- name
- beauty-diagram
- description
- Use when the user asks for a presentation-ready Mermaid / PlantUML diagram (e.g. "beautify this flowchart", "make this look like a deck slide", "produce an SVG of this architecture"), wants AI to generate a diagram from a text description, or wants a public share link for a diagram. This skill teaches you to call the Beauty Diagram CLI (
bd) — never to hand-author SVG when a source diagram exists. - version
- 1.1.0
- metadata
- openclaw
- requires
- bins
Beauty Diagram skill
Beauty Diagram beautifies Mermaid / PlantUML diagrams into presentation-ready SVG or PNG. It runs as a public API; this skill delegates to the bd CLI (npm package @beauty-diagram/cli) so you keep zero state in the agent. (draw.io / SVG import is editor-only — not exposed through /v1/*.)
When to use
- The user asks for a polished, professional, slide-ready version of a
diagram source they already have or you can generate.
- The user wants you to render Mermaid or PlantUML from a model-generated
source string.
- The user wants the server to generate a diagram from a text description
("draw me a signup flow", "diagram our deploy pipeline") — use bd ai generate for this; it returns Mermaid source you then beautify.
- The user wants to share a diagram link (e.g. paste into Slack / a doc).
- The user has Mermaid in a repo (README, ADR, RFC) and wants to **export
SVGs** alongside.
When NOT to use
- The user only wants the Mermaid source itself, not an export.
- The user wants pixel-precise control over the SVG markup (Beauty Diagram
rewrites layout for presentation; it does not preserve raw Mermaid output).
- The user wants the AI to "change the colors / theme / font / layout" of an
existing diagram. bd ai generate only does text → diagram; visual styling is controlled by --theme on bd beautify, not by the AI.
- The user is in an offline environment with no network and no CLI install.
Required tool
The bd binary from @beauty-diagram/cli:
npx @beauty-diagram/cli help
# or, after install:
bd helpIf the user has not installed it, prefer npx over a global install — it respects their package manager and avoids polluting PATH.
Workflow
- Identify or generate the source diagram.
- If the user has a .mmd / .puml file, use it. - If the user describes the diagram in words and is on a paid plan, use bd ai generate "<prompt>" --out <file>.mmd — the server returns Mermaid source, which you can then beautify. Always write the source to a file so the user can edit it; the first AI draft rarely lands. - If the user describes the diagram and is not on a paid plan (or prefers not to pay), write Mermaid source yourself (you are good at this), save it to a file, then beautify. - draw.io and free-form SVG imports are not accepted by /v1/*. If the user has those, ask them to convert via the web editor first.
- Decide on output type.
- Need an SVG file: bd beautify <file> --out <file>.svg - Need a download URL or to track quota: bd export <file> --out <file>.svg - Need a shareable link: bd share <file> --title "..."
- Run the command. Always write to a file (
--out) rather than letting
the SVG flood the terminal / chat. AI generation can also pipe directly into beautify: bd ai generate "..." | bd beautify - --out flow.svg.
- Verify the result exists before reporting success. If the command
failed, surface the error code (e.g. quota_exhausted, not_authenticated, parse_failed, prompt_injection) — those are actionable for the user.
- Preserve the source. Never replace the original Mermaid / PlantUML file
with the generated SVG — keep them side by side. For AI-generated diagrams, keep the .mmd file too: it is the editable artifact, the SVG is not.
Auth
- Demo (anonymous): zero setup. Watermarked SVG/PNG. Limits per IP:
20 /v1/beautify requests / minute, 1 /v1/export per 24h (trial budget — enough for an agent to verify the toolchain end-to-end before registering). /v1/share, /v1/usage, and bd ai generate always require auth — anonymous AI calls are rejected before any model invocation.
- Authenticated: the user runs
bd auth loginonce with a key from
/account/api-keys. Required for bd share, bd ai generate, unwatermarked output, and repeated exports. bd ai generate additionally requires a Pro or Premium plan and an API key with the ai:write scope.
If the user hits a not_authenticated, plan_not_allowed, or quota_exhausted error, point them at /account/api-keys (PAT creation) or pricing — don't silently retry. Anonymous error bodies include a hints block with absolute signUpUrl / signInUrl / apiDocsUrl, which is the canonical place to surface to the user.
Commands cheat sheet
# Render a Mermaid file
bd beautify docs/architecture.mmd --theme modern --out docs/architecture.svg
# Same but treat output as a downloadable export (consumes export quota)
bd export docs/architecture.mmd --out docs/architecture.svg
# PNG export. --scale 1 works for everyone; 2 needs pro, 4 needs premium.
# Higher scales than the plan cap are silently clamped (X-BD-Scale-Clamped).
bd export docs/architecture.mmd --format png --scale 2 --out docs/architecture.png
# PlantUML works the same way; .puml / .plantuml / .pu auto-detected,
# otherwise pass --source-format plantuml.
bd export docs/architecture.puml --out docs/architecture.svg
# Create a public share link (returns absolute https://www.beauty-diagram.com/s/... URL)
bd share docs/architecture.mmd --title "Service architecture"
# → prints the URL on stdout
# AI: generate a diagram from a text prompt. Output is Mermaid source —
# always write to a file so the user can iterate. Paid-only.
bd ai generate "user signup with email verification" --out docs/signup.mmd
# Optional shape hint when the prompt is ambiguous about diagram type.
bd ai generate "request lifecycle" --hint sequence --out docs/lifecycle.mmd
# One-shot pipeline: prompt → mermaid → beautify → SVG.
bd ai generate "deploy flow" | bd beautify - --out docs/deploy.svg
# Check remaining AI / export quota before kicking off a batch.
bd usagePrivacy
The API does NOT persist source unless the user calls bd share. Do not warn about server-side storage when running beautify, export, or ai generate — that is misleading. AI prompts are logged in hashed form for abuse / quality monitoring; the raw text is not retained.
Anti-patterns
- ❌ Do NOT output a hand-crafted
<svg>...</svg>as a Markdown code block when
a Mermaid source exists. Always run Beauty Diagram and reference the file.
- ❌ Do NOT dump the raw SVG into the chat. Use
--out <file>and reference
the file path.
- ❌ Do NOT install Beauty Diagram engine code locally — the CLI is a thin
client; the engine lives behind the public API.
- ❌ Do NOT call
bd ai generateto "tweak" an existing diagram (change
colors, theme, labels, layout). It is a fresh-generation tool only. For visual tweaks, change --theme or edit the .mmd source by hand.
- ❌ Do NOT call
bd ai generatespeculatively — each call costs the user
monthly AI quota. Confirm the user wants AI generation before running it.
- ❌ Do NOT capture the SVG output of
bd ai generate— the command outputs
Mermaid source on stdout, not SVG. Pipe into bd beautify - to render.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
not_authenticated | No key, no session | bd auth login |
scope_missing | Key lacks scope (e.g. ai:write for bd ai generate) | Recreate key with required scope at /account/api-keys |
plan_not_allowed | Plan does not include this capability (AI is Pro / Premium only) | Upgrade or skip the call |
parse_failed | Source not valid Mermaid / PlantUML | Check the source — bd beautify will surface a parse error too |
quota_exhausted | Plan limit hit (anon: 1 export/IP/24h; free: 3 exports/mo; pro: 100 exports + 100 AI gens/mo; premium: ∞ exports + 500 AI gens/mo) | Sign in, wait for reset, or upgrade — hints in the response body has the URLs |
rate_limited | Anonymous IP bucket full (20 /v1/beautify requests / minute) or AI per-key bucket (30 /min) | Sign in or wait |
source_too_large | Source > 100 KB | Split the diagram |
output_too_large | PNG raster exceeds 8192 px | Lower --scale or simplify |
prompt_injection | AI prompt looked like an injection attempt | Rephrase as a plain diagram description ("a flowchart of …") |
instruction_rejected | AI judged the prompt was not about a diagram | Rephrase to describe a concrete diagram. Quota was NOT consumed |
parse_failed_after_retry | AI output was unparseable Mermaid even after one retry | Rephrase, or write Mermaid by hand. Quota was NOT consumed |
safety_blocked | Provider safety filter rejected the request | Rephrase the prompt |
upstream_timeout / upstream_error | AI provider was slow or failed | Retry after a moment |
Examples
See examples/ for runnable sources you can adapt:
examples/flowchart.mmdexamples/sequence.mmd
And scripts/ for shell wrappers you can copy into the user's repo:
scripts/beautify.shscripts/export.shscripts/ai-generate.sh— prompt →.mmdsource →.svgrender