Mermaid

Mermaid is a JavaScript-based software to draw a wide variety of diagrams and charts, e.g., flowchart, sequence, state, block, class, mindmap, Gantt, git, pie, etc.

In Linux, mermaid can be directly installed via package manager. Taking ArchLinux for instance, it can be installed via pacman, i.e.,

  pacman -S mermaid-cli

Then, the mermaid utility mmdc is available which takes a mermaid file (with a .mmd extension) as input and outputs a diagram.

A mermaid-based diagram is comprised of 3 parts,

• a YAML-based frontmatter (enclosed by a pair of triple-dash lines),
• a type declaration, and
• contents.

---
config:
  theme: default/base/dark/forest/neutral/null
  look: classic/handDrawn
  layout: dagre/erk
  maxTextSize: 50000
  maxEdges: 500
  darkMode: false/true
  htmlLabels: false/true
  fontFamily: serif/sans-serif/monospace/cursive/fantasy/system-ui/ui-serif/ui-sans-serif/ui-monospace/ui-rounded/math/fangsong
  startOnLoad: true/false
  arrowMarkerAbsolute: false/true
  legacyMathML: false/true
  forceLegacyMathML: false/true
  deterministicIds: false/true
  wrap: true/false
  fontSize: 16
  markdownAutoWrap: true/false
  useMaxWidth: true/false
---
graph/sequenceDiagram/classDiagram/stateDiagram/erDiagram/journey/gantt/pie/quadrantChart/requirementDiagram/gitGraph/C4Context/mindmap/timeline/zenuml/sankey/xychart/block/xychart/kanban/architecture-beta/radar-beta/treemap-beta
  CONTENTS

• A comment line starts with double percent signs (%%), and will be skipped by mermaid interpretor.
• Any text (e.g., ) in Markdown format should be enclosed a pair of double quotes and double backticks, e.g., "`text`".
• An item (e.g., a node or a curve) can be mannually assigned with a ID for subsequent reference or further customization, e.g., id@{...}.
• A node can be customized by setting its fill, stroke, stroke-width, color, etc.
• A curve can be customized by setting its style, e.g., basis, bumpX, bumpY, cardinal, catmullRom, linear, monotoneX, monotoneY, natural, step, stepAfter, and stepBefore.
• A set of customization can be achieved by defining a class, e.g., classDef CLASSNAME stroke: none, fill:#f00, and then the class name can be append to the ID of each target item (e.g., node, curve) via :::, e.g., ID:::CLASSNAME. Particularly, we can define a class termed default, which will be applied to all the items without any class specified, e.g., classDef default fill:#f00,stroke:none.

• The links for node connection can be summarized in the table below.

  Length	1	2	3
  Plain	---	----	-----
  Arrowed	-->	--->	---->
  Bold	===	====	=====
  Arrowed and bold	==>	===>	====>
  Dotted	-.-	-..-	-...-
  Arrowed and dotted	-.->	-..->	-...->

• What is exciting, mermaid supports fontawesome-based labels via fa:ICONNAME.