Diagram Designdiagramdesign.dev 17k+ GitHub
DrawingEditorial diagrams
Runs onClaude Code · Codex · Pi
OutputHTML + inline SVG

Editorial diagrams
your designer won't hate.

44 diagram types, drawn by your coding agent as self-contained HTML + SVG, then brand-matched to your own site in about a minute. No Figma. No rounded-box slop.

Hit #1 on GitHub Trending 17k+ stars Open source · MIT
Fig. 01 · the skill, drawn by the skillexploded axonometric
From a sentence to a finished diagram Exploded view of how the diagram-design skill works: your prompt at the base, then SKILL.md picking one of 44 types, the type reference with layout and density rules as the focal layer, your style tokens, and a single HTML and SVG file on top. Your prompt “draw our deploy flow” SKILL.md picks 1 of 44 types Type reference layout and density rules Style tokens your brand, one accent HTML + SVG one file, no build step FIG. 01 · EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC 5 LAYERS · 1 ACCENT From a sentence to a finished diagram Exploded view of how the diagram-design skill works: your prompt at the base, then SKILL.md picking one of 44 types, the type reference with layout and density rules as the focal layer, your style tokens, and a single HTML and SVG file on top. Your prompt “draw our deploy flow” SKILL.md picks 1 of 44 types Type reference layout and density rules Style tokens your brand, one accent HTML + SVG one file, no build step FIG. 01 · EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC 5 LAYERS · 1 ACCENT
Fig. 00 · the skill at work17s · no sound

The model had the content.
It was missing the taste.

Same content, two passes: Claude on its own, then Claude with the skill.

Fig. 02aFirst pass · no skill
A first-pass lifecycle diagram from Claude with no skill: six identical white cards in a row with blue number badges, and a dark bar underneath reading AI plus Governance plus Humans.
Fig. 02bRedrawn with the skill
The same lifecycle redrawn with the skill: six stages from Idea to Run and Change, each with an Intent, Guardrail and Outcome row, Triage as the one highlighted stage, and an operating model strip underneath. The same lifecycle redrawn with the skill: six stages from Idea to Run and Change, each with an Intent, Guardrail and Outcome row, Triage as the one highlighted stage, and an operating model strip underneath.
  • One accent, not six. Color points at the single node that matters, nothing else.
  • Real hierarchy. Type weight and grouping carry the meaning, not a rainbow of fills.
  • Structure you can read. Every stage answers the same three questions: intent, guardrail, outcome. Read across a row and you see the whole system.

“The model already understood the content. What it was missing was taste, so I wrote the taste down.”

Cathryn Lavery · a generic tool asks “where should this box go?” This one asks “does this box deserve to exist?”

What you get

It runs inside the agent you already use. Nothing new to open, nothing to export.

44 visual types

Architecture, Sankey, heatmap, exploded axonometric, database schema and more. Each is a real type with its own rules, not one box style restyled 44 ways.

Brand-matched in ~60s

Point it at your site. It reads your colors and fonts and applies them to every diagram it draws.

Self-contained HTML + SVG

One file. Opens double-clicked, offline. No build step, no dashboard, nothing to host.

Imports draw.io, Mermaid & Excalidraw

Point it at a source and it redraws (not converts) at the size, detail and audience your destination needs.

Optional accessible motion

Diagrams can animate when it helps the explanation. Static is the default.

Accessible by default

Screen readers announce each diagram’s title and description, not a blank rectangle.

New: two axonometric types

One 2:1 projection, two jobs. Static by default, with animated examples.

Exploded axonometric

Parts of one object pulled apart along one axis: a teardown, an unboxing, assembly order. Every part sits at an equal gap, and every coordinate comes from one projection function.

Axonometric plan

One floor or site seen from above at an angle: rooms with furniture, buildings by phase. Walls are cut at desk height so every room reads from a single view.

Install

Start with the first card. Click any card to copy.

Any agent · Cursor and more
# one command, every skills host
npx skills add cathrynlavery/diagram-design
For Cursor, Cline, Gemini CLI, Windsurf and other skills hosts. Update with npx skills update diagram-design.
Claude Code
# add + install
/plugin marketplace add cathrynlavery/diagram-design
/plugin install diagram-design@diagram-design
Then enable auto-update once in /plugin → Marketplaces.
Codex
# add + install
codex plugin marketplace add cathrynlavery/diagram-design
codex plugin add diagram-design@diagram-design
Codex refreshes Git marketplaces at startup.
Pi
# install from GitHub
pi install https://github.com/cathrynlavery/diagram-design
Run /reload in an open Pi session.
GitHub Copilot
# add + install
copilot plugin marketplace add cathrynlavery/diagram-design
copilot plugin install diagram-design@diagram-design
Confirm with copilot skill list, then ask for a diagram.
Factory Droid
# add + install
droid plugin marketplace add https://github.com/cathrynlavery/diagram-design
droid plugin install diagram-design@diagram-design --scope user
Droid tracks updates by commit. Start a new session after updating.

Kiro and OpenCode take the skills/diagram-design folder directly, see the README. Editable install? git clone the repo and symlink skills/diagram-design. Saved profiles in ~/.diagram-design/profiles/ survive updates.

Then just ask

Describe what you want in a sentence. No syntax, no config.

  • >_“Make me an architecture diagram of my app: frontend, backend, database, Redis cache.”
  • >_“I need a quadrant of Q2 projects by impact vs effort.”
  • >_“onboard diagram-design to https://yoursite.com”
  • >_“redraw this .drawio file for my deck.”
# copy a scaffold and edit
cp skills/diagram-design/assets/template.html my-diagram.html
Fig. 03 · one turnno syntax · one file
agent session
> make me an architecture diagram of my app
  reads your brand · picks type: architecture
  states the plan, then draws
wrote architecture.html  one file, opens offline