silco 0.1.0

Microkernel-based Python toolkit for system diagrams, SVG rendering, and plugin-driven exports

SILCO (System Illustration & Layout Composer)

Silco is a Python-first diagram toolkit built around a small microkernel. The core owns the document model, layout contracts, and plugin registry; renderers, styles, and presenters plug into that kernel. The default SVG renderer now uses the diagrams package with C4-flavored Graphviz output so the generated diagrams read like real system design documentation instead of custom-drawn boxes.

from silco import diagram

d = (
    diagram("Checkout")
    .node("user", "User", kind="actor")
    .node("api", "API", kind="service", group="app")
    .node("db", "Orders DB", kind="database", group="data")
    .connect("user", "api", "HTTPS")
    .connect("api", "db", "SQL")
)

svg = d.to_svg(style="modern")

Runtime requirement: Graphviz must be installed and dot must be on PATH.

Built-ins are registered through the kernel on import. Styles, layouts, and optional renderers stay discoverable:

from silco import kernel

kernel.names("layouts")      # ("dag", "grid")
kernel.names("renderers")    # ("svg", "mermaid", ...)
kernel.names("styles")       # ("modern", "uml")
kernel.discover()            # optional plugin discovery

Render the same diagram in different ways:

svg = d.to_svg(style="uml", layout="dag", title=True)
mermaid = d.to_mermaid()

In IPython/Jupyter:

%load_ext silco.plugins.ipython
d

Export as PDF with the optional CairoSVG-backed renderer plugin:

pip install "silco[pdf]"

d.save_pdf("checkout.pdf")
pdf_bytes = d.to_pdf()

Plugin categories:

kernel.categories()
kernel.names("renderers")
kernel.names("presenters")