c4-model

c4-model is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from zekiriabd/SDD-Pro. It costs 198 tokens per session (3,362 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A method for describing software architecture at four levels, from the system and its users down to applications, components, and code. The C4 model is a visual way to explain how a system is organised.

In plain words
What is it for?
Designing an architecture, documenting an existing codebase, reviewing system structure, and keeping diagrams up to date.
Why use it?
It gives technical and non-technical teams a shared view of a system without forcing everyone to read the source code.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Designing an architecture, documenting an existing codebase, reviewing system structure, and keeping…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/zekiriabd/sdd-pro/c4-model
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add zekiriabd/SDD-Pro --skill c4-model
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zekiriabd/SDD-Pro

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for c4-model

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zekiriabd/sdd-pro/c4-model.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/zekiriabd/sdd-pro/c4-model)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/zekiriabd/sdd-pro/c4-model"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zekiriabd/sdd-pro/c4-model.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 198 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,362 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00198 $0.03362
Opus 5 $0.00099 $0.01681
Sonnet 5 $0.00040 $0.00672
Haiku 4.5 $0.00020 $0.00336

Measured 3d ago against content hash e7a43d6f25f6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

c4-model scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.sdd/skills/c4-model/SKILL.md · 249 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 249 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

C4 model — diagramming a software architecture

Simon Brown's C4 model (c4model.com) describes a software architecture through four hierarchical levels of abstraction. This skill covers the full cycle around a C4 diagram: design, retro-documentation, review, update.

The 4 levels

Level Diagram Mermaid Zoom Audience
1 Context C4Context System + actors / external systems Everyone (technical and non-technical)
2 Container C4Container Applications, services, internal data stores Technical team (dev, ops, architecture)
3 Component C4Component Internal components of a container Developers of that container
4 Code classDiagram (UML) Classes/functions of a component Developers (often generated by the IDE)

Simon Brown's golden rule: "Context + Container diagrams are sufficient for most software development teams." Only generate levels 3 and 4 when the user explicitly asks for them or when they bring genuine value (complex container, onboarding, high-risk zone). When in doubt, produce levels 1 and 2 and propose to go deeper.

C4 also supports supporting diagrams: System Landscape, Deployment, Dynamic. See supporting-diagrams.md.

Mode detection (router)

Always start by identifying the mode. If it's not obvious from the user's message, ask one question:

"Do you want to: (a) design a new architecture, (b) retro-document an existing system (code or prose), (c) review or explain an existing diagram, or (d) update a C4 that's already in place?"

Signals to infer without asking

User signal Mode
Path to a repo, code snippet pasted, "here's my codebase" Document-code
README, ADR, spec, meeting transcript pasted Document-prose
Diagram (Mermaid/PlantUML/Structurizr) pasted + "what is this?" / "is this good?" Review
Existing diagram + "add/remove/change X" Update
Vague idea, no artifact, "I want to design…" Design

Read the full file on GitHub · 249 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 249 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A e7a43d6f25f6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

c4-model is a skill published in the GitHub repository zekiriabd/SDD-Pro (191 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 198 tokens to every session and 3,362 once invoked, about $0.0010 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

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