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Stackmap

Lightweight architecture mapping for social purpose organisations.

What is Stackmap?

Stackmap is an open source tool that helps charities, social enterprises, and local councils map their technology architecture. It provides a guided wizard that walks anyone with operational knowledge through documenting their systems, integrations, data, and ownership — without requiring enterprise architecture expertise.

The result is an immediately useful architecture map with visual diagrams, cost analysis, and optional risk assessment.

Who is it for?

  • Small charities and social enterprises — No IT team, technology decisions made by the CEO or operations lead, systems accumulated over years with no single view of the whole picture.
  • Medium VCSE organisations — May have a part-time IT person or outsourced support, want to understand their stack before making changes or investments.
  • Local councils — Digital teams who want a lightweight tool for local government reorganisation (LGR) planning, or who want to pilot architecture mapping before committing to enterprise tooling.

Why Stackmap?

Commercial enterprise architecture tools (ArchiMate, TOGAF-based platforms) are expensive, complex, and designed for specialists. Most social purpose organisations do not have — and do not need — those tools. They need something that:

  • One person can complete in an afternoon
  • Requires no enterprise architecture training
  • Produces a useful artefact immediately
  • Is open source with zero vendor lock-in

Stackmap was built in response to findings from GDS Local's "Sourcing the Stack" initiative, which found that councils have no common model for describing their technology and 54% use spreadsheets that are limiting and difficult to aggregate.

Key Features

  • Two wizard paths — start with organisational functions ("what we do") or services ("what we deliver")
  • Smart suggestions — system recommendations tailored to your organisation type and size
  • 10 service templates with auto-populated tools
  • TechFreedom risk assessment — optional scoring across jurisdiction, continuity, surveillance, lock-in, and cost exposure
  • Cost estimation with per-seat pricing and tier selection
  • Mermaid diagram generation for visual architecture maps
  • JSON export of your complete architecture
  • Fully accessible — WCAG 2.1 AA, keyboard navigable, screen reader compatible

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/dataforaction-tom/stackmap.git
cd stackmap
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 and follow the guided wizard to start mapping your architecture.

For a detailed walkthrough, see the User Guide.