Cloudviz API vs Structurizr + MCP

Cloudviz API

Diagrams come from the live AWS account through a read-only cross-account role with a per-customer external ID. AWS only, and API access starts at the $49 a month Team plan.

Structurizr + MCP

One model can generate several C4 architecture views. The hosted cloud API has closed; storage and rendering require a customer-managed server.

Cloudviz API

1. Call GET /aws/accounts/ first to get the Cloudviz account ID, then request /aws/accounts/{account-id}/{region}/{format}
2. On a 202, wait and repeat the same GET until the diagram is ready
3. Ask for jsonSnapshot or jsonDiagram (there is no plain json format) when the agent has to reason over resources
4. Use a read-only key unless the agent has to add, change or delete AWS accounts

Structurizr + MCP

1. Call validate and then inspect on the DSL before pushing a workspace
2. Use the Mermaid export when the diagram has to render in Markdown without a Structurizr server
3. Export needs a view key. Parse the DSL first to list the views
4. Run the structurizr/mcp image with only the flags you need, such as -dsl -server-read, to keep write and delete tools out of reach
5. The workspace API returns JSON, never images. PNG and SVG come from the separate export command