Top all-time · #3853
Ilograph Blog
Company blog · ilograph.com/blog · on HN as Veuxdodesignprogramming
Ilograph Blog is the company blog at ilograph.com, writing about design and programming. Since 2016, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 91 times, most often “Diagrams AI can, and cannot, generate”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-09, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ilograph as a tool for interactive architecture diagrams as code, with animated views, drilldown and demo diagrams for system documentation.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Ilograph is a collaborative diagramming tool that helps system engineers document and explain their systems clearly and in detail.
Most-linked posts?
- /9 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2019-02-07
- /4 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2020-08-28
- Diagrams AI can, and cannot, generate4 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2024-11-12
- /blog/posts/its-time-to-drop-drag-and-drop-diagram-tools/2 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2022-03-23
- /features.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-25
- Why do we create architecture diagrams anyway?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-09-25
- /export-api/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-13
What Hacker News says?
For larger, multiperspective visualizations with zoom, Ilograph may be what you are looking for: https://www.ilograph.com/
Comment linking /
on “Include diagrams in your Markdown files with Mermaid”Submitted Diagrams AI can, and cannot, generate as a story · 214 points
HN discussionThanks! Yes, you can using the export API (paid): https://www.ilograph.com/export-api/ The Desktop version can also export diagrams when called via CLI, though that is less suitable for CI/CD.
Comment linking /export-api/
on “D2, a diagram scripting language that turns text to diagrams, is now open source”Submitted Common mistakes in architecture diagrams (2020) as a story · 201 points
HN discussionhttps://www.ilograph.com is great for this and more
Comment linking /
on “Swimlanes.io – generated editable sequence diagrams”Submitted Diagrams AI Can, and Cannot, Generate as a story · 9 points
HN discussionThere is a desktop version that works off-line: https://www.ilograph.com/desktop/index.html
Comment linking /desktop/index.html
on “Swimlanes.io – generated editable sequence diagrams”Submitted Common Mistakes in Architecture Diagrams (2020) as a story · 4 points
HN discussion> [T]here are ~basically~ no public benchmarks for security research... nothing that gets at the hard parts of application pentesting for LLMs, which are 1. Navigating a real repository of code too large to put in context, 2. Inferring a target application's security model, and 3. Understanding its implementation deeply enough to learn where that security model is broken. A few months ago I looked at essentially thi…
Comment linking /blog/posts/diagrams-ai-can-and-cannot-generate/
on “Recent AI model progress feels mostly like bullshit”Submitted Fixing AWS Architecture Diagrams: AI Document Processing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere are quite a few tools that offer this model-based approach; you define your resources in a model, then use them in multiple perspectives to show different aspects like you describe. Some, like Ilograph[0] (my project), offer interactivity and zooming. [0] https://www.ilograph.com
Comment linking /
on “OpenFLOW – Quickly make beautiful infrastructure diagrams local to your machine”Submitted More common mistakes to avoid when creating system architecture diagrams as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDiagrams is a great drag-and-drop tool, but drag-and-drop tools shouldn't be used for serious system diagramming: https://www.ilograph.com/blog/posts/its-time-to-drop-drag-an...
Comment linking /blog/posts/its-time-to-drop-drag-and-drop-diagram-tools/
on “Diagrams: Open-Source Alternative to Lucidchart”Submitted More common mistakes in architecture diagrams to avoid as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIlograph [0] is a similar (and, in my biased opinion, better) tool that has a 100% local runtime option (called Ilograph Desktop). You can still test-drive it with the browser version, of course. [0] https://www.ilograph.com
Comment linking /
on “D2: A new declarative language to turn text into diagrams”Submitted Avoiding fan traps in database design and system diagrams as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's another HN discussion going, about declarative diagramming [0], from where I learned about Ilograph [1]. And which makes great use of animations for system documentation. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45706792 [1] https://www.ilograph.com/features.html
Comment linking /features.html
on “D2: Diagram Scripting Language”Submitted Avoid fan traps in system diagrams as a story · 2 points
HN discussionilograph [0] has these features. I think it should be possible with SVG only. The main use-case would be for documentation sites. [0] https://www.ilograph.com/features.html
Comment linking /features.html
on “Show HN: Diagram as code tool with draggable customizations”Submitted Breaking Up the Master Diagram as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDidn't get a response (expected), but I would caution everyone to keep expectations low. Generating system diagrams from code is extremely difficult, if not impossible, even with AI [0]. [0] https://www.ilograph.com/blog/posts/diagrams-ai-can-and-cann...
Comment linking /blog/posts/diagrams-ai-can-and-cannot-generate/
on “Show HN: Instantly visualize any codebase as an interactive diagram”Submitted Generating AWS Diagrams with Resource Explorer and Ilograph as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAs others have said the C4 model is a great way to address a number of these issues. I can’t find the right video at the moment but Simon Brown (creator of C4) gives a great talk about creating his DSL, Structurizr, for C4, which he developed during COVID lockdown (if memory serves). There are many videos on YouTube of Simon talking about “C4 Models as Code” so I’m sure any one of those will suffice. The focus is on…
Comment linking /
on “Devs need system design tools, not diagramming tools”Submitted Generating AWS Diagrams with Resource Explorer and Ilograph as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> You cannot represent this model on a screen in any meaningful way. Instead you can only get certain "views" into it to understand an aspect or answer specific questions. It sounds like you're describing: https://www.ilograph.com/blog/posts/concrete-diagramming-mod...
Comment linking /blog/posts/concrete-diagramming-models/
on “Devs need system design tools, not diagramming tools”Submitted Improving Diagrams by Adding Perspectives as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAlmost all of his complaints stem from using generic drag-and-drop diagramming tools. A modern take on system diagramming, like Ilograph[0], solves most of these issues (IMBO). [0] https://www.ilograph.com
Comment linking /
on “Devs need system design tools, not diagramming tools”Submitted Concrete Diagramming, a Lightweight Alternative to C4 as a story · 2 points
HN discussion100% correct. The only ones which had both a repo and a diagram that I've consistently found were AWS sample architectures. Their diagrams are usually pretty lacking, though: https://www.ilograph.com/blog/posts/better-aws-architecure-d...
Comment linking /blog/posts/better-aws-architecure-diagrams-distributed-load-testing/
on “Common mistakes in architecture diagrams (2020)”Submitted TypeScript influenced the design of my app (2020) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
