name: beautiful-mermaid description: Render Mermaid diagrams as ASCII/Unicode art for terminal display or as SVG files. Use when visualizing flowcharts, state machines, sequence diagrams, class diagrams, or ER diagrams. Supports 17 themes (including vellum, tokyo-night, catppuccin, nord, dracula, github) plus custom colors via --colors JSON. user-invocable: false
Beautiful Mermaid
Render Mermaid diagrams as ASCII/Unicode art (for terminal) or SVG (for files).
Quick Start
# Render ASCII diagram to terminal
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs "graph LR; A-->B-->C"
# Output:
# ┌───┐ ┌───┐ ┌───┐
# │ A │────►│ B │────►│ C │
# └───┘ └───┘ └───┘
Usage
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs [options] [input]
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-f, --format TYPE |
Output format: ascii (default) or svg |
-t, --theme NAME |
Theme for SVG output (default: zinc-dark) |
--colors JSON |
Custom colors as JSON: {"bg":"#hex","fg":"#hex","accent":"#hex","line":"#hex","muted":"#hex"}. Mutually exclusive with --theme. |
--transparent |
Transparent SVG background (for inlining into themed pages) |
-o, --output FILE |
Write to file instead of stdout |
--ascii |
Use pure ASCII instead of Unicode box-drawing |
--themes |
List available themes |
-h, --help |
Show help |
Input Sources
- Inline:
mermaid.mjs "graph TD; A-->B" - File:
mermaid.mjs diagram.mmd - Stdin:
echo "graph LR; A-->B" | mermaid.mjs -
Examples
ASCII Output (Terminal)
# Flowchart with Unicode box-drawing (default)
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs "graph TD; Start-->Process-->End"
# Pure ASCII for maximum compatibility
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs --ascii "graph LR; A-->B"
SVG Output (Files)
# Create SVG with tokyo-night theme
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs -f svg -t tokyo-night "graph TD; A-->B" -o diagram.svg
# Sequence diagram
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs -f svg -t catppuccin-mocha "sequenceDiagram
Alice->>Bob: Hello
Bob-->>Alice: Hi!" -o sequence.svg
Supported Diagram Types
| Type | Syntax |
|---|---|
| Flowchart | graph TD/LR/BT/RL or flowchart TD/LR/BT/RL |
| State | stateDiagram-v2 |
| Sequence | sequenceDiagram |
| Class | classDiagram |
| ER | erDiagram |
Available Themes (17)
Dark themes: zinc-dark, tokyo-night, tokyo-night-storm, catppuccin-mocha, nord, dracula, github-dark, solarized-dark, one-dark, blueprint-dark*
Light themes: zinc-light, tokyo-night-light, catppuccin-latte, nord-light, github-light, solarized-light, vellum*
* = local theme extension (defined in CLI wrapper, not upstream package)
List themes: node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs --themes
When to Use
- Architecture diagrams — Visualize system components directly in conversation
- Data flows — Show how data moves through a system
- State machines — Document application states and transitions
- Sequence diagrams — Illustrate API interactions and message flows
- Class diagrams — Document object relationships
- ER diagrams — Database schema visualization
- Documentation — Export SVG for README files and docs
Cross-Skill Integration
Other skills invoke beautiful-mermaid to generate themed diagrams matching their visual identity. Standard pattern:
# Named theme
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs \
-f svg -t vellum --transparent -o diagram.svg "graph TD; A-->B-->C"
# Custom colors (for project-specific palettes)
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs \
-f svg --colors '{"bg":"#1a1b26","fg":"#a9b1d6","accent":"#7aa2f7"}' \
-o diagram.svg "graph TD; A-->B-->C"
# ASCII for markdown output (planning, design briefs)
printf 'graph TD\n A --> B --> C' | \
node ~/.claude/skills/beautiful-mermaid/scripts/mermaid.mjs -
Theme mapping for consuming skills:
| Skill | Theme | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| vellum-editorial | vellum |
Cream/ink/copper; use --transparent for inline SVGs |
| Dark slide decks | blueprint-dark |
Cyan-on-navy for technical presentations |
| minoan-frontend-design | --colors |
Extract hex from project's DESIGN.md tokens |
| design-md | github-light |
Neutral light theme for token documentation |
| shape | ASCII mode | Append decision flows to .design-context.md |