‘Kroki’ – create technology diagrams by providing simple text

Posted on by IE Contributor

Kroki transforms infrastructure, software systems, workflow models, and architecture diagrams into text-driven, reproducible assets. This makes it invaluable for:

  • Cloud architects
  • DevOps engineers
  • Technical documentation teams
  • Software designers
  • Research & academia

By treating diagrams as code, Kroki helps ensure accuracy, consistency, automation, and maintainability across technical documentation pipelines.

Kroki is an open-source diagram rendering service that converts text-based diagram descriptions into visual diagrams (PNG, SVG, PDF). Instead of manually drawing diagrams using drag-and-drop tools, Kroki allows engineers, architects, and technical writers to express diagrams as code, making them:

  • Version-controllable
  • Reproducible
  • Automatable
  • Readable and reviewable in code repositories (Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)

Kroki acts as a unified rendering API layer that integrates multiple diagramming engines under one endpoint. This removes the need to install multiple diagram tools locally.

How Kroki Works (Technical Architecture)

       +--------------------+
       | Client (User, CI/CD)|
       +---------+----------+
                 |
                 | HTTP POST/GET (text diagram syntax)
                 v
       +--------------------+
       |      Kroki API     |
       +---------+----------+
                 |
   Route to appropriate diagram engine
                 |
 +---------------+--------------------------------------+
 |         |         |         |          |             |
 v         v         v         v          v             v

PlantUML Mermaid GraphViz BPMN.io D2 Engine Many More…
(Sequence (Flow, (Graphs, (BPMN (Infra (50+ diagram
& Arch) Gantt) Trees) Workflows) diagrams) tools)

Workflow

Write diagram description in a supported language (e.g., Mermaid, PlantUML).

Send the text to Kroki via HTTP request or integrate via docs tools like Asciidoc or Markdown.

Kroki selects the correct rendering backend.

Result returned as SVG/PNG/PDF.

Supported Diagram Types

Kroki supports 50+ diagram formats, including:

CategoryExamplesArchitecture / SystemsPlantUML, Mermaid, C4-PlantUML, D2Infrastructure & CloudDiagrams.net, GraphViz, D2Workflow / BusinessBPMN, Flowchart, State MachineDatabaseERD (Entity Relationship)Network TopologyGraphViz, Mermaid, PlantUML DeploymentUI / UXWireViz, WaveDrom

Integration Points

EnvironmentMethodGitHub / GitLab / BitbucketEmbed generated diagrams in MarkdownConfluence / WikiInsert rendered SVG URLsCI/CDAuto-generate architectural docs from codeDocumentation GeneratorsAsciidoc, MkDocs, Docusaurus

Kroki!