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15 languages · every format

Download arc42

Build your download — pick a language and a format, plain or with help. 15 languages, every common format, free and open source.

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Your download

arc42 · English · AsciiDoc

Version 9.1 (Oct 2026) · free & open source

Plain .zip With help .zip

With help embeds the official arc42 explanations in every section — ideal when you're new to the template. Plain gives you the bare structure.

Release 2026.10.19 on GitHub · release notes & checksums

These formats are generated from their AsciiDoc sources in the GitHub repository. Not sure which to pick? See the format overview below.

Specialised & tool formats

Confluence

We no longer generate Confluence files. Atlassian’s space-export format changes between Confluence versions, importing one requires a site administrator, and we have no Confluence instance to verify exports against. The former arc42 plugin on the Atlassian Marketplace has been discontinued by Atlassian.

Recommended: publish from AsciiDoc with docToolchain. The publishToConfluence task of docToolchain pushes the template into any Confluence Cloud or Data Center space through the REST API — one page per arc42 section, images attached. You need edit rights on the target space, nothing more. The task knows the arc42 template: every help block becomes a collapsible info box, so the with help variant reads well in Confluence. Running it again updates only the pages that changed.

  1. Download the AsciiDoc template in your language, plain or with help, e.g. EN with help.
  2. Install docToolchain and point its inputFiles at arc42-template.adoc.
  3. Fill in the Confluence section of docToolchainConfig.groovy — API endpoint, credentials and the ancestorId of the parent page — then run ./dtcw generateHTML publishToConfluence.

The publishToConfluence tutorial walks through the configuration.

Legacy files. Hand-made exports from January 2017, with help, based on an older template version. They were exported from Confluence Cloud of that time and may not import into current instances. Provided as-is; we cannot update or support them.

Language flat (one page) structured (one page per section)
DE .zip .zip
EN .zip .zip

Legacy versions (arc42 v6) for Confluence 4/5. Provided by arc42 users; we can’t support these ourselves.

Confluence version Language With Help
5.x EN .zip
>4.3 EN .zip
5.x DE .zip
>4.3 DE .zip
Doxygen

Doxygen is the de-facto standard for generating documentation from annotated C++ sources (and C, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Java, Python, IDL, Fortran, VHDL and more) — see doxygen.nl.

Doxygen
arc42 Doxygen template: arc42_doxygen_template.zip

Available in EN only. Contributed by Stephan Lessing, February 2023.

Enterprise Architect©

Enterprise Architect© is a commercial UML modelling tool by SparxSystems. This template covers the complete arc42 structure (based on version 8.2) using UML diagrams and text, with the official arc42 explanations included as notes in the diagrams. It uses only Professional-Edition features, so it works across all editions. Updated versions contributed by Raphael Dumhart, May 2024.

Language / version Download
DE — with help, EAPX (EA < 16.x) .eapx
DE — with help, QEA (EA ≥ 16.x) .qea
EN — with help, EAPX (EA < 16.x) .eapx
EN — with help, QEA (EA ≥ 16.x) .qea
Legacy short v6 .eap.zip

File formats. QEA (introduced in EA 16, SQLite3-based) or EAPX (older default, JET 4). For EA 15 and below use EAPX; before EA 14, rename the extension to .eap. To only view a model, the free EA Lite edition is enough.

IBM Rhapsody©

Rhapsody© is a commercial IBM modelling tool, primarily for embedded systems. This version contains the complete arc42 structure with minimal help text, modelled in UML/SysML, and includes the profile, an RPE report-generation template, and a worked example. Created and tested with Rhapsody 8.2.1, EN only.

IBM Rhapsody arc42 template
arc42-v1-rhapsody.zip

Contributed by Niranjan SK (Robert Bosch GmbH) — thank you!

Other modelling tools

We don’t support additional modelling tools yet, but we’d love to. If you use arc42 with one, please consider contributing!

Format overview

docx
Microsoft Word, also usable with LibreOffice or OpenOffice.
asciidoc
Powerful yet simple markup, used by arc42 itself — ideally suited to architecture documentation. See docToolchain or the AsciiDoc quick reference.
markdown
Widespread, simple markup — documented here by its inventor. The strict variants restrict it further; the multi-page (MP) variants split every chapter into its own file.
gitHubMarkdown
GitHub Flavored Markdown, used on GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise — see the guide.
latex
The document preparation system — for those who need beauty and are willing to invest some effort.
rst
reStructuredText, heavily used by Read the Docs and in the Python world.
docbook
DocBook XML — the intermediate format most other formats are generated from, useful for your own tool chains.
epub
E-book format, for reading the template on e-readers and tablets.
pdf
For reading or printing the template, not for working with it.
textile
Another simple markup language, documented at textile-lang.com.
html
For viewing the template only, not for working with it.
Confluence
The commercial wiki by Atlassian.
Version history & translation credits

Version 9 adds a Simplified Chinese (ZH) translation — thanks to Chris (Gentle) Y杨 and DannyGe — Hungarian (May 2026) by László Séra, Traditional Chinese (ZH-TW, September 2026) by Nien-chun Yin, Turkish (TR, October 2026) by Selman Seref and Azerbaijani (AZ, October 2026) by Nihad Jabrayilzade. Since October 2026 (9.1, German 9.2), all languages refer to ISO 25010:2023 and to the open Q42 quality model.

Version 8 was released February 2022; UA August 2022, CZ October 2022, FR June 2023, PT October 2024. ES, IT, NL, PT, RU and UKR are at 8.3 (October 2026: references to ISO 25010:2023 and Q42).

Nous sommes heureux d’annoncer la disponibilité de la version française d’arc42 — merci beaucoup à Damien Lucas. Bon travail !

We are so happy to announce the Czech version of arc42 — thanks to Jakub RC. You rock!

We are incredibly happy to announce the Ukrainian version of arc42 — thanks to an anonymous author, supported by Larysa Visengeriyeva.

Thanks to Guilherme Weizenmann for the Portuguese translation, and to Pedro Mattiollo for the constructive review. Você é incrível!

Training on arc42

Want to go deeper? The creators of arc42 run iSAQB-certified architecture trainings, on-site and remote. Upcoming dates:

Hands-on architecture training — most classes taught by Peter Hruschka and Gernot Starke, the creators of arc42 (dates with other trainers say so):

Next dates

All courses and dates: trainings.arc42.org · as of 20 Oct 2026

See all dates & register → Training details