Self-hosted tool to create and manage architecture and requirement specifications

User manual: docs/manual/README.md

Install

cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d --build
docker compose exec web python manage.py migrate

Environment variables

Variable	Value	Required
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE	config.settings.production. Default: config.settings.development.	Yes
SECRET_KEY	Random string, at least 50 characters.	Yes
ALLOWED_HOSTS	Host names without scheme, comma-separated, localhost included, e.g. arcspec.example.com,localhost.	Yes
SITE_URL	Public address with scheme, no trailing slash, e.g. https://arcspec.example.com.	Yes
POSTGRES_DB	Database name.	Yes
POSTGRES_USER	Database user.	Yes
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	Database password.	Yes
ENTRA_TENANT_ID	Microsoft Entra ID tenant. Empty disables Microsoft sign-in.	No
ENTRA_CLIENT_ID	Microsoft Entra ID application ID.	No
ENTRA_CLIENT_SECRET	Microsoft Entra ID client secret.	No
AUTH_CALLBACK_PREFIX	Any URL-safe string. Redirect URI to register in Entra: <SITE_URL>/auth/callback/<AUTH_CALLBACK_PREFIX>/microsoft/login/callback/	Yes
TURNSTILE_SITE_KEY	Cloudflare Turnstile site key. Empty disables Turnstile in the Captcha setting.	No
TURNSTILE_SECRET_KEY	Cloudflare Turnstile secret key.	No
HCAPTCHA_SITE_KEY	hCaptcha site key. Empty disables hCaptcha in the Captcha setting.	No
HCAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY	hCaptcha secret key.	No
EMAIL_HOST	SMTP server host name without scheme, e.g. smtp.example.com.	Yes
EMAIL_PORT	SMTP port, default 587.	No
EMAIL_HOST_USER	SMTP user.	Yes
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD	SMTP password.	Yes
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL	Sender address.	No

First administrator

docker compose exec web python manage.py create_admin admin@example.com

Creates the first administrator and prints a generated password.

Roles

System roles:

Role	Can
Viewer	Open projects they are a member of.
User	Viewer, plus create projects and templates.
Administrator	User, plus admin of every project, the Admin Panel, any custom template.

Project roles:

Role	Can
Viewer	Read, export, comment.
Editor	Viewer, plus edit sections, items, tags, attachments, links, attributes.
Admin	Editor, plus edit, archive and delete the project, manage members, restore versions.

Document templates

A project is created from a document template. Users create their own document templates from scratch or by duplicating another.

The built-in templates are included:

Template	Type	Sections
Software Requirements Specification	Requirements	18
OWASP ASVS 5.0	Requirements	97
arc42 Architecture Documentation	Architecture	24
Software Test Documentation	Test Cases	34
NIST SP 800-30 Risk Assessment	Risk Analysis	29
GDPR Compliance Documentation	Custom	52
NIS2 Compliance Documentation	Custom	31
EU AI Act Compliance Documentation	Custom	46

MCP server

Endpoint: <SITE_URL>/mcp, with or without a final slash, Streamable HTTP. Off by default; an administrator turns it on in Admin Panel, System Settings.

Clients sign in with OAuth 2.1; ArcSpec is the authorization server. Clients identify themselves with a Client ID Metadata Document. Clients that support only Dynamic Client Registration cannot connect.

13 read tools and 6 item write tools. Each tool applies the user's project roles. No tool deletes data.

An access token is valid for 1 hour. A sign-in is valid for 30 days. Users disconnect clients in Settings, Connected apps.

Scheduled jobs

Add these lines with crontab -e, replacing /path/to/arcspec with the directory holding docker-compose.yml:

17 2 * * * cd /path/to/arcspec && docker compose exec -T web python manage.py auto_archive_projects
47 2 * * * cd /path/to/arcspec && docker compose exec -T web python manage.py auto_delete_archived
0 7 * * 1 cd /path/to/arcspec && docker compose exec -T web python manage.py send_weekly_digest
17 3 * * * cd /path/to/arcspec && docker compose exec -T web sh -c 'python manage.py cleartokens && python manage.py clearcimdapplications'

Screenshots

Dashboard:

Project structure:

Templates:

PDF export:

License

AGPL-3.0

apps/core/static/vendor/ holds unmodified third-party files under their own licences: Bootstrap 5.3.3 and Bootstrap Icons 1.11.3 (MIT), TinyMCE 7.9.3 (GPL-2.0-or-later), Inter 4.1 (OFL-1.1).