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Reladraw

A diagram language where you decide where to place things

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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.

HN · launched Sep 26, 2026 · 407 upvotes (top 1%) · 1 view

Niche: diagramming and flowchart tools · 116 launches, 6 in the last 7 days ▼ -50% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 116 launches in diagramming and flowchart tools →

Could you build this?

Yes Building a custom DSL parser and renderer that positions diagram nodes based on explicit coordinates or relative constraints is a well-scoped project an AI assistant can build quickly with web technologies (e.g., SVG, Canvas, or React Flow).

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: Mermaid, D2, tikz

Concerns raised: Dependency on Node runtime, Need for a whole new language vs extending Mermaid, Bug with arrow curvature on specific edge placements

Feature requests: Output calculated positions as JSON via CLI, Edges drawn with right angles, Decouple layout engine from bundled renderer, Implement tikz-like syntax without LaTeX

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 121 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #4 of 122 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 330 days after the earliest competitor.

Related data

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.