Create flows from templates, code, structured imports, or AI. Refine them visually, keep them local-first, and export as Cinematic MP4 walkthroughs — or drive everything from Claude / Cursor / Windsurf via our first-party MCP server.
→ Launch the App | Documentation | Website | Issues | Contribute
| ✨ Mermaid → Icons Paste Mermaid · 1,600+ icons auto-assigned · beautiful |
🤖 AI Generation 10 providers inc. local Ollama Direct-to-canvas output |
`{}` Diagram as Code Bidirectional live sync Git-friendly DSL |
🧩 Asset Libraries Developer · AWS · Azure GCP · CNCF · Icons |
🎬 Cinematic MP4 WebCodecs H.264 Faster-than-realtime |
| 🧷 Anchored Layout Pin nodes — auto-layout rearranges around them |
🪄 MCP Server Drive from Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf |
⚡ Worker Layout ELK runs off main thread UI stays responsive |
🦙 Local AI Ollama localhost preset fully offline diagramming |
♻️ Self-Correcting AI Bad DSL → AI sees its own output and repairs it |
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Every diagramming tool makes a compromise. OpenFlowKit doesn't.
| Tool | What's missing |
|---|---|
| Excalidraw / tldraw | Freeform whiteboards — no structured diagram types, no DSL, no code imports |
| Mermaid.js | Code-only — no visual canvas, no AI, no interactive editor |
| Draw.io | Decade-old UX — Limited AI integration, no developer import pipelines |
| Lucidchart / Miro | Cloud lock-in — expensive, account required, your data lives on their servers |
| PlantUML | Server-dependent rendering — no visual editor, no local-first model |
OpenFlowKit is the only MIT-licensed tool that combines a real workspace home, a professional visual canvas, bidirectional diagram-as-code, AI generation from 10 providers (including fully-local Ollama), automatic icon assignment from 1,600+ tech icons, anchored auto-layout, hardware-encoded cinematic MP4 export, and a Model Context Protocol server so Claude / Cursor / Windsurf can drive it directly — all with zero server-side storage.
| OpenFlowKit | Excalidraw | Draw.io | Mermaid | Lucidchart | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual canvas editor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Bidirectional diagram-as-code | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| AI generation (10 providers + Ollama) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | Limited |
| Mermaid import (8 types) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | |
| Auto-icon assignment (1,600+) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| AWS / Azure / GCP / CNCF icons | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Partial | ✅ |
| Anchored auto-layout (pin nodes) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Cinematic MP4 export (WebCodecs) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Figma export (editable SVG) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| No account required | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Open source (MIT) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Paste any Mermaid flowchart, architecture, state diagram, class diagram, ER diagram, sequence diagram, mindmap, or journey — all 8 diagram families. OpenFlowKit renders it on a visual canvas and automatically assigns the correct branded icon to every technology node.
flowchart TD
API[Express API] --> DB[(PostgreSQL)]
DB --> Cache[Redis Cache]
Cache --> Queue[RabbitMQ]
Paste this → you get the Express wordmark, PostgreSQL elephant, Redis logo, and RabbitMQ icon — all auto-detected, all beautifully laid out. No other tool does this.
1,600+ icons from developer, AWS, Azure, CNCF, and GCP catalogs are matched automatically based on node labels. No manual drag-and-drop. No configuration.
- Paste Mermaid on the canvas or in the code panel
- Semantic classifier detects technology names (PostgreSQL, Redis, Express, Lambda, etc.)
- Icon matcher searches 1,600+ icons across all catalogs — exact match, then alias, then substring
- Enricher assigns colors, icons, and provider SVGs to every node
- ELK layout arranges everything cleanly
npm run test:mermaidruns the broad Mermaid parser/plugin/round-trip gatenpm run test:mermaid:layoutruns the layout, import-state, and recovery corpus gatenpm run test:mermaid:goldruns both together
Describe your system in plain English. AI generates a diagram on the canvas with correct icons applied automatically.
| Prompt | Output |
|---|---|
| "Node.js API with PostgreSQL and Redis" | 3 nodes with correct icons |
| "AWS Lambda → SQS → DynamoDB" | 3 nodes with AWS icons |
| "React frontend → Express → MongoDB → S3" | 4 nodes across developer + AWS catalogs |
10 providers supported: Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Groq, Mistral, NVIDIA NIM, Cerebras, OpenRouter, Ollama (fully local), or any custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Bad DSL from any provider is now auto-repaired — the model sees its own broken output and the parser error, then returns corrected DSL in a single follow-up turn.
OpenFlowKit now treats the product as two clear surfaces:
- Home for creating, opening, duplicating, importing, and organizing flows
- Editor for actual canvas work once a real document exists
That means the app does not create a fake default flow just to get you onto the canvas. If you delete everything, your workspace can stay empty until you intentionally create the next flow.
Flowpilot sits directly in the editor. Describe a system, paste source code, upload a screenshot, or ask it to refine what's already on the canvas. Your API key is stored in your browser and sent directly to the provider — OpenFlowKit's servers never see it.
10 providers. Bring your own key. Switch any time. One runs entirely on your laptop.
| Provider | Default model | Why use it |
|---|---|---|
| 🦙 Ollama (local) | llama3.2 |
Fully offline. No key, no network, no cost. |
| Google Gemini | gemini-2.5-flash-lite |
Free tier available, fast, browser-safe |
| OpenAI | gpt-5-mini |
Best reasoning for complex architectures |
| Anthropic Claude | claude-sonnet-4-6 |
Excellent code and system understanding |
| Groq | meta-llama/llama-4-scout-17b-16e-instruct |
Fastest open-source inference available |
| Mistral | mistral-large-latest |
Strong European privacy-first alternative |
| NVIDIA NIM | meta/llama-4-maverick-17b-128e-instruct |
Enterprise GPU inference |
| Cerebras | gpt-oss-120b |
Ultra-fast on WSE-3 silicon |
| OpenRouter | google/gemini-2.5-pro |
Access 300+ models through one key |
| Custom endpoint | Any model | LM Studio, vLLM, or any OpenAI-compatible API |
No proxy. No middleman. Direct browser-to-provider requests.
Every diagram has a live code panel. Edit the canvas → code updates. Edit the code → canvas updates. Two-way, always in sync.
flowchart TB
client[React App] --> gateway[API Gateway]
gateway --> auth[Auth Service]
gateway --> orders[Orders Service]
orders --> db[(PostgreSQL)]
orders --> cache[(Redis)]
auth --> db
- Mermaid-compatible syntax — paste any Mermaid and it renders with auto-assigned icons
- Specify icons directly:
{ archProvider: "developer", archResourceType: "database-postgresql" } - Auto-icon resolution: nodes are enriched with the correct branded icon based on their label
- Export to Mermaid, PlantUML, or JSON
- Version snapshots — restore any previous state
Not a freeform whiteboard. Structured diagram types with opinionated defaults, correct relationship semantics, and purpose-built node styles.
- 🔷 Flowcharts — processes, decision trees, system flows
- ☁️ Architecture — AWS / Azure / GCP / CNCF cloud provider icons built in
- 🗄️ Entity-Relationship — typed fields, FK edges, one-to-many / many-to-many notation
- 📐 Class diagrams — UML with inheritance, composition, and interface relationships
↔️ Sequence diagrams — async messages, actors, and lifelines- 🧠 Mind maps — collapsible radial trees with auto-layout
- 🛤️ User journeys — steps, phases, and sentiment scoring
- ⚙️ State machines — transitions, guards, entry and exit actions
OpenFlowKit works best when you move between the right surfaces instead of forcing everything through one panel:
- Toolbar add menu for quick insert actions
- Command Center for templates, import, assets, search, layout, pages, layers, and design systems
- Studio for Flowpilot, Mermaid, OpenFlow DSL, infra parsing, and linting
- Properties panel for exact visual and metadata edits
Large diagrams also get better organization with multi-page documents, layers, sections, and local-first document recovery.
Turn any diagram into an animated video walkthrough — node by node, edge by edge — entirely in your browser. No upload, no server, no third-party tool.
Designed for architecture reviews, onboarding docs, and demos where a static image doesn't cut it.
No other open-source diagramming tool does this.
On modern browsers (Chrome / Edge / Safari 16.4+ / Firefox 130+) OpenFlowKit encodes via WebCodecs VideoEncoder + an in-browser MP4 muxer — H.264 baseline, hardware-accelerated, faster than real-time, deterministic frame timing. No more dropped frames under load. MediaRecorder remains a fallback for older browsers, so the feature is purely additive.
Point any MCP client at the @openflowkit/mcp-server package and your AI assistant gains provider-free diagramming tools. The client already has an LLM, so OpenFlowKit MCP supplies local validation, codebase analysis, templates, icon lookup, and viewer links instead of asking for another provider key.
{
"mcpServers": {
"openflowkit": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@openflowkit/mcp-server"]
}
}
}Then ask Claude: "Read the OpenFlowKit DSL cheatsheet, create a checkout flow with a promo-code branch and a Stripe webhook step, validate it, and create a viewer URL." The DSL comes back in seconds and stays editable in OpenFlowKit.
- 8 provider-free tools — validate DSL, create viewer URLs, analyze codebases, find icon slugs, fetch starter templates, and inspect capabilities
- 5 resources — DSL cheatsheet, template catalog, template bodies, full icon catalog, and per-provider icon catalogs
- 3 prompts — flowchart creation, Mermaid conversion, and codebase architecture, all using the client model
- Pure Node, zero infra cost — runs on the user's machine, ships via npm
Full setup, tool table, and workflow details in mcp-server/README.md.
Build your diagram once. Take it anywhere.
- 🎬 Cinematic WebM / MP4 — animated build walkthrough, browser-only, no upload required
- PNG / SVG — transparent background, pixel-perfect at any resolution
- PDF — print-ready, vector-crisp
- Mermaid — paste directly into GitHub READMEs, Notion, Confluence, Linear
- PlantUML — for enterprise toolchains and legacy integrations
- Figma — full editable SVG import with preserved layers
- JSON — complete round-trip import/export, no data loss
Local-first is the default. Your saved flows live in your browser's IndexedDB. Your AI keys stay on your device — every request goes directly from your browser to the provider you chose. Exports are explicit and run entirely client-side. No accounts, no telemetry, no server-side storage.
Real-time P2P collaboration over WebRTC exists in the codebase as an opt-in beta (set
VITE_COLLABORATION_ENABLED=true). It is off by default while we redesign the signaling path for production reliability — the local-first experience does not depend on it.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘ K / Ctrl K |
Command bar — search, import, layout, assets, and actions |
⌘ \ / Ctrl \ |
Toggle the live code panel |
⌘ Z / Ctrl Z |
Full undo with complete history |
⌘ D / Ctrl D |
Duplicate selection |
⌘ G / Ctrl G |
Group selected nodes |
P |
Pin / unpin selected nodes (anchored layout) |
⌘ / / Ctrl / |
Keyboard shortcuts reference |
Plus: smart alignment guides, snap-to-grid, multi-select, pages, layers, sections, architecture lint, light/dark/system theme, and full i18n in 7 languages.
Recently shipped (latest milestone):
- ✅ WebCodecs H.264 MP4 export — faster-than-realtime, hardware-accelerated, deterministic
- ✅ MCP server —
@openflowkit/mcp-serverfor Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, any MCP client - ✅ Anchored layout — pin nodes so auto-layout arranges around them
- ✅ Ollama provider — fully offline diagramming, no API key, no cost
- ✅ AI self-correction loop — bad DSL → AI sees its own output + parser error → returns corrected DSL
- ✅ ELK in a Web Worker — layout no longer blocks the UI thread
- ✅ Flowchart corpus 12 → 20 fixtures with explicit known-gap pinning
Current roadmap focus:
render_to_svgMCP tool — headless SVG render so AI clients can see the diagram, not just code- GIF export for cinematic animations — MP4 ships today; GIF export for zero-conversion embeds is next
- Mermaid family coverage — gantt, c4, timeline, gitGraph, sankey, quadrant (view + edit-as-code)
- Mac / Linux / Windows desktop app — Tauri shell wrapping the existing web app
- better layers and page workflows for larger technical diagrams
- smarter auto-layout defaults with less cleanup after import
- performance boosts for bigger canvases and heavier sessions
git clone https://github.com/Vrun-design/openflowkit.git
cd openflowkit
npm install
npm run devOpen http://localhost:5173. Done.
Zero environment variables required. AI provider keys are configured in the in-app settings panel at runtime — nothing goes in
.env.
OpenFlowKit is a pure static SPA. There is no backend. Deploy the dist/ folder anywhere that serves HTML.
Cloudflare Pages / Netlify / Vercel:
npm run build
# upload dist/ to your providerDocker:
docker build -t openflowkit .
docker run --rm -p 3045:3045 openflowkitOpen http://localhost:3045. The container serves the production build with nginx, SPA route fallback, long-lived caching for hashed assets, and the same security headers used by the static hosting path.
No database. No secrets. No infrastructure. One folder, or one container.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Framework | React 19 + TypeScript 5 |
| Build | Vite 6 |
| Canvas | React Flow (XYFlow) |
| Auto-layout | ELK.js — runs in a Web Worker, off the main thread |
| Video export | WebCodecs VideoEncoder + mp4-muxer (MediaRecorder fallback) |
| State | Zustand |
| Storage | IndexedDB — local-first, no backend |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS |
| Agent surface | @openflowkit/mcp-server — Model Context Protocol stdio |
| Collaboration | WebRTC P2P (opt-in, off by default) |
| i18n | react-i18next — 7 languages |
| Testing | Vitest + Playwright |
All contributions are welcome — bug fixes, new diagram types, parser improvements, translations, and documentation.
Start here:
npm run dev # development server at localhost:5173
npm run test # unit tests via Vitest
npm run test:e2e # end-to-end tests via Playwright
npm run lint # ESLint + TypeScript type-checkGood first issues are tagged good first issue. Before opening a PR, please read CONTRIBUTING.md.
OpenFlowKit is MIT licensed, locally hosted, and built in the open.
No cloud required. No account required. No lock-in.
| → Launch App | Docs | Website | Changelog |
| Bug Report | Feature Request | Contributing Guide | Security Policy |
If OpenFlowKit saves you time, the most impactful thing you can do is give it a star.
It helps other developers find the project.
React 19 · TypeScript 5 · Vite 6 · XYFlow · ELK.js (worker) · WebCodecs + mp4-muxer · MCP SDK · Zustand · Yjs · Framer Motion · Tailwind CSS · Cloudflare Pages
MIT Licensed · Local-first · No telemetry · No account · No server-side storage · No lock-in