Arc42 is a template for architecture communication and documentation.

"Arc" is for Architecture, and "42" is based on the book "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", by Douglas Adams, where "42" is the

“answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything”

While Arc42 may not have the “answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything”, it does answer the following two questions in a pragmatic way

• What should we document/communicate about our architecture?
• How should we document/communicate?

And it can be tailored to your specific needs.

Template

The Template architecture doduments are available for download in many formats.

The template is guided documentation with tips.

ARC42

The arc42 documentation template aligns with the C4 model. The diagrams map as follows:

Arc42	C4
Context and Scope	System Context diagram
Building Block View (level 1)	Container diagram
Building Block View (level 2)	Component diagram
Building Block View (level 3)	Class diagram

Books

Cover	Title
	arc42 Software Architecture Documentation in Practice: Real software architectures, documented with the arc42 template. Helps you jumpstart your own documentation.

Related

Related material:

Item	Details
Documenting Software Architectures	Book: Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond (2nd Edition) 2nd Edition
docToolchain	Tool: docToolchain is an implementation of the docs-as-code approach for software architecture plus some additional automation. The basis of docToolchain is the philosophy that software documentation should be treated in the same way as code together with the arc42 template for software architecture.