feel that now with AI this is something that we have to finally do. Define how we write out a spec and record an architecture semi-formally, and in a way that is human-readable and human-manageable. And in a way that can 1) be consumed partially by an LLM context, rather than entirely (because it may be too big), and 2) have that partial ingestion be enough for it to do real work, either on the spec itself on or on the code, without deviating from the core intentions and architecture.

  We tried and failed with the UML and Rational Rose type stuff, I think because it didn't record intentions well enough, was mostly pictures and not words, and seemed to be something that you would create after you finishd a project rather than fill in the details and guide you while you were building it. Hence, the whole idea fell away because it wasn't useful for anything but maintenance or refactoring; you were already selling the product before the spec became at all useful.

  I'm left looking at vague leftfield ideas like https://c4model.com/.

• Show HN: Infragram – C4 style interactive architecture diagrams for Terraform
  1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Jul 2025
• Show HN: UML diagram for the DDD example in Evans' book
  3 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 18 Apr 2025

  For the architectural documentation like this one, the C4 Model [0] is a much better fit than UML - primarily because it's less rigid in notation and modeling components. And in terms of tooling, I find IcePanel [1] to have the right combination of flexibility and simplicity.

  [0] https://c4model.com/

  [1] https://icepanel.io/

• How I think about Vaadin application architecture today
  1 project | dev.to | 27 Mar 2025

  Instead, inspired by the C4 model of visualizing software, I've explored a component based approach, where an application consists of multiple components that interact with each other. These components aren't classified into any particular layer (except, maybe the presentation layer and application layer).

• C4 Model
  1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 19 Mar 2025
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