Kroki provides a unified API with support for BlockDiag (BlockDiag, SeqDiag, ActDiag, NwDiag, PacketDiag, RackDiag), BPMN, Bytefield, C4 (with PlantUML), D2, DBML, Diagrams.net (experimental), Ditaa, Erd, Excalidraw, GraphViz, Mermaid, Nomnoml, Pikchr, PlantUML, SvgBob, UMLet, Vega, Vega-Lite, WaveDrom and WireViz…​ and more to come!
Quickstart
This section offers a basic tutorial for evaluating Kroki. More comprehensive installation instructions are in the Kroki documentation.
Usage
Kroki uses a simple algorithm (deflate + base64) to encode your diagram in the URL:
GET /plantuml/svg/SyfFKj2rKt3CoKnELR1Io4ZDoSa70000
You can also call Kroki with POST
:
POST /
{
"diagram_source": "Bob -> Alice : hello",
"diagram_type": "plantuml",
"output_format": "svg"
}
In this case, you don’t need to encode your diagram.
It’s also possible to send your diagram as plain text using the Content-Type
header.
The output format will be specified using the Accept
header and the diagram source will be sent as the request body:
POST /plantuml
Accept: image/svg+xml
Content-Type: text/plain
Bob -> Alice : hello
You can also define the output format in the URL if you don’t want to add an Accept
header:
POST /plantuml/svg
Content-Type: text/plain
Bob -> Alice : hello
The same concept applies when sending the diagram as JSON:
POST /plantuml/svg
{
"diagram_source": "Bob -> Alice : hello"
}
Project layout
Kroki has a modular architecture:
- server
-
A Java web server (powered by Vert.x) that acts as a gateway. Kroki server is built using Maven.
- umlet
-
A tiny Java API on top of UMlet (mini) to generate diagrams.
- nomnoml
-
A Node.js CLI on top of the Nomnoml diagram library.
- vega
-
A Node.js CLI on top of the vega diagram library. Also supports Vega-Lite concise grammar.
- blockdiag
-
A companion web server written in Python (powered by Flask and Gunicorn) that provides BlockDiag, SeqDiag, ActDiag, NwDiag, PacketDiag and RackDiag diagrams libraries.
- mermaid
-
A companion web server written in JavaScript (powered by micro) that provides Mermaid diagram library.
- bpmn
-
A companion web server written in JavaScript (powered by micro) that provides bpmn-js diagram library.
- bytefield
-
A Node.js CLI on top of the bytefield-svg diagram library.
- wavedrom
-
A Node.js CLI on top of the wavedrom diagram library.
- excalidraw
-
A companion web server written in JavaScript (powered by micro) that provides Excalidraw.
- diagrams.net
-
A companion web server written in JavaScript (powered by micro) that provides diagrams.net.
- wireviz
-
A companion web server written in Python (powered by Flask and Gunicorn) that provides WireViz.
Build
Gateway Server
The first step is to build the project using Maven:
$ make buildServer
Docker Images
To build all the Docker images, use the following command:
$ sudo make buildDockerImages
Note
|
sudo might not be needed depending on your distribution and docker configuration.
|
Run
Once the Docker images are built, you can run Kroki using docker
:
$ docker run -d -p 8000:8000 yuzutech/kroki
Companion Containers
If you want to use one of the following diagram libraries then you will also need to start the corresponding companion container:
- yuzutech/kroki-blockdiag
-
BlockDiag, ActDiag, NwDiag, SeqDiag, PacketDiag, RackDiag
- yuzutech/kroki-mermaid
-
Mermaid
- yuzutech/kroki-bpmn
-
BPMN
- yuzutech/kroki-excalidraw
-
Excalidraw
- yuzutech/kroki-diagramsnet (experimental)
-
diagrams.net
- yuzutech/kroki-wireviz
-
WireViz
You can use docker-compose
to run multiple containers:
version: "3"
services:
core:
image: yuzutech/kroki
environment:
- KROKI_BLOCKDIAG_HOST=blockdiag
- KROKI_MERMAID_HOST=mermaid
- KROKI_BPMN_HOST=bpmn
- KROKI_EXCALIDRAW_HOST=excalidraw
- KROKI_WIREVIZ_HOST=wireviz
ports:
- "8000:8000"
blockdiag:
image: yuzutech/kroki-blockdiag
expose:
- "8001"
mermaid:
image: yuzutech/kroki-mermaid
expose:
- "8002"
bpmn:
image: yuzutech/kroki-bpmn
expose:
- "8003"
excalidraw:
image: yuzutech/kroki-excalidraw
expose:
- "8004"
# experimental!
diagramsnet:
image: yuzutech/kroki-diagramsnet
expose:
- "8005"
wireviz:
image: yuzutech/kroki-wireviz
ports:
- "8006:8006"
$ docker-compose up -d