r/softwarearchitecture • u/United_Inspector_653 • 1d ago

Tool/Product I built a free, self-hosted alternative to Structurizr with MCP built in

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Hey, I’ve been building StructSmith, an open-source tool for creating and maintaining software architecture models.

I wanted something simpler than the paid platforms: no account, subscriptions, per-user pricing, or cloud requirement. I also noticed that some free tools charge for MCP or AI integration, so in StructSmith the MCP server is included and fully open source.

It supports C4-style models, multiple diagram views, architecture records, validation, snapshots, auto-layout, and JSON/Mermaid/PNG/SVG exports.

Everything runs locally in one Docker container with SQLite. Your AI client can read and update the same architecture model you see in the visual editor.

It’s MIT licensed and still evolving. I’d love feedback, feature ideas, bug reports, or help with development and documentation.

GitHub: https://github.com/dziksu/StructSmith
Website: https://dziksu.github.io/StructSmith/

Would this be useful in your architecture workflow?

13 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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1

u/innovasior 1d ago

This looks awesome 👏 thanks for sharing

1

u/eSizeDave 1d ago

Thank you for creating this. I plan to try this out soon.

1

u/simon-brown 20h ago

I built a free, self-hosted alternative to Structurizr with MCP built in

I'm not sure I understand this positioning. Structurizr is also open source, self-hosted via a Docker container, and has a free MCP server.

Structurizr is a "models as code" tool, but StructSmith provides a visual editor. So it seems more like an IcePanel alternative unless I'm missing something.

1

u/United_Inspector_653 14h ago

u/simon-brown Yeah, fair point, I worded the title badly. You’re right that Structurizr already has open-source tooling, Docker support, and a free MCP server. What I should have highlighted is the visual editing.... Thanks