merman-cli

merman-cli is a browserless Mermaid command-line renderer for SVG, PNG, JPG, PDF, and ASCII/Unicode text output. The top-level command follows common mmdc workflows, while developer subcommands expose merman's parse, layout, and render internals.

Install

cargo install merman-cli

The default binary includes SVG/PNG/JPG/PDF export, ASCII/Unicode text output, and RaTeX math rendering.

From a local checkout:

cargo install --path crates/merman-cli

Quick Start

Top-level usage renders like mmdc:

merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.svg
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.png -t dark -b transparent
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.pdf --pdfFit
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o -

- reads from stdin or writes to stdout:

printf "flowchart TD\nA[API] --> B[DB]\n" | merman-cli -i - -o -
printf "flowchart TD\nA[API] --> B[DB]\n" | merman-cli -o out.svg

When -o is omitted, top-level mode writes <input>.svg for file input and out.svg for stdin. The output format is inferred from the output extension unless -e, --outputFormat, --format is provided.

Output Formats

Examples:

merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.svg
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.png
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.jpg
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.pdf
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.txt -e unicode

Markdown Input

.md and .markdown input files activate Markdown mode. Mermaid code blocks are extracted, rendered as numbered artefacts, and optionally rewritten back into Markdown image links.

merman-cli -i README.md -o README.svg

The command above writes README-1.svg, README-2.svg, and so on. The template output file itself is not written unless the output path is Markdown.

merman-cli -i README.md -o README.rendered.md

The command above writes numbered SVG artefacts and rewrites Mermaid fences in README.rendered.md to Markdown image links.

Use --artefacts or the Rust-friendly --artifacts alias to place images in a separate directory:

merman-cli -i docs/input.md -o docs/output.md --artifacts docs/assets

Use --jobs to bound parallel chart rendering. Results are still linked in source order:

merman-cli -i docs/input.md -o docs/output.md --jobs 4

Markdown mode does not support stdout output because it may need to write multiple artefact files.

Icon Packs

Iconify packs are loaded into a Rust SVG icon registry, so flowchart and architecture icon nodes can embed real icon SVGs without a browser.

Load an Iconify package name:

merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.svg --iconPacks @iconify-json/logos

merman-cli first looks for node_modules/@iconify-json/logos/icons.json from the current working directory upward. If no local package is found, it fetches https://unpkg.com/@iconify-json/logos/icons.json.

Load an explicit prefix and source:

merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.svg --iconPacksNamesAndUrls logos#icons.json
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.svg --iconPacksNamesAndUrls logos#file:///tmp/icons.json
merman-cli -i diagram.mmd -o diagram.svg --iconPacksNamesAndUrls logos#https://example.com/icons.json

The prefix before # overrides the JSON prefix, matching the useful part of upstream loader registration while keeping rendering browserless.

Rust Extensions

ASCII/Unicode

ASCII/Unicode output is enabled in the default CLI binary:

printf "flowchart LR\nA --> B\n" | merman-cli -i - -o out.txt -e ascii
printf "classDiagram\nclass Animal\n" | merman-cli render --format unicode -
printf "sequenceDiagram\nparticipant A\nparticipant B\nA->>B: Hello\n" | \
  merman-cli render --format unicode --sequence-mirror-actors -

Terminal text rendering currently supports flowchart/graph, sequenceDiagram, classDiagram, erDiagram, and xychart. Other diagram families still render to SVG/raster formats but return an unsupported-diagram error for ASCII/Unicode until a typed text renderer is added.

ClassDiagram and erDiagram text output include class/entity boxes, layered relationship layouts, same-endpoint lanes, simple spanning side lanes, and unrelated standalone components. Cyclic or denser relationship graphs return explicit diagnostics instead of silently dropping edges.

RaTeX Math

RaTeX math rendering is enabled by default:

printf "flowchart LR\nA[\"$$x^2$$\"] --> B\n" | merman-cli render --math-renderer ratex -

Use --no-default-features only when you intentionally want to exclude default binary capabilities such as RaTeX and ASCII/Unicode. In that build, --math-renderer ratex remains unavailable unless the ratex-math feature is enabled explicitly, and ASCII/Unicode output remains unavailable unless the ascii feature is enabled explicitly.

Developer Subcommands

Top-level mode is for mmdc-style export workflows. Developer subcommands remain available for tooling, tests, and debugging:

merman-cli detect path/to/diagram.mmd
merman-cli parse --pretty --meta path/to/diagram.mmd
merman-cli layout --pretty path/to/diagram.mmd
merman-cli render path/to/diagram.mmd --out out.svg
merman-cli render --format png --out out.png path/to/diagram.mmd
merman-cli render --format jpg --out out.jpg path/to/diagram.mmd
merman-cli render --format pdf --out out.pdf path/to/diagram.mmd

render writes SVG to stdout by default. Use --out for files, --format ascii|unicode for terminal text, and --format png|jpg|pdf for raster or PDF export.

Common Options

• -t, --theme <theme> sets the Mermaid theme.
• -w, --width <width> and -H, --height <height> configure viewport-sensitive layouts.
• -b, --backgroundColor <color> sets SVG/raster background color.
• -c, --configFile <file> loads Mermaid JSON configuration.
• -C, --cssFile <file> injects CSS into SVG output before export.
• -I, --svgId <id> sets the root SVG id and marker id prefix.
• -s, --scale <n> controls PNG/JPG raster scale.
• --raster-fit-width <px> and --raster-fit-height <px> fit PNG/JPG output to a browser-like preview box before applying --scale.
• --raster-max-width <px>, --raster-max-height <px>, and --raster-max-pixels <n> set the PNG/JPG pixmap budget. Defaults are 8192 x 8192 and 8192*8192 total pixels.
• --raster-unbounded disables the PNG/JPG pixmap budget for trusted oversized exports.
• -f, --pdfFit uses a chart-sized PDF page instead of the top-level default Letter-sized page.
• -q, --quiet suppresses non-error logs.
• --text-measurer deterministic|vendored controls text measurement.
• --math-renderer none|ratex controls math label rendering.
• --suppress-errors emits an error diagram instead of failing on parse errors.
• --hand-drawn-seed <n> stabilizes rough/hand-drawn rendering where supported.

SVG Input Rasterization

merman-cli render --format png|jpg|pdf can rasterize existing SVG input when the input starts with <svg.

merman-cli render --format png --out diagram.png diagram.svg

The raster path applies merman's resvg-safe SVG cleanup before conversion.

Large Mermaid SVGs can be valid and still unsafe to rasterize at their intrinsic viewBox size. Browsers usually paint the vector SVG inside a visible container; they do not have to allocate one full-size pixmap up front. For preview-like PNG/JPG output, pass --raster-fit-width and/or --raster-fit-height plus --scale for device-pixel ratio. For export-like output, the default pixmap budget prevents accidental oversized allocations; use --raster-unbounded only when that memory cost is intentional.

Compatibility Notes

merman-cli is browserless. It does not start Puppeteer, Chromium, or a Mermaid browser runtime.

For script compatibility with mmdc, --puppeteerConfigFile is accepted, the referenced file must exist, and its contents must be valid JSON. The parsed values are intentionally ignored because this renderer has no Puppeteer runtime to configure.

PDF output is generated through Rust SVG conversion rather than Chromium print-to-PDF, so it is not intended to be pixel-identical to browser PDF output. The top-level default approximates the upstream default page behavior; --pdfFit emits a chart-sized page.

The repository tracks the detailed mmdc compatibility matrix in docs/alignment/CLI_COMPATIBILITY.md.