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Sync Diagram Links

C4 Diagrams is part of experimental builds. To access this capability, contact your sales representative.

Sync Diagram Links is the fastest way to ensure drill-through navigation is always complete across your entire Diagram Set. As your architecture evolves—diagrams are imported, created manually, or extended—navigation links can become incomplete. Sync Diagram Links scans every diagram in the set and rebuilds all cross-diagram navigation links, so every node with a shared Repository binding gets the correct drill-through badge and navigation path.

Sync Diagram Links uses the same Repository binding pair logic as Import – Bring C4 Diagrams from Mermaid, PlantUML, or Structurizr DSL auto-link creation, but runs across the full set at once rather than only at apply time.

When two diagrams in the same Diagram Set reference the same Repository entity, Nodinite creates a cross-diagram link between them. This link is what powers the drill-through badge on a node — the visual indicator that lets you navigate from an L1 Context node directly to the L2 Container diagram scoped to that same entity.

The matching key is the Repository binding pair: (RepositoryEntityType, RepositoryEntityId). If an L1 Context diagram has a node bound to a System, i.e. System: ERP, and an L2 Container diagram in the same set is also scoped to System: ERP, a cross-diagram link connects them and a drill-through badge appears on the L1 node.

Import creates these links automatically when Apply runs — but only for diagrams that already exist in the set at that moment. Sync fills the gaps that accumulate as a set grows.

graph LR subgraph "Diagram Set" L1[" L1 Context"] L2a[" L2 Container – ERP"] L2b[" L2 Container – Portal"] L3[" L3 Component"] end Sync[" Sync"] Links[" Cross-Diagram Links\ndrill-through badges"] Sync -->|"compares Repository\nbindings across all diagrams"| L1 Sync --> L2a Sync --> L2b Sync --> L3 L1 -->|"ERP binding"| Links L2a -->|"ERP binding"| Links L2a -->|"API Gateway binding"| Links L3 -->|"API Gateway binding"| Links style Sync fill:#87CEEB style Links fill:#90EE90 style L1 fill:#FFD700 style L2a fill:#FFD700 style L2b fill:#FFD700 style L3 fill:#FFD700

Diagram: Sync evaluates all diagrams in the set together and creates cross-diagram links wherever two diagrams share a Repository binding — the foundation of drill-through navigation between zoom levels.

Sync Diagram Links is add-only and idempotent:

  • Missing links are created by comparing Repository bindings across every diagram pair in the set
  • Existing links — whether created by Import, a previous sync, or manually — are never removed
  • Duplicate links are deduped automatically, so running Sync Diagram Links multiple times in a row is always safe
Scenario Why Sync Diagram Links is needed
Added a new diagram to an existing set The new diagram has no links to sibling diagrams yet
Created a diagram manually without using Import Manual creation never triggers auto-link creation
Added nodes to an existing diagram Sibling diagrams do not know about the new Repository bindings
Drill-through badges are missing where expected Links may not have been created at import time
Bulk-imported several diagrams in quick succession Each Apply only saw diagrams present at its own run time
  1. Navigate to Repository → Architecture Diagrams → Diagram Sets
  2. Open the Diagram Set you want to update
  3. Click Sync Diagram Links in the set toolbar
  4. Confirm the operation
  5. The set refreshes — drill-through badges appear on all nodes whose Repository binding matches another diagram in the set

Sync Diagram Links runs across the entire set in one operation. There is no need to select individual diagrams — every diagram in the set is evaluated.

Next Steps