mermaid-ascii-diagrams 0.1.0

Render Mermaid diagrams to ASCII/Unicode art

mermaid-ascii-diagrams

Render Mermaid diagrams as ASCII art for terminals, plain-text documentation, emails, and environments where graphical rendering is not available.

This tool extracts Mermaid blocks from Markdown and converts them into readable ASCII diagrams.

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Features

• Converts Mermaid diagrams to plain ASCII
• Works in terminals and text-only environments
• CLI-first design
• Safe to use in CI, docs pipelines, and code reviews
• No JavaScript, no browser required

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Installation

pip install mermaid-ascii-diagrams

Requires Python 3.9+.

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Command-line usage

Basic usage

mermaid-ascii diagram.md

This will:

• Read diagram.md
• Find all fenced ```mermaid blocks
• Render each diagram as ASCII
• Print the result to stdout

Redirect output

mermaid-ascii diagram.md > diagram.txt

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Example

Input (Markdown)

```mermaid
flowchart TD
    A[Start] --> B{Decision}
    B -->|Yes| C[Continue]
    B -->|No| D[Stop]
```

Output (ASCII)

+--------+     +------------+
| Start  | --> | Decision ? |
+--------+     +------------+
                   |    |
                 Yes    No
                   |    |
          +---------+  +------+
          | Continue|  | Stop |
          +---------+  +------+

(Exact output depends on terminal width and diagram complexity.)

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Supported diagram types

Currently supported or in progress:

• Flowcharts
• Sequence diagrams
• Class diagrams
• State diagrams

Unsupported constructs are ignored gracefully.

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Python usage

You can also use the renderer programmatically:

from mermaid_ascii import render

ascii_diagram = render("""
flowchart LR
  A --> B
""")

print(ascii_diagram)

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Project status

This project is actively developed and focused on:

• Correct ASCII layout
• Predictable rendering
• Minimal dependencies
• Mermaid syntax compatibility

Expect improvements rather than breaking changes.

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License

MIT License
Copyright © 2025

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

If you’re adding:

• New diagram types
• Layout improvements
• CLI features

please include before/after ASCII output examples.

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Why this exists

Mermaid is excellent — but not every environment can render SVGs or HTML.

mermaid-ascii-diagrams exists so diagrams remain readable everywhere.