Reladraw
Ranked 2 of 11 diagram tools by recommenders
People recommend it as diagram-as-code where you specify relative positions instead of exact coordinates. Critics mention bugs and an LLM-generated README.
People recommend it as diagram-as-code where you specify relative positions instead of exact coordinates. Critics mention bugs and an LLM-generated README.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Relative positioning without manual coordinates
“I'm hoping for most flowcharts, mind maps, etc. the relative positioning is enough to get what you want without fiddling too much!”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “Reladraw aims to be easy for an agent (or human) to edit (like Mermaid) but have the expressiveness and positioning”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “The idea with Reladraw is that a human or agent could just state "I want this node to the right of this other one"”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” - Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
- Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
- Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
- Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
Fills a gap in diagram tools
“This is a wonderful idea that fills a gap that has caused me much pain!”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “I always wanted this kind of tool, it’s a great idea”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “I love it, and I wish it was part of Mermaid”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” - Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
Useful in AI coding workflows
“prompting a frontier model to make a svg diagram works so well”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “This is very needed in the AI coding age!”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Bugs in themes and rendering
“there's a bug when switching themes in the web ui in Safari”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “leaves the boxes black and the text unreadable”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “Seems a little buggy, I added this line”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” Appears LLM-generated or Claude-coded
“a project which appears to be fully coded by Claude worthy of a Show HN post”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “The README looks LLM generated.”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things”
Other diagram tools people recommend
The four most recommended other diagram tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mermaid | 93 | 46 | 67% | 12 | — | Approved |
| ReladrawThis page | 28 | 7 | 80% | 1 | — | — |
| SQL to ER diagram tool | 27 | 1 | 96% | 2 | — | — |
| D2 diagram language | 21 | 6 | 78% | 6 | — | Approved |
| PlantUML | 16 | 2 | 89% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
34 of the 42 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“because it is useful and interesting”
“reladraw is changing super fast”
“a project which appears to be fully coded by Claude worthy of a Show HN post”
“in reladraw, it's clearer to me that the intent is”
“I think this should be a warning. Fighting the compiler when trying to draw a diagram is maybe a bit too much...”
“leaves the boxes black and the text unreadable”
“I like it, drawing stuff around can get tedious if an engine like this can do it”
“Adds a lot of visual clarity.”
“prompting a frontier model to make a svg diagram works so well”
“That's an interesting idea, and an unexplored design space.”
“Nice work on addressing these problems and sharing it!”
“I always wanted this kind of tool, it’s a great idea”
“there's a bug when switching themes in the web ui in Safari”
“a solution based on constantly mapping better two different representations of the same thing won't be a long term efficient solution”
“This is a wonderful idea that fills a gap that has caused me much pain!”
“The README looks LLM generated.”
“Reladraw aims to be easy for an agent (or human) to edit (like Mermaid) but have the expressiveness and positioning”
“Explicit control here looks like a godsend.”
“I think what you made is likely better than what I would have produced.”
“DSLs are pretty fun to make and you can get pretty creative”
“this seems to be in a sweet spot”
“There's a skill in the repo that you can install using `npx skills` to get started with.”
“This is very needed in the AI coding age!”
“If this were implemented in a language with fewer dependencies, it'd be great.”
“the win here is that you can define where you want things and yet still have diagram as code”
“I'm hoping for most flowcharts, mind maps, etc. the relative positioning is enough to get what you want without fiddling too much!”
“Seems a little buggy, I added this line”
“This is super cool. I love diagrams, charts, etc.”
“let the tool (Reladraw) worry about the arithmetic”
“I love it, and I wish it was part of Mermaid”
“The idea with Reladraw is that a human or agent could just state "I want this node to the right of this other one"”
“I was looking for something like this.”
“adding or resizing one adjusts the rest, without re-specifying positions”
“This genuinely fucks. Thank you”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.