What is living architecture documentation?
Arcobay · Architecture documentation · Aug 15 · Updated Aug 15
Living architecture documentation stays accurate as the codebase changes — diagrams, decisions, and a shareable handoff instead of a slide deck that rots.
Living architecture documentation is a diagram of your system that stays true to the repository as you ship — plus the decisions and walkthrough that explain it — instead of a static deck someone drew last quarter.
Most teams still export a PNG, drop it in Notion, and hope nobody notices when the payment service moved. Arcobay treats the diagram as a product surface: connect a repo, generate the map, attach why on the nodes, and share a client-ready architecture package that can update on push.
What “living” actually means
Three properties separate living docs from a pretty picture:
- The diagram is grounded in the codebase, not invented from a prompt alone.
- Architecture decision records sit on the components they affect, not in a disconnected ADR folder.
- When structure drifts, you get a signal — drift alerts or a PR architecture gate — instead of silence.
Who it is for
Agencies handing a system to a client, founders walking investors through the stack, and teams onboarding engineers who should not reverse-engineer Redis by reading twelve services.
Start on the free plan, or see Arcobay pricing for client portals and PR gate.
FAQ
How is this different from a wiki? A wiki is edited by hand and drifts. Living documentation is generated from the repo and kept current with scans, webhooks, and a PR gate.
Do I still need C4 or Lucidchart? Use a whiteboard for a workshop. Use living docs when the map has to match production after the next merge.