Draw.io — CLI Harness Analysis & SOP

Software Overview

Draw.io (diagrams.net) is a free, open-source diagramming tool. The desktop version is built on Electron and supports creating flowcharts, architecture diagrams, ER diagrams, UML, network diagrams, and more.

Architecture

File Format: mxGraph XML (.drawio)

Draw.io uses an XML-based format built on the mxGraph library:

xml

<mxfile host="cli-anything" agent="cli-anything-drawio/1.0.0">
  <diagram id="..." name="Page-1">
    <mxGraphModel dx="1200" dy="800" grid="1" gridSize="10"
                  page="1" pageWidth="850" pageHeight="1100">
      <root>
        <mxCell id="0"/>                              <!-- root container -->
        <mxCell id="1" parent="0"/>                   <!-- default layer -->
        <mxCell id="v_123" value="Server"             <!-- shape (vertex) -->
                style="rounded=1;fillColor=#dae8fc;"
                vertex="1" parent="1">
          <mxGeometry x="100" y="100" width="120" height="60" as="geometry"/>
        </mxCell>
        <mxCell id="e_456" value="query"              <!-- connector (edge) -->
                style="edgeStyle=orthogonalEdgeStyle;"
                edge="1" source="v_123" target="v_789" parent="1">
          <mxGeometry relative="1" as="geometry"/>
        </mxCell>
      </root>
    </mxGraphModel>
  </diagram>
</mxfile>

Key properties:

Plain-text XML — fully parseable and writable by the CLI
Multi-page support: multiple <diagram> elements under <mxfile>
System cells: id="0" (root) and id="1" (default layer) are always present
Shapes: <mxCell vertex="1"> with <mxGeometry> for position/size
Edges: <mxCell edge="1" source="..." target="...">
Styles: semicolon-delimited key=value pairs in the style attribute

Rendering Pipeline

Primary: draw.io desktop CLI

.drawio file → draw.io --export --format png → rendered image

The desktop Electron app supports headless export:

draw.io --export input.drawio --output out.png --format png
draw.io --export input.drawio --output out.pdf --format pdf
draw.io --export input.drawio --output out.svg --format svg

Fallback: direct XML write When draw.io CLI is not installed, the CLI saves the .drawio file directly. Users can open it in draw.io (web or desktop) for manual export.

CLI Strategy

What we manipulate directly (no GUI needed):

Project lifecycle: create blank XML, parse existing files, write to disk
Shapes: add/remove/move/resize <mxCell vertex="1"> elements
Connectors: add/remove <mxCell edge="1"> with source/target references
Styles: parse/modify the style attribute string
Pages: add/remove/rename <diagram> elements
Labels: set the value attribute on any cell

What we delegate to draw.io CLI:

Raster export: PNG, PDF rendering (requires the Electron app)
SVG export: Vector rendering with proper font/text handling

Shape Registry

CLI Name	Style Base	Description
rectangle	`rounded=0;whiteSpace=wrap;html=1`	Standard rectangle
rounded	`rounded=1;whiteSpace=wrap;html=1`	Rounded rectangle
ellipse	`ellipse;whiteSpace=wrap;html=1`	Circle/oval
diamond	`rhombus;whiteSpace=wrap;html=1`	Decision diamond
triangle	`triangle;whiteSpace=wrap;html=1`	Triangle
hexagon	`shape=hexagon;...`	Hexagon
cylinder	`shape=cylinder3;...`	Database cylinder
cloud	`ellipse;shape=cloud;...`	Cloud shape
parallelogram	`shape=parallelogram;...`	Parallelogram
process	`shape=process;...`	Process box
document	`shape=document;...`	Document shape
callout	`shape=callout;...`	Speech callout
note	`shape=note;...`	Sticky note
actor	`shape=mxgraph.basic.person;...`	Person/actor
text	`text;html=1;align=center;...`	Text label

Edge Style Registry

CLI Name	Style	Description
straight	`edgeStyle=none`	Straight line
orthogonal	`edgeStyle=orthogonalEdgeStyle;rounded=0`	Right-angle routing
curved	`edgeStyle=orthogonalEdgeStyle;curved=1;rounded=1`	Curved routing
entity-relation	`edgeStyle=entityRelationEdgeStyle`	ER diagram style

Style Properties

Common style keys applicable to shapes and connectors:

Key	Values	Description
fillColor	`#rrggbb`	Shape fill color
strokeColor	`#rrggbb`	Border/line color
fontColor	`#rrggbb`	Text color
fontSize	integer	Font size in points
fontStyle	0/1/2/4	0=normal, 1=bold, 2=italic, 4=underline
opacity	0-100	Opacity percentage
rounded	0/1	Rounded corners
shadow	0/1	Drop shadow
dashed	0/1	Dashed border/line
strokeWidth	number	Border/line width
endArrow	classic/block/open/none	Arrow head style
startArrow	classic/block/open/none	Arrow tail style

Test Coverage

Unit tests: XML manipulation, style parsing, all shape/edge presets, session undo/redo, multi-page operations, complex workflows
E2E tests: file roundtrip, XML export verification, real draw.io export (PNG/SVG/PDF with magic byte checks), CLI subprocess, real-world diagram scenarios