Design walkthroughs

Systems design, drawn by hand

Design walkthroughs

Write up a system as one drawn page, talk your team through it, and share it as far as it needs to go: with nobody yet, with the people you name, or with anyone on Explore.

Open the appBrowse Explore

A canvas, right here

cinkEscclear

A system drawn by handA person uses a browser, which calls an api, which puts one message per file on a queue. A worker takes each message and writes to a store. The worker is circled in amber pen.browserapiqueueone per fileworkerstore

Want more room? Start a blank canvas, no account needed. Sign in when you want to keep it.

What it is for

One page, from first sketch to the room

Design it

Lay the system out in numbered sections, each with a hand-drawn diagram and the decisions behind it. The page changes as the design settles.

Plan it with your team

The people you invite leave comments in the margin beside the line they mean. What was agreed is still on the page at the next session.

m margin

Present it to anyone

Turn on the pen and mark the page as you talk, and the marks fade on their own. Every action has a key, so you never hunt for a control.

a penEsc clear? keys

Canvases

A free board beside the page

For whatever does not fit a section: a whiteboard of boxes, arrows, text and pen. A walkthrough can open several canvases, and anyone can start drawing on one before signing in.

Start a blank canvas

Who can read it

Shared one walkthrough at a time, one step at a time

Every walkthrough starts private and goes only as far as you take it. Each step reaches further than the one before, and you can step back down whenever you like. An invitation to one page reaches no other.

  1. 01

    Private

    Only you. Where every walkthrough starts, and where an agent's drafts land.

    you
  2. 02

    Named people

    Add their email addresses. They sign in with one, and only those addresses can open it.

    ana@studio.co
  3. 03

    A whole domain

    Everyone who signs in with an address at your company's domain.

    @studio.co
  4. 04

    Anyone with the link

    No account needed. Anyone the link reaches can read it.

    copy link
  5. 05

    Listed on Explore

    Public, and on Explore too, where anyone browsing can find it.

    listed

Explore

Walkthroughs their authors chose to list

Explore is a public list of every listed walkthrough. Search titles, summaries and topics as you type, or browse by topic. Anyone can read them, with or without an account.

Browse Explore

  1. Priya RamanWebhook delivery service

    Delivering events to customer endpoints that are slow, flaky or briefly gone, without losing an event or hiding a failure from the people debugging it.

    Updated 12 Oct 2026, 9 sections

How it works

Write, share, present

  1. 01Write itIn the browser, one page per system: numbered sections, hand-drawn diagrams and the decisions behind them. Or have an agent write the first draft.
  2. 02Share itSign in with Google, GitHub or a link sent to your email; there is no password. Then choose who can read it, from only you to listed on Explore.
  3. 03Present itOpen it in a browser, talk it through and mark it up. To hand it on, download it as one HTML file that opens offline.

Agents and the API

Let an agent write the first draft

Agents write walkthroughs through MCP, and scripts through a REST API. Both sign in with an API key you create on your account page, and what they make is a private draft.

What an API key cannot do

  • Delete a walkthrough.
  • Publish one, or change who can read it. That stays with you.
  • Be shown twice. Only a fingerprint of it is kept, so copy it when it is made.
# Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http walkthrough \
  https://walkthrough.page/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer wt_…"
Claude Code
wt_…x9Qe, last used 16 Oct 2026
Cursor
wt_…T2mv, never used

The account page has the setup for other clients too. Revoke a key you no longer use.

Connect an agentREST API reference

Start

Draw the next system you have to explain

Open the app to write your first walkthrough, read what other people have listed, or start a canvas without an account.

Open the appBrowse Explore