Setting Up Structurizr for Local Authoring: A Step-by-Step Guide

Workflow

Structurizr has a workflow suggestion. We are going to follow the local authoring step by step.

Creating the dsl file

Create a folder named strzr and inside it add a file named strzr.dsl.

Add the example file:

workspace {
    model {
        u = person "User"
        ss = softwareSystem "Software System"

        u -> ss "Uses"
    }
    views {
        systemContext ss {
            include *
            autolayout lr
        }
    }
}

Getting Structurizr Lite running

Pull the image:

docker pull structurizr/lite

Run a container from the image:

docker run -it --rm -p 8080:8080 -v `pwd`:/usr/local/structurizr structurizr/lite

Then open http://localhost:8080/workspace/diagrams

You should see this:

Voila.

How to install the CLI

I like CLI’s and I thought it would be nice to have it working. But I don’t like compiling things from source. I’d rather get them compiled if I can.

Download the structurizr-cli.zip from https://github.com/structurizr/cli/releases.

Extract the zip and move it to /opt/structurizr.Then add it to your rc file. I added this to my .zshrc:

# add structurizr
export PATH="/opt/structurizr:$PATH"

After reloading your session (by for example closing and re-opening the terminal), you can call which structurizr and it should print:

/opt/structurizr/structurizr