Abstract: A method and product for deployment-aware code generation in a distributed embedded system is described. The method generally comprises defining source and target component structural models by graphically modeling components and component structural features. The source component structural model is then mapped to the target component structural model to define a staging between the source and target component structural models, preferably also graphically. The staging is then combined with configurations of the source and target component structural models to fully specify a deployment from which code can be automatically generated for the embedded system. As opposed to platform-aware code generation that depends on the component and the platform on which the component is deployed, deployment-aware code generation depends not only on the location of the component being generated, but also on the location of other components.