Docxa

Architecture Proposal

Version: 0.1 Status: Draft -- Architecture Definition Phase Author: Abhijit Chatterjee

1. Purpose of This Document

This document defines the architectural direction for Docxa.

Following the ideation phase, this proposal introduces the key architectural principles, core system capabilities, and conceptual system structure required to build Docxa.

The goal of this document is to:

• Align engineering and product teams on the system architecture
• Define the primary architectural concepts
• Identify major system responsibilities
• Provide a foundation for the upcoming High Level Design (HLD)

This document intentionally avoids implementation-level details. Those will be addressed in later design phases.

2. System Overview

Docxa is an AI-assisted documentation intelligence platform designed to generate structured software project documentation.

The platform captures knowledge from both stakeholders and technical artifacts, then synthesizes that knowledge into standardized engineering and business documentation.

Docxa focuses on generating artifacts such as:

• Product Requirements Documents (PRD)
• Business Requirements Documents (BRD)
• Technical Requirements Documents (TRD)
• Functional Requirements Documents (FRD)
• High Level Design (HLD)
• Low Level Design (LLD)
• Non‑Functional Requirements (NFR)
• Architecture Decision Records (ADR)

The system ensures that documentation reflects both:

• Business intent
• Technical reality

3. Architectural Principles

The architecture of Docxa follows several guiding principles.

Evidence-Driven Documentation

Documentation generation must be based on verifiable project evidence, not guesswork.

Evidence may originate from:

• Stakeholder interviews
• Source code analysis
• Existing documentation artifacts

This ensures generated documents remain grounded in project context.

Role-Aware Knowledge Capture

Different project roles hold different knowledge.

Docxa captures knowledge using role-aware interactions, ensuring the right questions are asked to the right stakeholders.

Examples:

• Product Managers provide product intent
• Architects provide system design constraints
• Engineers provide implementation context

Structured Documentation Templates

All documentation is generated from structured templates.

Templates define:

• Document structure
• Section definitions
• Evidence requirements
• Generation guidance

This ensures documentation remains consistent across projects.

Multi-Interface Accessibility

Docxa must be accessible through multiple interaction interfaces, allowing stakeholders across the organization to contribute.

Supported interfaces include:

• CLI interface
• IDE integrations (e.g., VSCode)
• Collaboration tools (e.g., Microsoft Teams)

Local-First Operation

Docxa should support local execution within project repositories.

This approach ensures:

• Project confidentiality
• Developer-friendly workflows
• Reduced dependency on centralized infrastructure

4. Core System Capabilities

Docxa provides several core capabilities.

Knowledge Capture

The system captures project knowledge from stakeholders through guided interactions.

Knowledge may include:

• Business goals
• Product requirements
• Architecture constraints
• Operational expectations

Repository Analysis

Docxa analyzes project repositories to detect:

• Programming languages
• Frameworks and libraries
• Architectural patterns
• Service boundaries

This allows technical documentation to reflect the actual implementation.

Evidence Aggregation

Captured knowledge is normalized into a structured evidence model.

Evidence represents contextual inputs used during documentation generation.

Sources of evidence include:

• Interview sessions
• Repository analysis
• Existing documentation

Documentation Planning

Before generating documentation, the system evaluates whether sufficient evidence exists.

This planning stage ensures:

• Missing knowledge is identified
• Stakeholders are prompted for additional context if required

Documentation Generation

Once the required evidence is available, Docxa generates structured documentation using:

• Document templates
• Project evidence
• AI-assisted synthesis

Generated documents are delivered as structured markdown artifacts.

Documentation Lifecycle Management

Docxa enables teams to maintain documentation over time.

When project knowledge changes, documentation can be regenerated or updated to reflect the latest state.

5. Conceptual Architecture

At a conceptual level, the system consists of five major layers.

Stakeholders + Codebase
        ↓
Knowledge Capture Layer
        ↓
Evidence Aggregation Layer
        ↓
Documentation Planning Layer
        ↓
Document Generation Engine
        ↓
Structured Documentation Output

Each layer contributes to transforming project knowledge into formal documentation artifacts.

6. Core System Concepts

Several key concepts underpin the Docxa architecture.

Evidence

Evidence represents structured project knowledge used to generate documentation.

Evidence may originate from:

• Stakeholder interviews
• Repository analysis
• Existing documentation

Each documentation section must map to one or more evidence sources.

Templates

Templates define the structure of documentation artifacts.

Each template contains:

• Document sections
• Section descriptions
• Evidence requirements
• Generation guidance

Templates ensure consistency across generated documents.

Interviews

Interviews are structured conversations with project stakeholders.

Each interview is role-specific and designed to capture relevant knowledge.

Interview sessions can be persisted and resumed.

Repository Analysis

The repository analysis process extracts technical signals from source code.

This analysis identifies:

• Languages
• Frameworks
• Architectural patterns
• Service structures

The results provide technical context for documentation generation.

Generation Planner

The generation planner evaluates whether enough evidence exists to safely generate documentation.

If required evidence is missing, the system recommends actions such as:

• Conducting additional interviews
• Running repository analysis
• Reviewing existing documents

7. Interface Strategy

Docxa is designed to support multiple interaction interfaces.

Command Line Interface

The CLI provides the primary interface for developers and technical users.

Example commands:

Docxa init
Docxa discover
Docxa interview start
Docxa generate prd

IDE Integration

IDE integrations allow developers to interact with Docxa directly within their development environment.

Possible capabilities include:

• Generating documentation from within the project workspace
• Updating documentation during development workflows

Collaboration Interfaces

Future integrations may allow stakeholders to interact with Docxa through collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams.

Example interaction:

@Docxa generate the PRD for Project X

This allows non‑technical stakeholders to participate in documentation workflows.

8. Conceptual Storage Model

Docxa maintains project state within a workspace directory.

Example structure:

.Docxa/
  analysis/
  interviews/
  documents/
  metadata/

This workspace stores:

• Repository analysis results
• Interview sessions
• Generated documentation
• Project metadata

9. System Constraints

Several constraints influence the system architecture.

Confidentiality

Projects may contain sensitive code or business information.

The system should support local execution to avoid unnecessary data exposure.

Extensibility

The architecture must support future extensions including:

• Additional document types
• New stakeholder roles
• Additional interfaces

Model Flexibility

Docxa should support multiple AI model providers to ensure flexibility across environments.

10. Future Design Work

The next stage of system design will focus on producing a High Level Design (HLD).

The HLD will define:

• System components
• Service boundaries
• Data flow between components
• Deployment considerations
• Scalability strategies

This will provide the technical blueprint required for implementation.