oxdraw
Dev tools
diagramming
SHOW HN2025
266points
60comments
#212of 3,837 in 2025
Top 6%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
13 positive, 11 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 4 critical, out of 29 comments about the project. Thread score +0.32.
Idea: 8 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fills a real need for customizable layouts in diagram-as-code
From 4 comments
Great job on the releasing the project; it definitely solves a need of being able to use declarative syntax for defining the relationships, and then customizing the layout which…
gurjeet on HNIt's definitely much needed. I use PlantUML for most diagramming but for anything with more than about 5 components in it I'm spending 20-30% of my time desperately trying to…
zmmmmm on HNVery cool idea, this is exactly what I'm missing from mermaid. Thanks for sharing this!
dixtel on HNThis looks really cool! Next diagram is getting this treatment!
parentheses on HN
Useful for editing LLM-generated diagrams interactively
From 2 comments
Great project, I've been generating diagrams with llm for a while, and I often struggle to refine layout through the model. But now I can interactively make changes to the…
liqilin1567 on HNThis is awesome. I was looking for exactly this last week. A tool I could prompt AI to come up with an architecture and then be able to pick up manually, but visually not editing…
eagleinparadise on HN
Objections
Not rendered natively on GitHub, unlike Mermaid's support
From 1 comment
D2 is better, but it's not supported by GitHub. Go where your users are.
malnourish on HN
No license file in the repository
From 1 comment
Great job on the releasing the project; it definitely solves a need of being able to use declarative syntax for defining the relationships, and then customizing the layout which…
gurjeet on HN
Cannot create a new diagram from an empty file in the GUI
From 1 comment
I might be missing something but it seems to only be able to edit and work with existing mmd and svg files? If I do "touch flow.mmd" then run oxdraw to edit the file, it doesn't…
hk1337 on HN
Requests
Embeddable component such as a React component
From 1 comment
Is this embeddable, eg, a react component that can be hooked into? The lack of this has been a sticking point making us lean to dropping mermaid, so very cool to see!
lmeyerov on HN
Add node and initialize diagram in the GUI
From 2 comments
Thank you! Very cool. I don't see a button for it (on mobile currently, and will check thoroughly at my computer) -- is there a button to add a node? Another feature I've always…
benblu on HNI might be missing something but it seems to only be able to edit and work with existing mmd and svg files? If I do "touch flow.mmd" then run oxdraw to edit the file, it doesn't…
hk1337 on HN
Support PlantUML or D2 syntax
From 2 comments
Great project! You chose to base on Mermaid.js and that is indeed the most popular declarative diagramming library right now. A more versatile declarative diagramming approach is…
rapnie on HNI use PlantUML because it renders in GitLab's markdown, including wikis, MD docs and even PR comments. However, I have to use Mermaid for projects hosted on GitHub. The hassle of…
Anduia on HN
Hover popups or nested diagrams
From 1 comment
This looks like a very promising project, I have been looking for exactly this. One feature I would love to see a declarative diagramming solution would support is a hover pop-up…
vanilla on HN
Questions
What is the advantage over having an LLM write Mermaid directly?
From 1 comment
Looks pretty neat, what's the advantage over LLM to mermaid?
3abiton on HN
How does this compare to tldraw?
From 1 comment
isint tldraw an alternative to this
dackdel on HN
Alternatives named
D2
From 1 comment
Great project! You chose to base on Mermaid.js and that is indeed the most popular declarative diagramming library right now. A more versatile declarative diagramming approach is…
rapnie on HN
PlantUML
From 1 comment
I really wish PlantUML would just solve this jarring problem.
plmpsu on HN
Mermaid
From 1 comment
I’ve long had the stance that mermaids killer feature is that GitHub supports it natively. Ultimately for engineers having rendering at the place where they do the vast majority…
SOLAR_FIELDS on HN
Ilograph
From 1 comment
ilograph [0] has these features. I think it should be possible with SVG only. The main use-case would be for documentation sites. [0] https://www.ilograph.com/features.html
vanilla on HN
Graphviz
From 1 comment
It’s like dot on steroids? Variables and cleaner syntax, but similar premises? https://graphviz.org/doc/info/lang.html
misiek08 on HN
mermaid-to-excalidraw
From 1 comment
Wonderful project. There's also mermaidjs to excalidraw https://github.com/excalidraw/mermaid-to-excalidraw
anorak27 on HN