--- title: "Design and architecture reviews" description: "Clearly AI reads the design doc, architecture diagram, and Jira ticket behind a new feature, drafts the security review against your standards, and returns requirements engineers can build to." canonical: https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/design-and-architecture-reviews --- _Design and architecture reviews_ # Review every design before it's built Clearly AI reads the design doc, architecture diagram, and Jira ticket behind a new feature, drafts the security review against your standards, and returns requirements engineers can build to. Your security architects start from a cited draft, so every design can get a review before the code is written. - [Contact Enterprise Sales](https://clearly-ai.com/demo) - [See how it works](#how-it-works) Trusted by the companies you trust the most - HID Global - Ericsson - PayPal - Modern Health - Hagerty - Rivian - Infineon - Bastion ## Why does the most valuable review get skipped? A design review is where security has the most leverage. A trust boundary moved on a whiteboard costs nothing. The same change after launch costs a rewrite. But design reviews are also the most expensive reviews to run: a meeting with the architect, a walkthrough of the system, a write-up, and a round of follow-up questions, for every new feature. So the queue backs up. Features can ship before security gets to them, or get reviewed after they're already built. Developers start routing around the process, and the architects who should be shaping systems spend their week chasing context. ## How it works 1. **Submit the design** A Jira ticket, intake form, chat conversation, or design doc starts the review. Developers can also request one from their AI coding agent in plan mode. 2. **Gather the context** Clearly AI pulls in the linked design docs, diagrams, tickets, repos, and past reviews of related systems from the enterprise context graph. 3. **Draft the review** Clearly AI drafts the threat model, security requirements, and open design questions against your standards, with every finding cited and every gap flagged. 4. **Decide and hand off** Your reviewer edits and approves the review. Requirements go back to the ticket, and workflows route findings to Jira, Slack, and the risk registry. _Architecture reviews_ ## Start from the design doc your team already wrote Most of what a design review needs is already written down. Clearly AI reads it so your architect doesn't have to rebuild it. - **The documents your teams already write:** Design docs, architecture diagrams, Jira and Aha! tickets, Confluence and Notion pages, and repos. PDF, Word, and image files are supported. Existing threat models from other tools can come along as context too. - **The system around the design:** The enterprise context graph links the new design to the services, data stores, vendors, and past reviews it touches - **Gaps and conflicts flagged:** When the diagram and the doc disagree, or the design doesn't say how auth works, Clearly AI marks it as missing or conflicting instead of guessing - **Owners answer only what's left:** Questions go to the engineering owner only when the documents can't answer them ![Clearly AI's agent steps on a hypothetical review of Acme Payments API: it pulled Jira ticket SEC-1482, read the Payments Webhook v2 design doc, analyzed the acme/payments-api repo, checked 42 controls in the security baseline, and drafted a threat model with 14 findings and 3 gaps flagged.](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/design-architecture-reviews-design-doc.svg) _Example: The agent’s steps on a hypothetical review of Acme Payments API, from the first ticket to a drafted review_ [See how the enterprise context graph works](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/enterprise-context-graph) _Security requirements_ ## Security requirements engineers can build to A review that only lists threats leaves engineers guessing. Clearly AI tells them what to build. - **Requirements with every review:** Each review returns policy-aligned, non-functional security requirements for the design, like authentication, encryption, logging, and data handling - **Open questions, asked early:** Design questions that need an answer before the build are returned with the review, so they get settled in planning, before they turn into a late-stage escalation - **In the ticket where work happens:** Requirements and questions go back to the Jira ticket or work item that started the review - **Your standards, applied:** Requirements come from your own security policies, secure defaults, and control set ![A Clearly AI threat model finding opened from the findings list, with its cited source, reasoning, review history and the Publish to Risk Registry action.](https://clearly-ai.com/home/figma/findings-animation-still-v4.webp) _A Clearly AI threat model finding opened from the findings list, with its cited source, reasoning, review history and the Publish to Risk Registry action._ _Secure by Design_ ## Secure by Design for everything that ships Secure by Design only works if every design gets reviewed. Clearly AI makes that practical. - **Reviews start when work is planned:** Reviews trigger from Jira, Aha!, Azure DevOps, Linear, and ServiceNow when a feature is planned, with no manual start - **In the coding agent's plan:** Developers and their AI coding agents get a Secure Design Advisor review in plan mode through the Clearly AI MCP server, before a line of code is written [See how design reviews work in the IDE](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/ide-and-mcp) - **Checked again at implementation:** Implementation reviews compare what was built to the approved design and flag drift [See how continuous threat modeling works](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/continuous-threat-modeling) - **Low-risk designs move fast:** Workflows can route designs that don't affect security to a lighter review, so your architects focus on the ones that do ![Diagram of a Clearly AI design review: design docs, code, architecture diagrams, and Jira tickets trigger targeted reviews against architecture standards, required controls, and data sensitivity rules, which return a readiness summary, control gaps, and findings with suggested remediation.](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/design-architecture-reviews-secure-by-design.svg) _A planned feature triggers a Clearly AI design review, which returns security requirements to engineering before the build._ _Humans in the loop_ ## Your architects make the call Clearly AI drafts the review. Your security architects decide. - **A finished draft, ready to review:** Reviewers open a completed review with findings, requirements, and citations already in place - **Work through it together:** Comment, tag the engineering owner, and ask the Clearly AI agent why it reached a finding [See how teams review together](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/collaboration) - **Edit, challenge, or rerun:** Change any finding, push back, or rerun the review when the design changes - **A recorded decision:** Clearly AI records who approved each review, when, and against which template version and project state [See how auditability and versioning work](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/quality#audit-trail) _Findings and remediation_ ## From finding to fix A design review is only done when its findings are. - **Tickets opened for you:** Workflows open Jira tickets for high-criticality findings, with the context, source, and recommended fix included - **The right people notified:** Workflows post summaries to Slack and comment on the ticket or pull request that started the review - **Tracked in one place:** Every finding lands in the risk registry with an owner and status until it's closed [See how the risk registry works](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/resolve/risk-registry) - **Verified before it closes:** Remediation verification confirms the fix landed before the finding closes [See how remediation verification works](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/control-and-remediation-verification#remediation) ![The Clearly AI risk registry listing design review findings with their status, severity, owner, project, and due date, with Jira, Wiz, and other integration logos below.](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/design-architecture-reviews-finding-to-fix.svg) _Design review findings in the Clearly AI risk registry, each with an owner, status, and linked Jira ticket._ _One platform_ ## Every review a design needs, in one pass A new feature rarely needs only a threat model. Clearly AI runs the rest on the same platform and the same license. - **Threat models, privacy, vendor, and AI reviews together:** One workflow can run a threat model, a privacy impact assessment, a vendor review, and an AI risk review on the same design, in parallel [See how workflows run reviews in parallel](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/workflows) - **Business owners answer once:** Every review of the same system uses the same documents and context - **Every product checked against your baseline:** Product security assurance assesses each product against your policies and guardrails, and workflows can send high-risk products on to a full design review [See how product security assurance works](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/product-security-assurance) - **The framework the system calls for:** Set each workflow to the methodology the design calls for, like MAESTRO for an AI agent and STRIDE for a web service [See the threat modeling frameworks Clearly AI supports](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/continuous-threat-modeling#frameworks) ![A Clearly AI workflow using Conditional Branching to route a generated review into five assessments: AI Guardrails, Data Privacy, Data Security, Network Security, and Access Control.](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/design-architecture-reviews-one-platform.svg) ## Every design reviewed. Same team as today. - **~90%** Reduction in time per review - **4x** Review capacity with the same headcount - **From 10 to 100%** Product coverage > Weeks to minutes, literally. > > — William Brown, Sr. Director of Product Security and Privacy, HID Global [Read the HID Global story](https://clearly-ai.com/customer-stories/hid-global) _FAQ_ ## Answers to your top questions ### What is a security design review? A security design review evaluates a system's design for security risks before it's built, so issues are fixed in planning instead of after launch. It usually produces a threat model, security requirements, and open questions for the engineering team. Clearly AI drafts design reviews from your design docs, tickets, and diagrams and cites every finding to its source. ### What's the difference between an architecture review and a threat model? An architecture review looks at the whole design: how components connect, where trust boundaries sit, and whether it meets your security standards. A threat model is the part that identifies what could go wrong and how to address it. Clearly AI produces both in one review: the threat model, plus security requirements and open design questions. ### Can Clearly AI read architecture diagrams? Yes. Clearly AI reads diagrams as images alongside design docs, tickets, and code, and flags where the diagram and the written design disagree. ### How long does an automated design review take? Minutes for the draft. Customers see a ~90% reduction in time per review, with security architects spending their time reviewing and deciding instead of gathering context. ### Can developers request a design review from the IDE? Yes. Developers and their AI coding agents can request a Secure Design Advisor review in plan mode through the Clearly AI MCP server, and get policy-aligned security requirements and open design questions back before they build. [See how design reviews work in the IDE](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/ide-and-mcp) ### Can we use our own design review template? Yes. Upload your design review template, security policies, or standards and Clearly AI turns them into a versioned review template in hours. ### Does Clearly AI replace security architects? No. Clearly AI gathers context and drafts the review. A security architect on your team challenges, edits, and approves it, and Clearly AI records who approved it and when. ### What happens to findings after a design review? Workflows can open Jira tickets or post to Slack for high-criticality findings. Requirements go back to the originating ticket, and every finding is tracked in the risk registry until it's closed. ### What is Secure by Design? Secure by Design is the practice of building security into a product from the design stage rather than adding it after launch. Clearly AI supports it by reviewing every design when it's planned, returning requirements before the build, and checking the implementation against the approved design. ### Is continuous threat modeling the same as continuous monitoring? No. Each design review is a point-in-time assessment of a specific version of a design. Continuous threat modeling means every change that ships gets a review, triggered from tools like Jira and GitHub or on a schedule. When the design changes, a new review runs against the new version. ## Bring your design review template to the demo We'll walk through a review of a sample design and show where your template, your standards, and your Jira workflow plug in. - [Contact Enterprise Sales](https://clearly-ai.com/demo) - [See continuous threat modeling](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/continuous-threat-modeling) ## Learn more - [Secure everything that ships](https://clearly-ai.com) - [We built the tool we wished we had](https://clearly-ai.com/about-us) - [One platform. From intake to remediation.](https://clearly-ai.com/platform) - [Know everything that needs a review. Skip the 300-question form.](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/security-intake) - [Ask only what matters. Get it right the first time.](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/conversational-intake) - [Every finding, tracked to a decision](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/resolve/risk-registry) - [Show leadership and auditors exactly what security reviewed](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/resolve/reporting) - [Security reviews you can stand behind, every time](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/quality) - [Threat models built from the tools you already use](https://clearly-ai.com/integrations) - [Threat models that know about today's attacks](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/threat-intelligence) - [Automate every step around the review](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/workflows) - [Threat models your teams can work on together](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/collaboration) - [Understand the system before the review starts](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/enterprise-context-graph) - [Trust, security, and deployment](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/trust-security-and-deployment) - [Every plan reviewed. Every risky change threat modeled.](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/ide-and-mcp) - [Verify what actually shipped](https://clearly-ai.com/platform/control-and-remediation-verification) - [A current threat model for everything that ships](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/continuous-threat-modeling) - [Prove every product that ships meets your security bar](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/product-security-assurance) - [Privacy reviews your team can stake decisions on](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/privacy) - [Every vendor reviewed against your standards](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/third-party-risk) - [Review every design before it's built](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/design-and-architecture-reviews) - [Secure the AI you build, buy, and code with](https://clearly-ai.com/solutions/ai-agentic-security) - [Every regulation you answer to. 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