Design a system for a coffee shop

An interactive whiteboard for system design. Map components, wire them together, simulate data flow, and export a full architecture spec.

Chinilla AI helps you design, iterate, and stress-test your architecture. Or go fully manual. Your call.

Start Designing

No account required. Free to use.

7 blocks. Any system.

No infrastructure jargon. No memorized patterns.
Just first-principles building blocks that map to any domain.

The 7 building blocks: Person, Step, Storage, Decision, Trigger, Tool, Channel

How it works

Build

Drop building blocks on the canvas and wire them together.
Use the AI wizard, pick a template, or start from scratch.

Simulate

Run packets through your design and watch what happens.
See where bottlenecks form, queues overflow, and failures cascade.

Iterate

Fix what the simulation reveals.
Ask Chinilla AI to suggest improvements, then simulate again until it holds up.

Chinilla canvas showing a coffee shop system design

Chinilla designing a system on a whiteboard

An interactive canvas for system design

Drop components, wire them together, assign behaviors like filter, queue, or retry. Then watch packets flow through your architecture in real time.

Simulate traffic, bottlenecks, and cascading failures.
Export high-res PNGs, animated GIFs, or a full system spec.
All in the browser.

Features

✓ Interactive drag-and-drop canvas ✓ AI-generated system architectures ✓ AI-powered design assistant ✓ Load and failure stress testing ✓ Pre-built templates and wizards ✓ 13 programmable behavior modes ✓ PNG, GIF + clipboard export ✓ Undo/redo with full history ✓ Works entirely in the browser

Software engineering: 9/10 AI exposure

AI writes code. You design what it builds.

Coding, debugging, testing? Automatable. But system design requires opinionated decisions that no model can make for you.

"High-level system architecture and complex stakeholder communication provide some insulation."

Source: karpathy.ai/jobs

Chinilla AI: Your design buddy

Pro

Chinilla AI works alongside you at every stage. Describe what you want to build in plain language and watch it turn into a full architecture on the canvas.

✓ Describe to design - Tell Chinilla what you need and it generates components, connections, and behaviors automatically.

✓ Intelligent suggestions - Every recommendation is grounded in your canvas context and conversation history, not hallucination.

✓ Visual diffs - AI changes show up as a diff overlay on the canvas. Accept, reject, or tweak each one.

✓ Simulation scenarios - Ask AI to stress-test your design with load spikes, node failures, or cascading outages.

✓ Full spec + code generation - Export a complete PRD or scaffold starter code for your architecture.

Upgrade to Pro →

Chinilla AI generating a system architecture

Why Chinilla?

First principles, not memorized patterns

7 building blocks that map to any domain. Design a restaurant the same way you design a backend. No jargon, no gatekeeping.

Living systems, not static diagrams

Wire components together, assign behaviors like queue, retry, or circuit breaker, and watch data flow through your architecture in real time. Find the problems before they find you.

AI that designs with you

Chinilla AI is your design buddy. Describe what you want, review its suggestions as a visual diff, then accept or reject each change. Every recommendation is grounded in your design context.

Local by default

Your designs live in your browser. No account required, no tracking, no data collection. Cloud saves are opt-in and only available when you sign up.

Go deeper with the docs

Step-by-step guides on using the canvas, designing real architectures,
and understanding the patterns behind reliable systems.

From your first drag-and-drop to advanced failure simulation.
Everything you need to go from concept to production-ready design.

Read the docs →

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Get started for free!

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