I use excalidraw to manage my diagrams for my blog
by mlysk on 3/30/2026, 7:17:06 AM
https://blog.lysk.tech/excalidraw-frame-export/
Comments
by: lnenad
I love diagramming, but I genuinely don't understand how people can use these wonky looking tools. It looks off, I had to make my own[1] to create something that's easy to use and looks good/normal.<p>[1] <a href="https://grafly.io" rel="nofollow">https://grafly.io</a>
3/30/2026, 9:47:00 AM
by: 1a527dd5
Huge fan of <a href="https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid</a>, not the prettiest things but enough to scratch the itch.
3/30/2026, 12:11:10 PM
by: agnishom
I want to write a blog whose posts will be all about the technical details of how the blog works.
3/30/2026, 11:55:09 AM
by: walthamstow
Excalidraw has proliferated quite widely in my company since we got Claude Code. Its a shame the default font is ugly, childish and inaccessible.
3/30/2026, 8:52:53 AM
by: jannesblobel
That fits perfectly with the idea that everything should actually be in the repository. At last, I no longer have to update the images myself. Thanks!
3/30/2026, 11:27:31 AM
by: Jnr
Cool, I did a similar thing last week.<p>I made a custom Payload CMS block that allows to create and update excalidraw diagrams within the CMS. It supports dark and light mode switching and rendering inline or as external SVG.<p>And last weekend I added MCP server with Oauth so I could generate and update those diagrams and add them to post drafts from Claude. I think it is more convenient since I don't have to use API billing model and don't need to build a custom UI.<p>Here is an example post: <a href="https://www.janhouse.lv/blog/network/self-hosting-tailscale-derp-headscale" rel="nofollow">https://www.janhouse.lv/blog/network/self-hosting-tailscale-...</a><p>Originally I wanted to sync posts from Obsidian but it doesn't have good enough image handling which I sometimes need and I needed extra metadata to unlist or password protect or noindex some posts.
3/30/2026, 9:29:32 AM
by: dewey
Everyone does that these days and they are becoming AI tells like the em-dash or the blue-glow of the early AI generated images that everyone added to their blog posts.
3/30/2026, 8:59:57 AM
by: darshanmakwana
I simply just draw in excalidraw and take a ss and past it in my obsidian note, I have a setup that automatically parses posts from my vault and then pushes them to my site
3/30/2026, 8:22:04 AM
by: wdroz
You can also bootstrap your initial schema with LLMs with the excalidraw MCP "app" [0]. But MCP "apps"[1] are quite new and not very well supported yet.<p>[0] -- <a href="https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw-mcp" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw-mcp</a><p>[1] -- <a href="https://modelcontextprotocol.io/extensions/apps/overview" rel="nofollow">https://modelcontextprotocol.io/extensions/apps/overview</a>
3/30/2026, 8:05:45 AM
by: subhobroto
Documentation often rots away because it's often decoupled from the code it describes.<p>I'm a huge fan of anything related to code that can I check into git, track its evolution and the thinking that went behind it. Why was Kubernetes chosen? Why was NATs chosen? Why are the topics named the way they are?<p>I am a huge fan of mermaid diagrams because it lets me check in my diagrams into git. I am a huge fan of mermaid diagrams because my code can generate diagrams that I (or they) can check into git - and this was before AI.<p>Now that AI can generate mermaid diagrams, people look at my Git repos and go "oh, you use AI a lot!" - then I point to my git history and they see it's from 2018.<p>I'm really happy that mermaid and related tools like Excalidraw are taking off - we have another chance at documentation being automated, uptodate and "fresh".
3/30/2026, 11:39:00 AM
by: palijer
Great article, should make sure to attribute xkcd comics though.<p><a href="https://xkcd.com/about/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/about/</a>
3/30/2026, 10:59:29 AM
by: gethly
Same. I started using it for Gethly blog. It's not perfect, some things make me crazy but overall it is better than draw.io that I used to use before. Excalidraw also has these great styles that just feel right :)
3/30/2026, 7:58:43 AM
by: emil-lp
Should be <i>Show HN</i>.<p>Now it reads like an ad for some extension to a program I've never heard about.
3/30/2026, 7:48:34 AM
by: d4rkp4ttern
Another option I use open is to ask the code-agent to make a diagram using Tikz (as a .tex file), which can then be converted to pdf/png.<p>But in general AI-diagramming is still unsolved; needs several iterations to get rid of wonky/wrong arrows, misplaced boxes, misplaced text etc.
3/30/2026, 11:10:54 AM
by: tobiu
nice one!
3/30/2026, 11:05:41 AM
by: johspaeth
Uh, that’s a nice approach.
3/30/2026, 11:50:16 AM