The problem with any of these tools is that they solve only one part of the puzzle. Take Structurizr for example, it doesn't automatically create the diagrams for you or notify you when it detects architectural drift (and automatically update the diagram).
Others miss other pieces of the puzzle, such as having a list all your APIs, all your system docs in a single place (ADRs, reqs, etc.), connecting to your repos, etc.
> Take Structurizr for example, it doesn't automatically create the diagrams for you
The Structurizr DSL is designed for manual authoring (which is what most people tend to do), but there's nothing preventing you from writing some code (using one of the many open source Structurizr compatible libraries) to reverse-engineer parts of the software architecture model from source code, binaries, your deployment environment, logs, etc.
> or notify you when it detects architectural drift
If you do the above, there's then nothing preventing you from writing some tests to notify of architectural drift, etc.
Thank you, but by that argument, I could that for any diagramming / whiteboarding tool. The point is having a tool that reduces work for me and does these things automatically.
> Thank you, but by that argument, I could that for any diagramming / whiteboarding tool.
In theory, sure, but the majority of diagramming/whiteboarding tools are not easily manipulated via code/an API. Structurizr is a modelling tool, and the model can be authored by a number of methods ... manual authoring, reverse-engineering, or a hybrid of the two.
> The point is having a tool that reduces work for me and does these things automatically.
I do hope that we will see some tooling that can do these things automatically, but we're not there yet ... fully-automatic (as opposed to semi-automatic) comes with some serious trade-offs.
Others miss other pieces of the puzzle, such as having a list all your APIs, all your system docs in a single place (ADRs, reqs, etc.), connecting to your repos, etc.
I recommend checking https://www.multiplayer.app/ as an alternative.