One map
ThreadLine
Read the argument. One solution on one map: filter it, walk it, check it.
Architecture maps · v2.8 · runs offline
Evidence, not drawings.
Your platforms live in a hundred diagrams. ThreadLine turns them into one interactive map you can filter, walk and check, and every connection says where it came from.
See it work
One solution. Four views.
Claims lodgement at Thornbury Mutual, an invented insurer. The same systems, with the same ids, in the business process, the application flow, the infrastructure and the messaging. Every view is the real ThreadLine engine — click a flow, press Play, open a box.
What this view answers
Who does what, in what order — and where a person re-keys a payment.
Try this
- Press Headline in the left panel, under the flows.
- Play the walk and watch a claim move lane to lane.
- Click the re-key step in the Finance lane.
The weak spot, here
A manual step: over-limit payments are typed again by hand, from the claims system into the payments platform.
What this view answers
Which systems talk to which, and how — by API, by event, by file, or by a person.
Try this
- Press Headline in the left panel, under the flows.
- Pick a flow, then press Play to walk it end to end.
- Click Payments platform and read where each line came from.
The weak spot, here
A “manual rekey” mechanism between the claims management system and the payments platform, and a nightly ledger file.
What this view answers
Where each system runs, which network paths exist — and which one is missing.
Try this
- Press Headline in the left panel, under the flows.
- Play the walk from the internet edge inwards.
- Click Payments platform in the partner zone.
The weak spot, here
No network path from the application tier to the payments platform. That gap is why approvals are re-keyed.
What this view answers
Which events each system publishes and consumes — and what leaves the bus as an email.
Try this
- Press Headline in the left panel, under the flows.
- Play the walk from ClaimLodged to PaymentIssued.
- Click Payments platform and see what it listens to.
The weak spot, here
There is no event for an over-limit approval. It leaves the bus as an email to Finance.
The weak spot — over-limit payments re-keyed by hand — shows up differently in every view. That is the point of keeping one set of ids.
What it reads
Visio .vsdx
draw.io
ArchiMate exchange .xml
SVG
A picture, read by Copilot
New · your documents, as a brief
Why a map, not a diagram
A diagram shows. A map answers.
The questions people ask in an architecture review, and what it takes to answer each one.
| Question | A diagram | A ThreadLine map |
|---|---|---|
| Show me only the payment flow | Redraw it | One click on the flow |
| Walk one transaction end to end | Talk it through | Press Play |
| Where did this line come from? | Ask whoever drew it | Open the box: the source is cited |
| Is this still true? | No way to tell | Dated, and marks what is overdue |
| Is this the latest copy? | Check the file name | It checks its home when it opens |
| What else touches this system? | Open every other diagram | StitchLine joins the maps |
How it works
Start from what you already have.
Three ways in. Each one ends with a map you can open from a folder and hand to someone else.
Get the kit-
01
Have a diagram? Bring it in.
Visio, draw.io, ArchiMate or SVG. Check what was read, then download the map.
-
02
Only have documents? Start from a brief.
Two prompts for your assistant and one check by you. Every connection comes back with its source.
-
03
Starting from nothing? Build one here.
Pick what you are drawing, name the two axes, drop the boxes in, walk the flow.
Checkable · dated · sourced
A map you can argue with.
A headline that is checked
The one-line headline is tested against the map’s own data. If the map disagrees with it, the map will not build.
It knows when it is out of date
Dates on boxes and flows are judged on the day you read the map. Anything past its date is marked OVERDUE, not left quietly wrong.
Every connection is cited
Each line is confirmed, inferred, disputed or unknown, and carries the document it came from. Open the box to read it.
The argument beside the map
A short narrative sits next to the map. Its links open views, and its claims are checked against the data.
Every copy knows its home
A map remembers where it lives. A stale copy forwarded by email says so when it opens.
Nothing leaves the laptop
One HTML file, opened from a folder. No server, no upload. Export PNG or SVG when you need a picture.
More than flows
The same engine, other shapes.
A map is any two axes and the things that move between them. Six examples, from a delivery roadmap to an audio amplifier:
The X axis is time, committed against stretch. Press “What has to land first”.
Causes, preventive barriers, the event, mitigating barriers, consequences. Press “Which barriers are real”.
The X axis is the customer’s experience, not the landscape. Press “Where the journey breaks”.
Why, who, how, what: every deliverable should trace back to the goal. Press “What does not serve the goal” and look for the box that never lights up.
One decision at the desk sends every call to a different team. Choose “Sent to the wrong team” and press Play to see what a wrong category costs.
A circuit that corrects itself: part of the output is fed back to the input. Press “Closed-loop signal path”, then play Negative feedback.
The family
One map, many maps, and the record.
Many maps
StitchLine
Shared systems join your maps. Follow a thread across all of them, and see which map made each claim.
Maps and the record
WeaveLine
Join maps to your catalogue: owners, retirement, and anything critical with no recovery target.
See them work
The four claims maps, joined.
StitchLine and WeaveLine read the same four Thornbury Mutual maps you switched between at the top of the page. One view of each:
StitchLine finds the eleven systems the four maps share. Click one to see which maps mention it and what each one says. Where they disagree, it says so.
WeaveLine joins the same maps to an invented application catalogue. One system is marked critical with no recovery target: the payments platform, where over-limit payments are re-keyed by hand.
From above
Every map, stitched to what it describes.
Thornbury Mutual, the invented insurer from the demos, seen from above: 105 systems, five teams’ maps, and the threads that tie them together.
Every thread is a real link in the example data: where two maps share a system they stitch together, and the systems no map shows yet stand out.
Pricing
Start free. Grow into a library.
Free
For one person, one map
Free
- The viewer, Lite and the Diagram Importer
- Twelve examples
- Offline documentation
[Free for evaluation and individual use — terms to confirm]
Team
For teams building maps together
[Price]
- Everything in Free
- ThreadLine Pro desktop authoring [availability to confirm]
- StitchLine across your maps
- Map review sessions
Organisation
For running maps across an organisation
[Price]
- Everything in Team
- WeaveLine with your catalogue
- The map library: where maps live, which copy is current, who owns it
- Training and onboarding
The launch film
ThreadLine in a minute.
From a diagram nobody can check to a map that can be wrong.
Try it free
Try it on your own diagram.
Download the kit, open threadline.html, and drop on a Visio or draw.io file.