component

ArchiMate 3.2 Equivalent: Application Component (Granular Sub-module / Library)

Represents a granular software module, library, handler, or internal microservice. component entities must be nested inside an app or system entity container.

Visual Styling

To apply custom shapes, badges, icons, or CSS to components, use a Style Rule (e.g. style component where technology contains "gRPC" { icon "network" }).

---

Syntax

component <id> "<Display Name>" {
    description "<text>"
    owner "<team>"
    tags ["tag1", "tag2"]
    time "Tolerate" | "Invest" | "Migrate" | "Eliminate"
    cost <amount> <unit>
    version "<version>"
    status "<status>"
    technology "<tech_stack>"
    api_type "<api_protocol>"
    internet_facing true | false

    relationships { ... }
}

---

Properties

Property	Type	Allowed Values	Description
description	string	Free text	Explanation of the component's role
owner	string	Free text	Responsible engineer or sub-team
tags	string[]	Array of strings	Categorization tags
time	enum	"Tolerate", "Invest", "Migrate", "Eliminate"	TIME disposition
cost	cost	Cost statement	Operational or hosting spend
version	string	SemVer string	Release version
status	string	Status string	Operational state
technology	string	e.g. "Node.js / TypeScript", "gRPC", "C#"	Implementation language or runtime
api_type	string	e.g. "REST", "GraphQL", "gRPC", "Kafka"	Exposed interface protocol
internet_facing	boolean	true | false	Direct internet exposure

---

Allowed Relationship Verbs & Targets

Verb	ArchiMate Relation	Allowed Target Entity Types
realizes	Realization	capability, goal
serves	Serving	actor, process, system, app, agent
reads, writes	Access	data_object
flows_to	Flow	system, app, component, process, data_object, agent
triggers	Triggering	process, system, app, component, agent
influences	Influence	goal, kpi
migrates_to	Transformation	system, app, component, infrastructure, environment, agent
depends_on	Dependency	system, app, component, infrastructure, environment, agent, capability, process, control
governed_by	Governance	policy, standard
protects	Protection	system, app, component, infrastructure, data_object, process, agent, trust_boundary

---

Complete Example

app app_payment_gateway "Payment Gateway Service" {
    component comp_card_token_handler "Tokenization Handler" {
        description "Generates PCI-compliant nonces and vaults PAN data"
        technology "C# / .NET 10"
        api_type "gRPC"
        internet_facing false

        relationships {
            this writes data_card_vault "Persists encrypted token pairs"
            this governed_by pol_pci_dss "Enforces PCI cryptographic requirements"
        }
    }
}