Introducing Mermaid diagrams

Part of what can make good documentation great is appropriate visuals, including charts, screenshots, and diagrams.

I often find myself thinking visually and naturally find myself drawn to communicating visually as a result. I have many vivid memories of systems analysis and design classes, spending hours in diagramming tools trying to design a “perfect” layout or wrangle little connectors. Invariably, I’d spend hours on small diagram quirks and focus far more on the presentation than the diagram’s content.

In many cases, when diagram software is used, not only do teams spend extra time unnecessarily on minor details but the people who later need to edit the diagram can’t update it because they lack the tools, licenses, or training needed to modify the files.

Mermaid diagrams avoid these problems by taking a different approach.

Mermaid diagrams use a specialized text-based format that doesn’t require...