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Getting started

Architecture diagrams usually cost an afternoon in a drawing tool and go stale within a month. Datadef is an AI diagram tool for data and cloud architecture: describe the system, paste its infrastructure code, or connect its repository, and it draws an editable diagram with typed nodes, real flow edges, nested zones, and column-level detail. This page covers the two ways to use it: without an account, and with one.

The Datadef dashboard: a prompt bar for describing your architecture, a scratch canvas shortcut, and recent projects
The dashboard: describe your architecture, or paste an image, or drop a file.

How it works

  1. 1Open the scratch canvas with no account, or sign up and get 7 days of the full product, no card needed.
  2. 2Describe your system in the prompt bar, naming the real technologies, layers, and tables, or paste infrastructure code, or attach a file.
  3. 3Datadef draws the diagram. Refine it on the canvas by hand or by asking the AI panel for changes.
  4. 4Share it with your team, embed it in a README, or keep it syncing from your repository.

Try it without an account

The scratch canvas is the full editor with no signup:

  • 3 AI generations per day. The limit is enforced server-side and resets daily.
  • Your diagram is saved in your browser's local storage, not on Datadef's servers. Clearing browser data clears the diagram.
  • No sharing, no cloud projects, no version history. Those need an account, because they need the diagram to live server-side.

Scratch work is not lost when you sign up: the dashboard offers to turn your scratch diagram into a cloud project once you have an active trial or plan.

Accounts and the 7-day trial

Signing up starts a trial of the full product. Three things worth knowing about it:

  • 7 days, no credit card. The trial starts at account creation and expires on its own. Nothing is charged, because nothing was collected.
  • Once per email address. Plus-aliases and Gmail dot variants count as the same address.
  • It is the real product. Cloud projects, unmetered generation, sharing, public links, embeds, MCP API access, and repository connections all work during the trial.

When the trial ends

Nothing is deleted and nothing disappears. An account whose trial or subscription has ended keeps every project and can view all of them; what stops working is writing: editing, generating, creating projects, and widening sharing. Every attempt gets the same answer: everything you made is intact and viewable, but editing needs an active plan.

Details, including what this means for collaborators, are on Plans and billing.

Your first diagram

The short version

Open the dashboard, type what your system is into the prompt bar, and be specific: name the technologies, the layers, the tables that matter. A vague prompt gets a generic diagram; a named stack gets your stack.

From there: refine it on the canvas, invite people from the Share dialog, or put it in a README with an embed. You can also skip prompting entirely and generate straight from a repository; see Repositories. Or start from a working example in the template gallery.