Enterprise architecture
as code
Scapius is an Enterprise Architecture as Code (AaC) platform aligned with Open Group ArchiMate standards. Define your systems in a plain-text DSL, version in Git, and compile diagrams into consistent, filtered views from a single source of truth.
The diagram is already wrong
Architecture lives in exported pictures, and every change to the estate makes them a little more wrong. Everyone quietly stops trusting them.
Exported pictures
landscape_v3_final.pptx
exported 8 months ago
landscape_v3_final_FINAL.pptx
team drive, unclear
context-diagram.png
wiki, author left
Each copy aging separately.
A model that compiles
workspace.ea
Landscape
currentContainer view
currentThreat model
currentChange the model and every view follows.
Built for enterprise architects and platform teams who own the picture of how systems fit together.
Write the model, compile the views
Define systems, applications, data, and security in the Scapius DSL with ArchiMate-aligned semantics. The compiler turns them into views: the diagrams and dashboards your teams read, each one filtered, styled, and holding the layout you saved.
system core_banking "Core Banking" {description "Ledger and account management"criticality "Mission-Critical"app payment_api "Payment API" {owner "Payments Team"lifecycle { phase "Run" start "2024-01-01" }}}data_object transaction_record "Transaction Record" {classification "Confidential"}payment_api writes transaction_record "Posts entries" {cardinality OneToMany}
How it works
Model
Write your estate in .ea files: capabilities, systems, apps, data objects, and the relationships between them. Plain text, in git, next to the work it describes.
Compile
The compiler validates the model against the grammar and your workspace configuration, then reports diagnostics with exact source locations.
Explore
Open the compiled views. Each one filters the model through inclusion rules, applies your styles, and keeps its layout across edits.
The toolchain
One compiler sits underneath everything: the editor, the views, and the command line all work from the same semantic model.
Your workspace
git.ea files and a manifest, versioned next to the work they describe.
Validating compiler
EngineA formal declarative grammar and validating compiler turn .ea files into a verified semantic model of your estate. Errors come back as precise diagnostics with source context, so a broken model tells you what is wrong and where.
Compiled views
ViewsEach view selects part of the model through inclusion rules, applies your styles, and keeps its layout across edits.
Language server
LSPAutocomplete, live diagnostics, navigation, and formatting for the DSL in VS Code via LSP (Language Server Protocol).
Command line
CICompile and check workspaces from the terminal. The same commands run in CI, so an invalid model fails the build.
Questions
What is Enterprise Architecture as Code (AaC / EAaC)?
Just as Infrastructure as Code (IaC) transformed cloud infrastructure by replacing manual console clicks with versioned code, Enterprise Architecture as Code (AaC) replaces disconnected architecture drawings with plain-text models stored in Git. Changes are submitted via pull requests, reviewed by peers, linted in CI/CD, and compiled into consistent diagrams automatically.
How is Scapius different from diagrams-as-code tools like PlantUML or Mermaid?
Diagram-as-code tools describe isolated visual drawings; when a system or dependency changes, you must manually update every drawing that mentions it. Scapius is an Enterprise Architecture as Code platform: you define entities (apps, systems, data objects, threats) and their relationships once in an architecture model. The compiler then generates multiple consistent views (landscapes, integration diagrams, value streams, and risk heatmaps) from that single source of truth.
Is Scapius aligned with ArchiMate and TOGAF?
Yes. Scapius is built on the semantic foundation of The Open Group ArchiMate 3.2 specification. Its 21 entity types span Strategy, Business, Application, Technology, Motivation, and Security layers, and its 16 typed relationship verbs map directly to standard ArchiMate relations (Composition, Realization, Serving, Access, Flow, Triggering, and Assignment). You get the structural rigor of ArchiMate without proprietary tools or diagram-drawing friction.
How does Scapius compare to tools like LeanIX, BiZZdesign, or Ardoq?
Traditional EA suites (like BiZZdesign or Sparx) rely on heavy desktop modeling GUIs and proprietary databases, while cloud portals (like LeanIX and Ardoq) focus on high-level IT surveys and application portfolio management. Scapius is built for architecture and engineering teams who want Architecture as Code (AaC): a plain-text DSL versioned in Git, validated in CI/CD pipelines, and compiled into ArchiMate-aligned views without six-figure subscriptions or manual diagram dragging.
How do I get it?
Community Edition is free. For Enterprise edition, contact us at [email protected].
Where does my architecture model live?
In your git repository, as plain-text .ea files. During the beta the whole toolchain, compiler, CLI, and API, runs where you run it, against files you control.
Do I have to use VS Code?
VS Code is the supported editor today, through our extension. The editor features are served by a language server speaking LSP, and the files are plain text, so any editor can edit them; you lose the completions and live diagnostics, not the model.
Does it replace my diagramming tool?
For architecture, that is the goal. You stop drawing diagrams and start compiling them: the model is the source of truth, and landscapes, container views, threat models, and dashboards are outputs. Drawing tools remain the right choice for everything that is not a model.
See it on your own estate
The fastest way to evaluate Scapius is to model one slice of your architecture in the beta: one domain, a handful of systems, one landscape view.