My Advent of CALM Journey

This repository tracks my 24-day journey learning the Common Architecture Language Model (CALM).

Progress

• Day 1: Install CALM CLI and Initialize Repository
• Day 2: Create Your First Node
• Day 3: Connect Nodes with Relationships ...

Tools

CALM CLI

The command-line interface for working with CALM architectures.

Installed: Day 1

What it's used for:

• Generation: Create architecture scaffolds from patterns using calm generate
• Validation: Validate architectures and patterns against the CALM 1.1 schema using calm validate
• Templates: Generate documentation and configuration files from architectures using calm template or calm docify

Basic commands:

# Validate an architecture file
calm validate -a architectures/my-first-architecture.json

# Validate a pattern
calm validate -p patterns/my-pattern.json

# Full validation (architecture against pattern)
calm validate -p patterns/my-pattern.json -a architectures/my-first-architecture.json

# Generate an architecture from a pattern
calm generate -p patterns/my-pattern.json -o architectures/generated.json

# Generate documentation
calm docify -a architectures/my-first-architecture.json -o ./docs

CALM VSCode Extension

Visual editor and previewer for CALM architectures within VS Code.

Installed: Day 4

Marketplace: FINOS.calm-vscode-plugin

What it provides:

• Visualization: Interactive diagrams showing nodes, relationships, and system composition
• Tree Navigation: Hierarchical view of architecture elements (nodes, relationships, flows, controls)
• Live Preview: Real-time architecture preview as you edit JSON files
• Syntax Highlighting: CALM-aware editing with schema validation hints
• Quick Navigation: Jump between referenced nodes and relationships

Keyboard Shortcut:

• Open CALM preview panel: Ctrl+Shift+C (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+C (macOS)

How Tools Work Together

The CALM CLI and VSCode Extension complement each other in a complete workflow:

1. Edit in VSCode: Use the extension to visualize your architecture in real-time while editing JSON
2. Live Preview: See changes instantly in the preview panel — no manual refresh needed
3. Validate with CLI: Run calm validate from the terminal to catch schema errors and linting warnings before committing
4. Generate Docs: Use calm docify to produce documentation websites from validated architectures
5. Iterate: Fix validation errors, preview changes, and refine until ready to deploy

This tight integration keeps your workflow fast and reduces round-trip time between editing, validation, and visualization.

Architectures

This directory will contain CALM architecture files documenting systems.

Patterns

This directory will contain CALM patterns for architectural governance.

Docs

Generated documentation from CALM models.