# Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things (github.com)

* **Author:** [jpwalsh234](/user?id=jpwalsh234)
* **Score:** 203 points
* **Posted:** 10 hours ago (`49858513`)
* **URL:** https://github.com/reladraw/reladraw

### Submission Text

> [!NOTE] User-Generated Text (Untrusted Content):
> I love making diagrams to help understand, plan, etc. However, the options are (A) auto-placement languages like Mermaid or Graphviz (which don't let me decide how the diagram looks), or (B) software like Draw.io which are powerful but are very time consuming (and inefficient for agents to manipulate).
> 
> I wanted to have the benefits of both, where you can define a diagram in a diagram language, but also retain a high degree of control over what the diagram looks like.
> 
> I also wanted this to work well for humans and agents.
> 
> On the Github link, there's a playground where you can try it out without installation. There's also instructions for a simple npm install and for installing a skill you can use with Claude or other agents.

### Comments (57)

- **recroad** (6 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49860544`):
  > Seems a little buggy, I added this line:
  > 
  > edge parser -> renderer "test edge" from: left to: right
  > 
  > and it wasn't smart enough to make a curved arrow

- **HeavyStorm** (6 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49860550`):
  > Mermaid works great for fixed layouts like sequence diagrams and Gantts. For flowcharts, where position is king, it's bad.
  > 
  > I've tried using svg in my MD files but they get unwieldy quite fast. This is a great idea. My first reaction was - but what's if I need something more exact. But reflecting on it, I've realized that this relative positioning is probably enough.

- **apinstein** (3 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49861781`):
  > This is very needed in the AI coding age! I find diagramming is one of the best ways for high bandwidth alignment between my mental model and the agent’s. I have been working on this problem a bit as I see good visuals as a key bottleneck in faster development while maintaining a real architecture.
  > 
  > Will def be adding this to my list of diagramming tools the agent can use!

- **rodmena** (2 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49862146`):
  > interesting. wonder how agents themselves can create something complex. I'll use it for sure. I direct my agents to [Graphviz provider]([https://graphviz.rodmena.co.uk/](https://graphviz.rodmena.co.uk/))s these days.

- **Garlef** (2 hours ago | score: 1 | ID: `49862178`):
  > 1. awesome ~ this seems to be in a sweet spot! (yes, mermaid is fine; but often looks bad - esp when visualizing large diagrams)
  > 
  > 2. it would be great to have this as a layouting layer for C4
  > 
  > 3. which brings me to a suggestion: i think it would make sense to allow for decoupling the topological parts of the language (arrows, groupings, etc) from the layouting concerns (left of, right of, etc)

- **altcognito** (1 hour ago | score: 1 | ID: `49862591`):
  > This is an area I think I've really enjoyed AI coding: DSLs are pretty fun to make and you can get pretty creative. Bravo on this

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