Introduction

Rhodd is a deterministic system architecture compiler for declarative software systems. You declare a system once in rhodd.yaml; Rhodd validates it, builds a model and graph, plans every write, emits deterministic artifacts, and writes lock, ownership and handoff state.

It is local-first and pre-release (v0.1.0-rc.1).

What it is

A compiler, not a generator. The same input always produces byte-identical output, and every artifact lands on disk as plain text you can read, diff and commit. There is no hidden state and no live network call by default.

What it is not

• Not an AI builder. Rhodd compiles from an explicit definition, not prompts. AI is optional and bounded — see AI handoff.
• Not a Terraform replacement. Terraform manages infrastructure resources; Rhodd compiles software-system architecture. Different layers. Rhodd does not output Terraform — for deployment it can export Argo CD, Flux or generic Kubernetes manifest files. See Generated outputs.
• Not a one-shot scaffold. It keeps the model, graph, plan and lock, so a later change is recalculated against the system rather than pasted over it.

The compile

One deterministic pass of nine local stages:

The four amber stages — model, quality, ownership, handoff — are where a compiler does what a template never could. Each stage and the artifact it writes is covered in Core concepts.

Where to go next

• Getting started — install the binary and compile your first baseline.
• Core concepts — the model, graph, plan, lock and ownership.
• System definition — the rhodd.yaml shape in detail.