# Getting started

Sign in, create your first workspace, add and connect a few objects, and invite a colleague.

Archibara is a hosted tool for modelling software architecture with the C4 model. You describe your systems, people and connections once, in one model, and Archibara draws them in as many diagrams as you need. Everything you change is saved automatically.

## Sign in

1. Open [app.archibara.com](https://app.archibara.com/).
2. On **Sign in to Archibara**, select **Continue with Auth0**.
3. Sign in or create an account on the secure Auth0 page. Auth0 handles passwords for Archibara; you can also choose a sign-in option it offers, such as Google.
4. If Archibara shows **Verify your email**, open the verification email, then sign out and sign in again. Archibara opens once your address is verified.

On your first verified sign-in, Archibara creates a team for you. It is named after you, starts on the Free plan, and you are its **Owner**. A team holds your workspaces, the people who work on them and the plan. See [Teams and roles](/docs/teams-and-roles/) for how teams work.

## Create a workspace

A workspace holds one architecture model and all of its views.

1. On the **Workspaces** page, select **New workspace**.
2. Enter a **Name** and, if you like, a **Description**.
3. Choose a **Validation mode**. **Relaxed — warn about C4 rule violations** is the default and the easiest way to start. [The C4 model](/docs/c4-model/) explains the difference.
4. Select **Create**.

The new workspace opens on an empty top-level view called **System landscape**. This is where your people and software systems go.

> The Free plan includes one workspace. When your team's plan has no room for another one, the **Workspaces** page offers **View plans** instead of **New workspace**.

## Find your way around

- The toolbar at the top switches workspaces and views and holds **Add**, auto layout, undo and redo, search, **Export**, **Share** and **MCP**.
- The explorer on the left has three tabs: **Model** (the objects of this view and the whole element library), **Views** and **Presales**.
- The canvas in the middle draws the current view.
- The inspector on the right shows the properties of whatever you select.
- The status bar at the bottom shows validation problems, **Activity** and **Snapshots**.

Press Ctrl+B to show or hide the explorer and Ctrl+I for the inspector (⌘ instead of Ctrl on a Mac).

## Add objects

There are three quick ways to add an object:

- Double-click an empty part of the canvas. In **Add object**, type a name and pick a type under **New object**, or pick something under **Existing objects** to show an object that is already in the model.
- Press a number key to start placing a type, then click where it should go: 1 **System**, 2 **Actor**, 3 **Group**. Container views add 4 **App** and 5 **Store**; component views also 6 **Component**. Press Esc to cancel.
- Select **Add** in the toolbar and choose a preset, such as **Person**, **Software system**, **Web app** or **Database**. Presets set the right kind and role; you can change both later.

Select an object to edit it in the inspector: its **Name**, **Kind**, **Role**, **Status**, **Ownership**, **Team**, **Parent**, **Tags**, **Technology** and **Description**.

## Connect objects

Drag from a connection point on the edge of one card to another card. If you drop the line on the card's body, it attaches to the side that faces the first card; if you drop it on a specific point, it stays there. Dropping the line on empty canvas opens **Add object**, so you can create the target and connect it in one step.

Then select the new connection and type a **Description** in the inspector. The description is the label shown on the line. [Connections](/docs/connections/) covers technology, interaction style and line styling.

## Go one level deeper

Double-click a software system to open its detail view, a container view of what runs inside it. If it has none yet, Archibara offers **Create detail view**. Use **Back** above the canvas to return. [One model, many views](/docs/model-and-views/) explains views and detail levels.

## Invite people

If you are an Administrator of the workspace, select **Team** in the toolbar.

1. Open the **Invitations** tab.
2. Enter the person's **Email** and choose a **Role**: **Viewer**, **Editor** or **Administrator**.
3. Select **Create invitation link** (or **Send invitation**, when Archibara can send email) and send the link to that person.

The link works once, only for that email address, and expires after 7 days. On the Free and Individual plans only the team owner edits, so invite others as Viewers; to edit together, move the team to the Team plan. See [Teams and roles](/docs/teams-and-roles/) and [Plans and billing](/docs/plans-and-billing/).

## Next steps

- [The C4 model](/docs/c4-model/): kinds, parents and validation.
- [One model, many views](/docs/model-and-views/): reuse objects across diagrams.
- [Keyboard shortcuts](/docs/keyboard-shortcuts/): work faster on the canvas.
- [MCP and AI clients](/docs/mcp-and-ai/): let an AI assistant read and update your model.