c4-component

C4 Component - C4 Component-level Architecture Documentation Expert

Skill Overview

c4-component is a professional C4 component-level documentation generation skill that can synthesize code-level documentation into clear component-level architecture, help define component boundaries, interfaces, and relationships, and automatically generate Mermaid component diagrams.

Applicable Scenarios

1. Code Architecture Visualization

When you have completed code-level documentation analysis (using the c4-code skill) and need to organize those code elements into higher-level logical components, c4-component can identify related code files and group them by functional responsibility.

2. Component Boundary Definition

During system refactoring or microservice decomposition, when you need to clarify the responsibility scope of each component, the interfaces they expose, and the dependencies between components, c4-component can help you sort out and document these design decisions.

3. Architecture Documentation Generation

Generate standard component-level architecture documentation for technical teams, including component function descriptions, interface protocols, dependencies, and visual component diagrams, to facilitate team collaboration and knowledge transfer.

Core Features

Component Synthesis and Grouping

Automatically analyze multiple c4-code-.md code documents and synthesize code elements into logical components based on functional responsibility and cohesion, providing clear boundary definitions and responsibility descriptions for each component.

<h4 class="text-lg font-semibold mt-5 mb-3">Interface Documentation Generation</h4>
Identify and document the interfaces exposed by components, including protocol types (REST/GraphQL/gRPC/events, etc.), operation lists, and parameter descriptions, helping to understand how components interact.

<h4 class="text-lg font-semibold mt-5 mb-3">Mermaid Component Diagram Generation</h4>
Generate Mermaid component diagrams that conform to the C4 model specification, showing the component structure within a single container, relationships between components, and dependencies on external systems. These diagrams can be rendered directly in Markdown.

<h3 class="text-xl font-semibold mt-6 mb-4">Frequently Asked Questions</h3>

<h4 class="text-lg font-semibold mt-5 mb-3">What is the difference between C4 Component and C4 Container?</h4>
C4 Component focuses on the logical component decomposition inside a single container, showing how code is organized into collaborative components; C4 Container looks at a higher level of deployment units, such as applications, services, or databases. A Component is a zoomed-in view inside a Container.

<h4 class="text-lg font-semibold mt-5 mb-3">What should I prepare before using the c4-component skill?</h4>
You need to first use the c4-code skill to generate code-level documentation (c4-code-.md files). c4-component will read and analyze those files. Make sure the code documentation includes basic information and responsibility descriptions for classes, functions, and modules.

Where can the generated component diagrams be used?

The generated Mermaid component diagrams can be embedded into Markdown documents and are supported for direct rendering on platforms like GitHub, GitLab, Notion, Obsidian, etc. They can also be exported as PNG/SVG images using the Mermaid Live Editor or related tools.