Wire Lang vs Mermaid

Wire Lang and Mermaid share a product shape: text goes in, a documentation-friendly diagram comes out, and the source lives in version control next to your code. The difference is what the text describes. Mermaid draws generic graphs — boxes and arrows. Wire Lang models a real electrical circuit — components with typed terminals joined by nets — and renders it as an electronic schematic.

Mermaid is the main product reference for Wire Lang's authoring and documentation workflow. Wire Lang is not a Mermaid plugin, does not depend on Mermaid, and does not aim for Mermaid syntax compatibility. Think "Mermaid, but for electronic schematics."

The same idea, a different domain

In Mermaid you connect nodes with edges; the meaning is whatever you intend. In Wire Lang you connect terminals through nets, and the meaning is electrical: a net is a shared electrical node, a terminal belongs to a known component type, and the renderer draws the correct schematic symbol for each part. Wire Lang validates that model — unknown components, unknown terminals, or a terminal wired to two different nets are real errors.

Side by side

	Mermaid	Wire Lang
Domain	General diagrams (flowcharts, sequence, class, ER, …)	Electronic schematics
Primitives	Nodes and edges	Components, terminals, and nets
Semantics	Visual graph; meaning is up to the author	Electrical model; validated against a component library
Output	SVG diagram	Standalone, deterministic SVG schematic
Validation	Syntax-level	Syntax + electrical (unknown parts/terminals, net conflicts)
Authoring feedback	Parse errors	Structured diagnostics with codes, source ranges, and suggested fixes
Determinism	Layout may shift between versions	Stable auto-layout: same source → same diagram

What the source looks like

A Mermaid flowchart of an LED circuit can only suggest the topology with boxes and arrows:

flowchart LR
  BAT[Battery 5V] --> R[Resistor 220Ω]
  R --> LED[LED red]
  LED --> GND[Ground]

The equivalent Wire Lang source describes the actual circuit: terminals (BT1.+, D1.A), nets (VCC, GND), and component types the renderer knows how to draw as schematic symbols:

schematic
  component BT1 Battery voltage=5V
  component R1 Resistor value=220ohm
  component D1 LED color=red

  net VCC: BT1.+, R1.1
  connect R1.2, D1.A
  net GND: D1.C, BT1.-

When to use which

Use Mermaid for flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and general architecture sketches. Use Wire Lang when the thing you are documenting is an electronic circuit and you want a proper schematic — with real components, electrical nets, and a diagram an engineer recognizes — that an AI assistant can also generate and review as plain text.

Scope note: Wire Lang is a schematic documentation renderer. It does not simulate circuits, lay out PCBs or breadboards, or produce a bill of materials. See the FAQ for what is in and out of scope.

← Examples FAQ →