Architecture reference

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Added in eventcatalog@5.1.0

The architecture reference is your whole catalog in one HTML file. Every domain, system, service, message, channel, data store, flow, entity and team gets its own section, linked to everything it relates to.

Use it for people who should see all of your architecture: your own teams in a design review, an architecture audit, or an AI agent that needs the full picture. For anyone who should see only part of it, create a custom export instead.

See the demo architecture reference

Get it on every build

The reference is generated every time you build your catalog. You don't need to set anything up.

npm run build

It is written to dist/architecture.html, or to dist/client/architecture.html when your catalog runs in server mode. Wherever you host your catalog, the reference is available at /architecture.html.

Turn it off

Set exports.html.enabled to false in your eventcatalog.config.js file:

eventcatalog.config.js

module.exports = {
  exports: {
    html: {
      enabled: false,
    },
  },
};

Catalogs with authentication

If your catalog uses authentication, the reference is not generated unless you turn it on. Files in the build output are served without the authentication checks, so anyone who knows the URL could read it.

To generate it anyway, set exports.html.enabled to true.

Export it with the CLI

Use the export command of the EventCatalog CLI to export the reference on demand, without building the catalog. From the root of your catalog, run:

npx @eventcatalog/cli export --format html

This writes architecture.html and opens it in your browser.

Option	Description
--output <path>	Where to write the file. Defaults to architecture.html
--no-open	Don't open the reference in your browser (useful in CI)
--dir <path>	Path to your catalog, if you aren't running the command from it

For example, to export the reference in a CI pipeline and publish it as a build artifact:

npx @eventcatalog/cli export --format html --output reports/architecture.html --no-open

The file shows when it was generated, and the command to generate it again.