documd visuals
Routing for every diagram, chart, card and layout this document pipeline can render.
Iron rules
- Allowed fences —
plantuml/puml·dot·vega·vega-lite·echarts·infographic, plus bare HTML — which is how system architecture diagrams, cards and page layouts are drawn. - Not recommended:
mermaid·canvas·drawio. Never write new content in them — use the engines above. - One diagram per fence. Do not put two engines in one block, and never nest fences.
- HTML is bare, never
```html— a fenced block becomes an image. Start from a real file rather than inventing one:layered-with-wings.mdfor a system,executive-brief-summary.mdfor a card. - Inline the data.
vega/vega-lite/echartsmust carry their ownvalues/seriesdata; external URLs are unreliable on the export path. - State the reading in the copy. Every figure answers one question — put that question in the
surrounding prose or the block's
title. - Pick a theme, then colour from it. Colours come from one of the themes indexed in
styles/palette.md; copy that theme's block for your engine and take every value from it — a hex picked by hand, or two themes in one figure, is a bug. Charts pass the categorical ramp in order; cards use one accent plus neutrals.
Route by goal
Find the reader's goal, open the goal guide, pick an example. Engines are suggestions; the guide and examples are authoritative.
A — data & metrics
| Goal | Trigger keywords | Engines | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| service-reliability | latency · p95/p99 · SLO · SLA · error budget · burn rate · availability · uptime · reliability | echarts vega infographic | goals/service-reliability.md |
| ops-monitoring | incident load · alert volume · outliers · anomalies · service scorecard · support volume | echarts vega infographic | goals/ops-monitoring.md |
| delivery-throughput | throughput · cycle time · lead time · velocity · capacity · staffing · backlog · WIP · rank movement | echarts vega infographic | goals/delivery-throughput.md |
| goal-and-status-reporting | OKR · KPI · target vs actual · goal attainment · status board · dashboard · scorecard | echarts vega infographic html-css | goals/goal-and-status-reporting.md |
| product-metrics | conversion · funnel · adoption · retention · churn · activation · signup · cohorts · experiment | echarts infographic | goals/product-metrics.md |
| business-reporting | quarterly results · revenue · ARR · revenue mix · margin · periodic results · forecast | infographic vega echarts | goals/business-reporting.md |
| go-to-market | pipeline · channel · partner · partner tiers · market entry · sales funnel · SWOT · campaigns | echarts infographic | goals/go-to-market.md |
| cost-and-budget | cost · spend · budget · cloud bill · savings · cost reduction · capex · unit economics | echarts infographic vega | goals/cost-and-budget.md |
| data-exploration | correlation · distribution · regression · outlier detection · missing data · small multiples · density | vega echarts | goals/data-exploration.md |
B — process & systems
| Goal | Trigger keywords | Engines | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| engineering-operations | standup · sprint ritual · team rhythm · on-call · coverage · shift handover · deploy cadence · checklist | infographic vega echarts | goals/engineering-operations.md |
| incident-management | incident · postmortem · escalation · triage · runbook · change request · launch readiness · review | infographic echarts html-css | goals/incident-management.md |
| process-and-workflow | approval · workflow · swimlane · SOP · process map · BPMN · gate · procurement | plantuml infographic | goals/process-and-workflow.md |
| software-design | class · domain model · component · package · layering · use case · object · C4 container · SysML | plantuml | goals/software-design.md |
| software-behaviour | state machine · lifecycle · sequence · interaction · messaging · event flow · EIP · deployment | plantuml | goals/software-behaviour.md |
| dependencies-and-relations | dependency · call graph · impact analysis · coupling · ownership · causality · fishbone | dot vega echarts infographic | goals/dependencies-and-relations.md |
| system-architecture | system architecture · layer stack · zones · pipeline stages · service catalog · request path · connectors | html-css | goals/system-architecture.md |
C — infrastructure & governance
| Goal | Trigger keywords | Engines | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| cloud-architecture | AWS · Azure · Kubernetes · container · serverless · IoT · edge · VPC · observability | plantuml infographic | goals/cloud-architecture.md |
| data-platform | ETL · lakehouse · warehouse · CDC · streaming · ingestion · catalog · ML pipeline · ER model | plantuml | goals/data-platform.md |
| network-topology | network · topology · DMZ · wireless · firewall · switch · packet · route · traffic | plantuml dot echarts | goals/network-topology.md |
| security-and-compliance | zero trust · IAM · encryption · threat model · trust boundary · controls · evidence · audit · compliance · risk | plantuml infographic html-css | goals/security-and-compliance.md |
| enterprise-architecture | ArchiMate · capability map · value stream · stakeholder map · business architecture | plantuml infographic | goals/enterprise-architecture.md |
| organization-and-roles | org chart · reporting line · workforce · capability coverage · capability maturity · handoffs · responsibilities | infographic vega echarts html-css | goals/organization-and-roles.md |
| people-and-hiring | hiring · headcount plan · interview loop · onboarding · career ladder · certifications · progression | infographic | goals/people-and-hiring.md |
D — knowledge & expression
| Goal | Trigger keywords | Engines | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| knowledge-and-outline | mind map · outline · knowledge map · concept map · topics · word cloud | plantuml infographic vega echarts | goals/knowledge-and-outline.md |
| planning-and-roadmap | roadmap · milestone · timeline · Gantt · quarterly plan · release schedule · strategy focus | infographic vega plantuml html-css | goals/planning-and-roadmap.md |
| migration-and-rollout | migration · cutover · rollout waves · phased delivery · programme · work breakdown | plantuml infographic | goals/migration-and-rollout.md |
| comparison-and-selection | compare · versus · build or buy · decision record · quadrant · vendor selection · trade-off · priority | infographic html-css | goals/comparison-and-selection.md |
| internal-documents | memo · brief · charter · abstract · policy · quote · principles | html-css infographic | goals/internal-documents.md |
| catalogues-and-inventories | catalogue · inventory · entitlements · offerings · standard tools · support tiers | infographic | goals/catalogues-and-inventories.md |
| customer-and-partner-comms | customer story · case study · sales brief · bulletin · announcement · partner brief · education module | html-css | goals/customer-and-partner-comms.md |
| theme-and-tone | print · photocopy · handout · low vision · large print · colour-blind · slide · projected · long-form | infographic dot echarts plantuml | goals/theme-and-tone.md |
Engine cheat sheet
| Engine | Reach for it when | Look elsewhere when |
|---|---|---|
plantuml | UML/ArchiMate/BPMN semantics or brand and device icons (9,514 stencils) | The layout should be computed (dot), or it is a chart |
dot | A relationship graph should lay itself out: dependencies, causality, hierarchy, state machines | Icons or UML semantics matter |
vega / vega-lite | The data needs work first — join, window, fold, regression, density, facets, small multiples | One polished chart with heavy styling (echarts) |
echarts | Report-grade chart or KPI dashboard: axes, series, thresholds, annotations, gauges | The data must be transformed first |
infographic | A designed-looking board: roadmap, timeline, checklist, comparison, quadrant, knowledge map | Axes, several series or statistical shapes (echarts) |
| HTML/CSS | Cards, memos, overviews, page-level layouts | Another engine already renders that diagram |
Details, limits and pitfalls: plantuml · dot ·
echarts · vega · infographic ·
html-css.
Capability boundaries
These are not possible; pick the fallback instead of retrying.
| Want | Fallback |
|---|---|
3D / globe / WebGL charts (no echarts-gl) | 2D echarts; scatter/graph for shape |
| Geographic maps (no bundled map data, no GeoJSON offline) | schematic dot layout, or an HTML/CSS region diagram |
dataset.transform in ECharts (throws RangeError in 6.1.0) | sort and derive upstream, then dataset.source |
Functions in an echarts option (parsed as JSON) | template strings ("{c}%"), per-item label objects |
External data or images (data.url, remote URLs) | inline values, data URLs |
| PlantUML WBS / Salt / Timing / ditaa / JSON / YAML / EBNF / nwdiag / SDL / math (parse, draw nothing useful) | @startmindmap, dot tree, HTML/CSS mockups, or a code fence |
| Interactive charts (tooltip, zoom, brush) | annotate directly: labels, thresholds, callouts |
Icons in dot / vega / echarts | plantuml stencils |
Free-form positioning in infographic | HTML/CSS for pixel control |
Converting a document
The documd CLI does three things the host application cannot: convert a document or a diagram
source to a file, extract its figures as image files to look at (--assets ./figures), and
verify — rendering is the only way to prove a block draws; every failure comes back with its engine
and markdown line, and the run exits 1. Nothing to install:
npx @markdown-viewer/documd in.md out.docx (.pdf · .epub · .html, diagram.puml out.png).
⚠️ Use the scope: bare documd on npm is a different package. Flags, formats and export
behaviour: converting.md.
When a block does not render
- Fence in the allowed list? Exactly one block per figure?
- Is it a listed anti-pattern in that engine's reference (see Engine cheat sheet) — or strict
syntax (JSON for
echarts/vega, no empty lines in bare HTML)? - Then switch to the alternative engine named in the goal guide; most scenarios have two implementations.
- Or verify by rendering:
npx @markdown-viewer/documd file.md --assets /tmp/figs.
Where everything lives
catalog/scenarios.md indexes every scenario with its domain, engines, tier and
example path — start there; then goals/<domain>.md, engines/<engine>.md, examples/<domain>/<file>.md.