Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#1

Post by ghosts_ » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 11:29 PM UTC

I've been slowly adding some new free tools to Moxie Docs (partly for SEO, partly to illustrate some of our feature sets before any commitment) for some reason this mermaid editor one blew up on Google rankings so I figured I'd share in case people find it useful! We also have ADR, AGENTS.md, LLMs, and a few other free tools.

Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor
moxiedocs.com

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#2

Post by nonethewiser » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 1:45 AM UTC

Probably because the official editor sucks after paywalling features and steering you into signing up.

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#3

Post by BLKNSLVR » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 1:58 AM UTC

Handy.

I've been (very loosely) trying to get AI to generate diagrams for a while, and even Copilot can't get Visio's file format correct enough to allow Visio to open it successfully.

This is a nice clean interface I can just paste attempts into. Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#4

Post by keithnz » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 2:53 AM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #3

Handy. I've been (very loosely) trying to get AI to generate diagrams for a while, and even Copilot can't get Visio's file format correct enough to allow Visio to open it successfully. This is a nice clean interface I can just paste attempts into. Thank you!

just get ai to generate mermaid, it's super competent at doing it, you don't really need any other tools.

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#5

Post by user3939382 » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 3:15 AM UTC

keithnz wrote: post #4

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #3

Handy. I've been (very loosely) trying to get AI to generate diagrams for a while, and even Copilot can't get Visio's file format correct enough to allow Visio to open it successfully. This is a nice clean interface I can just paste attempts into. Thank you!

just get ai to generate mermaid, it's super competent at doing it, you don't really need any other tools.

I’ve found that it can do it, but the aesthetics of the diagrams it generates are awful. I end up going back to manual Omnigraffle.

There is an art to designing the human to human communication aspect of diagrams that transcends which lines connect where.

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#6

Post by hackthemack » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 3:36 AM UTC

Question for mermaid users out there. I have not used mermaid more than just superficially looking at it but it looks to me like a re-implementation of graphviz? Which has been around forever. Is there something it does that makes it more appealing?

I am not knocking this Free Mermaid Diagram Editor either. Seems decent. But, similarly, edotor has been around forever.

https://edotor.net/

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#7

Post by stronglikedan » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:01 AM UTC

hackthemack wrote: post #6

Question for mermaid users out there. I have not used mermaid more than just superficially looking at it but it looks to me like a re-implementation of graphviz? Which has been around forever. Is there something it does that makes it more appealing? I am not knocking this Free Mermaid Diagram Editor either. Seems decent. But, similarly, edotor has been around forever. https://edotor.net/

Mermaid has become the de facto charting language when working with AI, so it has been elevated to the chosen one, like Python.

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#8

Post by thangalin » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 4:41 AM UTC

https://kroki.io/#try

Shout out to Kroki, which offers Mermaid and many other text-based diagramming formats.

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#9

Post by rdwrrr » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 5:50 AM UTC

Thanks for dropping this here. I have been frustrated for quite some time. I blindly followed the advice to learn some mermaid. Then I discovered that the ecosystem absolutely sucks.

Re: Show HN: Free Mermaid Diagram Editor

#10

Post by dTal » Wed, Jul 08, 2026, 10:07 AM UTC

hackthemack wrote: post #6

Question for mermaid users out there. I have not used mermaid more than just superficially looking at it but it looks to me like a re-implementation of graphviz? Which has been around forever. Is there something it does that makes it more appealing? I am not knocking this Free Mermaid Diagram Editor either. Seems decent. But, similarly, edotor has been around forever. https://edotor.net/

It does more types of charts, including Gantt charts. Very useful.