Technology components

Technology components are the building blocks your architecture depends on: databases, queues, gateways, frameworks, and third-party services. Each one is documented with its use cases, constraints, ownership, and alternatives, and carries an adoption stance teams can act on.

Technology components are available on the Pro and Enterprise plans. You need the Member role or higher to create one.

1. Add a component

1. Open Technology Components in the sidebar and choose + New Technology Component.
2. Enter a Title, for example PostgreSQL 16.
3. Add any co-authors under Authors.
4. Fill in Body (Markdown). It starts from your workspace's template, which by default has these sections:
   • Overview: what the component is and the capability it provides.
   • Status: your recommended adoption stance, in prose.
   • Use cases: where it is a good fit, and where it is not.
   • Capabilities: key features and what it does well.
   • Constraints & limitations: known limits, scaling boundaries, gotchas.
   • Integration: interfaces, protocols, and dependencies.
   • Ownership & support: owning team, support model, lifecycle and version notes.
   • Alternatives: comparable components, and when to prefer them.
5. Choose Create draft.

2. Set the adoption stance

Every component has an Adoption value, shown beside its status at the top of the page. New components start at Trial. The choices are:

Stance	Meaning
Adopt	Proven here. The default choice for new work.
Trial	Promising. Use it on real work where the risk is manageable.
Hold	Don't start new work with it.
Deprecate	On the way out. Plan to move off it.

The component's authors, or an admin, can change the stance from the Adoption dropdown at any time, whatever the component's review status. Each change is saved as a new version.

3. Get it approved

Technology components use the shared review flow. Choose Propose for review and pick a reviewer, who can Publish, Reject, or Request changes. When a component is overtaken, open it and choose Supersede or Deprecate. See Reviewing and approving for the full flow.

4. Use components in diagrams

Technology components plug into the shared C4 architecture model. When you add or edit a container in the model, you can pick one or more technology components from the catalog, alongside a free-text Technology label. The container then shows exactly what it is built on, and every diagram that includes it stays consistent with your catalog.

You can also define an application's containers, and the components they use, from its entry in the Application catalog.