Introduction
What is Claril?
Claril is an open-source, self-hostable architecture & process intelligence workbench for solution architects. It doesn't just draw your processes and systems — it understands them.
Model BPMN processes, Sequence diagrams, and C4 architecture in one place. A deterministic logic inspector catches structural defects in real time, and an AI co-editor (bring your own key) generates, documents, and proposes concrete edits you approve before they land. Work solo in a personal space or together in an organization — with comments, @mentions, and .bpmn / PNG / PDF export built in.
Core principles
- Understands, not just draws. A deterministic engine finds deadlocks, gateway mismatches, unreachable steps, and soundness violations — computed facts, not guesses.
- Works without AI. The full tool, including the inspector, is useful with zero AI configured. AI is an amplifier, never a gate.
- Bring your own AI. Provider-agnostic and BYOK. Your keys and your data stay where you choose.
- Self-hostable. Run the entire workbench on your own infrastructure.
Key concepts
- Logic inspector. A pure-TypeScript rules engine (
@claril/logic-inspector) that parses a diagram into a graph and emitsFindings with severity (error / warning / info), the offending element, and a quick-fix where possible. - AI co-editor. Provider-agnostic advisor (
@claril/ai-advisor) that receives the diagram plus the inspector's findings and returns typed proposals — judgment, layered on top of deterministic correctness. - Asset Catalog. An organization-level, CMDB-style catalog of custom object types and assets that binds diagram elements to the real services that run, so your architecture stays grounded — and grounds the AI.
- Collaboration. Threaded comments anchored to an element or the whole diagram,
@mentions, and an in-app notification bell. Async by design — works in personal and org spaces. - Export. Download
.bpmnor export PNG / PDF straight from the workbench top bar. - Versioning & diff. Auto and named versions; compare revisions visually and restore any point in time.
- Tenancy. Work solo in a Personal space, or in an Organization with members and role-based
Workspaces, a shared catalog, and shared AI. - CLI & MCP. Run the same inspector outside the app — in CI, or wired into AI agents over the Model Context Protocol.
The capability tiers
Claril splits features by whether they need an AI key:
capability tiers
T1 Core no key BPMN/Sequence/C4 editing, .bpmn/PNG/PDF
export, full logic inspector, versioning/diff,
comments & @mentions, catalog, CLI & MCP
T2 Enhanced optional AI explanation of findings, Markdown doc-gen
T3 AI-only yes prompt -> BPMN, conversational editing,
advisor critique, AI-proposed edits you reviewKeep reading
- Getting startedCreate a project, draw, inspect, and connect AI.
- Self-hostingRun the full stack with Docker or external Postgres.
- CLI & MCPLint BPMN in CI or wire the inspector into agents.
- AI providers (BYOK)Bring your own key across six providers.
Prefer the source? Browse the repository and its self-hosting guide, or jump straight to Getting started.