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C4 Architecture Models

This section contains comprehensive architecture documentation using the C4 model approach, providing multiple levels of abstraction for understanding the Law Firm Backstage API System.

📐 What is C4?​

The C4 model provides a way to visualize software architecture at different levels of detail:

  • Level 1: System Context - The big picture
  • Level 2: Container - High-level technology choices
  • Level 3: Component - Internal structure of containers
  • Level 4: Code - Implementation details

🏗️ Architecture Documentation​

Backstage API System​

The Backstage API is the unified backend system powering the law firm's internal operations, consisting of two major API surfaces:

  • Complete Backstage API Architecture ⭐ START HERE - Comprehensive C4 documentation including:
    • Admin API (34 endpoints) - Provisioning, user management, access control
    • User API (37 endpoints) - Cases, clients, documents, time tracking
    • Level 1: System Context - All actors and external systems
    • Level 2: Container Diagram - APIs, databases, caches, queues
    • Level 3: Component Diagram - Internal structure of both APIs
    • Level 4: Code Examples - TypeScript implementation patterns
    • Data Flow Diagrams - Key user journeys (case creation, user provisioning)
    • Deployment Architecture - AWS multi-AZ infrastructure
    • Security Architecture - Multi-layer defense-in-depth
    • Monitoring & Observability - Metrics, logs, traces, alerting

Detailed API Architecture​

Individual deep-dives for each API surface:

Admin API Architecture​

Administrative/provisioning API documentation:

User API Architecture​

User-facing API (lawyers, paralegals, staff) documentation:

General System Architecture​

Platform-wide overview diagrams:

🎯 Quick Navigation​

By User Type​

For Developers:

For Architects:

For Product Managers:

For Security/Compliance:

By Concern​

Backstage API Overview:

Authentication & Authorization:

Data Management:

Scalability & Performance:

Integration Points:

🔗 Related Documentation​

API Documentation​

Technical Specifications​

Data & Schema​

Getting Started​

📝 Diagram Format​

All diagrams in this section use Mermaid syntax and can be rendered:

  • In GitHub (native support)
  • In VS Code (with Mermaid extension)
  • In this documentation (Docusaurus with Mermaid plugin)
  • At Mermaid Live Editor

Need to update these diagrams? Edit the Markdown files in the docs/c4-models/ directory to update Mermaid diagrams and descriptions.