Moving off Structurizr Cloud? Import your workspace.dsl in one step
Last updated: 27 September 2026
Structurizr’s cloud service shuts down on 30 September 2026, with no replacement (docs.structurizr.com/eol). If you have a workspace living there, now is the time to get it out — onto Structurizr’s own local/server options, another visual tool, or CRAYON-C4.
CRAYON-C4 imports a Structurizr DSL .dsl workspace as a new project — or pastes it into a project you already have — and exports any project back to one, including F4 behavioral flows and decisions. Both directions are free on every tier, because a .dsl file is a portable text file, the same kind of thing as CRAYON’s own JSON model export. Nothing about this is a trap: you can leave the same way you arrived.
How to migrate
- Export your workspace from Structurizr. From Structurizr Lite, or the cloud service while it is still up, download your workspace as a .dsl file (or copy the DSL text directly if you authored it that way).
- Import it into CRAYON-C4. Open Projects → New project → From file, and pick the .dsl file. CRAYON parses it, converts it, and validates the result — you land on a canonical project, not a partial one.
- Check the import report. If anything in the file couldn't be converted, you're told exactly what and why — never a silent drop and never a failed import over one unresolvable line.
- Keep the exit open. Export back to Structurizr DSL at any point, on every tier — free, forever. If CRAYON isn't the right fit, your model leaves in the same open format it arrived in.
Start importing — freeRead the full Structurizr DSL docs
See it, live
This is an ordinary CRAYON-C4 model — the shape you land on after an import: real elements, real relationships, drawn from Context down to Code. Drag a node, drill into a container, or open it in the designer.
What round-trips, honestly
Structurizr DSL is a large language; CRAYON covers the parts that map onto its own model, and anything else is skipped and reported — never silently dropped, and never a failed import over one unresolvable line.
| Round-trips | Doesn’t (yet) |
|---|---|
| Element names, hierarchy, relationships (technology + description), groups, deployment trees, element/relationship styles | Filtered/custom/image views, themes, !include and workspace extends, !script, !docs, hierarchical identifiers, enterprise boundaries (imports flat) |
dynamic views → F4 behavioral flows (one lane per element, one activity per step) | F4 activities, lanes, boundary events, groups, tags, notes and exact layout — a dynamic view only carries the element-to-element story |
Decisions (as a .zip bundle with a real MADR-format adr/ folder) | Code-level elements (Structurizr’s own DSL stops at Component — this mirrors Structurizr, not a CRAYON gap) |
Full detail, worked examples, and downloadable sample files (getting-started.dsl, deployment-example.dsl, dynamic-view-example.dsl) are in the Structurizr DSL docs.
Not ready to leave Structurizr entirely?
That’s fine — the import/export round trip means you can use both. Keep authoring in Structurizr Lite if you like the DSL workflow, and bring the result into CRAYON-C4 when you want F4 behavioral flows, deployment views with replica counts and connections, or a document a non-technical stakeholder can actually read. See the full CRAYON-C4 vs Structurizr comparison.
Questions about a specific workspace? Reach us through the support page.