technical-svg-diagrams

<objective> Generate technical SVG diagrams with consistent styling for blog posts and documentation. All diagrams use a unified visual language: grid backgrounds, monospace fonts, muted colors with semantic accents, and clean geometric shapes. </objective>

<quick_start>

1. Identify diagram type needed (architecture, flow, or component)
2. Read references/svg-patterns.md for templates and color palette
3. Generate SVG using the established patterns
4. Save to target directory with descriptive filename

</quick_start>

<design_system>

Color Palette

Typography

• Font family: monospace for all text
• Title: 14px bold, #333
• Subtitle/tag: 12px, #888, in brackets [ LIKE_THIS ]
• Labels: 10-11px, color matches element
• Notes: 7-8px, #999

Common Elements

Grid background:

<pattern id="grid" width="20" height="20" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
  <path d="M 20 0 L 0 0 0 20" fill="none" stroke="#e5e5e5" stroke-width="0.5"/>
</pattern>

Arrow marker:

<marker id="arrow" markerWidth="10" markerHeight="10" refX="9" refY="3" orient="auto">
  <path d="M0,0 L0,6 L9,3 z" fill="#ccc"/>
</marker>

Node (circle with inner dot):

<circle cx="X" cy="Y" r="35" fill="none" stroke="#ccc" stroke-width="2"/>
<circle cx="X" cy="Y" r="18" fill="#COLOR"/>

Box container:

<rect x="X" y="Y" width="W" height="H" fill="none" stroke="#ccc" stroke-width="2"/>

Dashed container (sandbox/isolation):

<rect x="X" y="Y" width="W" height="H" fill="none" stroke="#f39c12" stroke-width="2" stroke-dasharray="5,3"/>

Label box:

<rect x="X" y="Y" width="W" height="H" fill="none" stroke="#ccc" stroke-width="1"/>
<text x="CX" y="CY" font-family="monospace" font-size="11" fill="#666" text-anchor="middle">LABEL_NAME</text>

</design_system>

<diagram_types>

Architecture Diagrams

Horizontal left-to-right flow showing system components.

Use for: Before/after comparisons, system overviews, data flow

Structure:

• Title + tag at top left
• Components flow left to right
• Arrows connect components
• Bottom note summarizes key point

Dimensions: 800x350 to 800x400

Flow Diagrams

Vertical top-to-bottom showing process steps.

Use for: Execution flows, request lifecycles, step-by-step processes

Structure:

• Title + tag at top
• Dashed vertical guide line
• Steps connected by arrows with polygon heads
• Decision diamonds for branching
• Ellipses for start/end states

Dimensions: 600x700 (adjust height for steps)

Component Diagrams

Focused view of a single component's internals.

Use for: Showing internal structure, nested elements, detailed breakdowns

Structure:

• Outer container box
• Inner elements with semantic colors
• Labels above or below containers

</diagram_types>

<process>

Creating a Diagram

1. Determine type and dimensions

- Architecture: 800x350-400, horizontal - Flow: 600x700+, vertical - Component: varies by content

1. Set up SVG structure

```xml <svg viewBox="0 0 WIDTH HEIGHT" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">; <defs> <!-- Grid pattern --> <!-- Arrow markers as needed --> </defs>

<!-- Background --> <rect width="WIDTH" height="HEIGHT" fill="#fafafa"/> <rect width="WIDTH" height="HEIGHT" fill="url(#grid)"/>

<!-- Title --> <text x="40" y="40" font-family="monospace" font-size="14" fill="#333" font-weight="bold">TITLE</text> <text x="X" y="40" font-family="monospace" font-size="12" fill="#888">[ TAG ]</text>

<!-- Content -->

<!-- Bottom note --> <text x="CENTER" y="BOTTOM" font-family="monospace" font-size="10" fill="#999" text-anchor="middle">summary note</text> </svg> ```

1. Add components using patterns from references/svg-patterns.md

1. Connect with arrows

- Solid lines for primary flow - Dashed lines for secondary/return flow - Use opacity="0.5" for response arrows

1. Add labels

- Component names in SCREAMINGSNAKECASE - Action labels in lowercasesnakecase - Use text-anchor="middle" for centered text

1. Save with descriptive filename

- diagram-before.svg, diagram-after.svg - diagram-flow.svg, diagram-architecture.svg </process>

<success_criteria> Diagram is complete when:

• Uses consistent color palette
• All text is monospace
• Grid background applied
• Title with bracketed tag present
• Components properly connected with arrows
• Labels are clear and properly positioned
• Bottom summary note included
• SVG is valid and renders correctly

</success_criteria>

<exporttowebp>

Convert SVG to WebP

After creating the SVG, convert to WebP for universal compatibility.

Using uv (cross-platform, recommended):

uvx --from cairosvg cairosvg diagram.svg -o diagram.png --output-width 1600
uvx --with pillow python -c "from PIL import Image; Image.open('diagram.png').save('diagram.webp', 'WEBP', lossless=True)"
rm diagram.png

Note: lossless=True is best for diagrams - smaller than lossy AND perfect quality.

Alternative tools (if available):

# ImageMagick
convert -background none -density 150 diagram.svg diagram.webp

# librsvg + cwebp
rsvg-convert -w 1600 diagram.svg -o diagram.png && cwebp diagram.png -o diagram.webp

Platform notes:

• macOS: brew install cairo if cairosvg fails
• Linux: apt install libcairo2-dev if needed
• Windows: uv works natively; or use WSL for other tools

</exporttowebp>