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ArchFoundry Docs Open the canvas

Check your designs before you deploy

Updated October 19, 2026Plans: Free, Pro, Enterprise

Overview

ArchFoundry can check a design before anything exists. The Testing section runs static checks over every saved diagram. On the canvas you can validate the Terraform against the AWS provider's schema, show what each security group lets through, and turn a dial to see which card gives out first under load. These read only the diagram. Once a stack is deployed, a real load run can measure it.

Prerequisites

Steps

  1. In the workspace sidebar, click Testing. The checks run over every saved architecture.
  2. Use the severity bar to show only critical, warning or advice findings.
  3. On a finding, click Open on the canvas to go to that diagram.
  4. On the canvas, open the command palette (Ctrl+K) and choose Validate Terraform. The Terraform validation window lists what Needs attention and what Conforms to schema.
  5. To see which card can reach which, choose Security view: show reachability in the command palette. Choose Security view: hide to turn it off.
  6. To model load, open the Load tab on the right of the canvas. Drag the dial, or type a number of requests per second, and read which card limits the design first. Every number here is modelled, not measured, until you do a real run.

Example

Before a stack is deployed, the Load tab models it from the diagram. Under At this rate, each card's limit is tagged known, a published limit or formula from AWS, or assumed, a throughput nobody has measured on this stack yet.

Once the stack is deployed, the same tab offers a Real run: it ramps real requests at the stack's load balancer and stops at the first error, or when users would start waiting. A typical run reads:

text
50 → 750 req/s    120 s    ≤ $0.02
Type <your-diagram-name> to confirm

Type the diagram's name and click Send to start, or Stop to end it early. The result sets the model beside what was measured, for example users waiting from about 285 req/s on a 0.25 vCPU container. A run sends at most 4,000 requests per second and 300,000 requests in all, and you can run six an hour. Real users on the stack share it while it runs.

Verify it worked

  • Testing says how many checks ran and either that every one passed or how many things are worth knowing.
  • Terraform validation says No structural issues found when the Terraform conforms.

Troubleshooting

Nothing to check yet. Save an architecture first. The checks run only over saved diagrams.

Checks that had no evidence were skipped. A check that could not be decided from the diagram is skipped, not counted as a pass.

Security groups only. The reachability view covers security groups. Route tables, network ACLs and IAM can still block a path the view shows as open.

Only what is on the canvas. A resource that never made it into the diagram is not checked.

Nothing here to saturate. The Load tab needs compute or a database on a request path. Add one and connect it.

Next steps