d2

d2 Plugin

Declarative diagram scripting language. Write diagrams as simple text and render to SVG, PNG, or PDF.

Commands

Compile

• d2 compile svg input.d2 output.svg — Compile to SVG
• d2 compile svg input.d2 output.svg --theme 1 --layout elk — With theme and layout
• d2 compile png input.d2 output.png --scale 2 — Compile to PNG at 2x resolution
• d2 compile pdf input.d2 output.pdf — Compile to PDF

Watch

• d2 watch start input.d2 — Watch file and recompile on changes

Options

• --theme 0-6 — Theme selection (0: Default, 1: Dark, 3: Terminal, etc.)
• --layout dagre|elk|tala — Layout engine
• --pad 100 — Padding in pixels
• --scale 1 — Canvas scale factor
• --bundle — Embed dependency icons as base64 URIs

Full Access

• d2 _ _ — Passthrough for advanced options

Usage Examples

• "Turn this architecture description into a diagram"
• "Generate a flowchart from my d2 file"
• "Create a network topology diagram as PNG"
• "Watch a d2 file and auto-recompile when I edit it"
• "Render this sequence diagram with dark theme"

Installation

curl -fsSL https://d2lang.com/install.sh | sh -s --

Key Features

• Text-based: Diagrams are plain text, version-controllable
• Multiple outputs: SVG, PNG, PDF
• Themes: Built-in themes including dark mode
• Layout engines: dagre (default), elk, tala
• Watch mode: Hot reload on file changes
• Custom fonts: Embed TTF fonts
• Non-interactive: All operations are one-shot CLI commands

Example .d2 File

backend -> database: queries
backend -> cache: reads
client -> backend: HTTP