drawio

drawio [options] [file|folder]

drawio (formerly diagrams.net) is a diagram editor for flowcharts, network diagrams, UML, org charts, and the like. The desktop application wraps the same editor that runs on the web in Electron, and works entirely offline.Its headline design goal is isolation: the app makes no network connections except an update check, sends no telemetry, and never transmits diagram data. That is what makes it usable in environments where a cloud diagram tool is not an option.Diagrams are stored as XML (`.drawio` or `.xml`), compressed by default but writable as plain text with --uncompressed, which makes them reviewable in a pull request. The command line can also import other formats: `.vsdx` (Visio), CSV, and Mermaid `.mmd` files can all be passed as input and exported to an image.Export mode is what makes drawio scriptable. With --export the UI never appears: the app renders the file and exits, which is how diagrams get kept in sync with documentation in a build pipeline.

-x, --export

Export the input file or folder rather than opening the editor.

Output path. If omitted, the input name is reused with the format's extension.

Export format: `pdf` (the default), `png`, `jpg`/`jpeg`, `svg`, `xml`, or `html`. Ignored when -o already carries a known extension.

For a folder input, also convert files in subfolders.

Export all pages. Applies to PDF and HTML.

Export a single page. 1-based. Defaults to the first page for image formats.

Export a range of pages, 1-based. PDF only.

Comma-separated layer indexes to export. All layers by default.

Transparent background. PNG and SVG only.

Scale the diagram.

Fit the output into a given width or height, preserving the aspect ratio.

Border width around the diagram. Defaults to 0.

Crop the PDF down to the diagram's size.

JPEG quality. Defaults to 90.

Embed a copy of the editable diagram inside the output, so the exported PNG, SVG, or PDF can be reopened and edited.

Inline images or fonts into an exported SVG. Fonts are embedded by default.

Write uncompressed XML. Applies to XML and SVG output.

Apply a layout before exporting: `verticalFlow`, `horizontalFlow`, `verticalTree`, `horizontalTree`, `radialTree`, `organic`, or a custom layout JSON array.

Theme for exported SVG: `dark`, `light`, or `auto` (the default).

Create a new empty file if none is given, or refuse to overwrite existing files.

Skip the startup update check. The `DRAWIODISABLEUPDATE=true` environment variable does the same, which is what centrally-managed installs want.

Page numbers are 1-based on the command line, even though the underlying XML indexes them from zero. `--page-index 1` is the first page.Export is not truly headless. Being an Electron app it still needs a display, so on a build server it has to be wrapped in xvfb-run, and running as root inside a container additionally requires --no-sandbox. Omitting either produces a crash that looks nothing like a missing display.`vsdx`, `csv`, and Mermaid are input formats only; you cannot export to them. The export list is pdf, png, jpg, svg, xml, and html.Note also that the project is closed to outside contributions by policy: bug reports are welcome, pull requests are not.

draw.io was built by JGraph Ltd (Gaudenz Alder and David Benson) around 2012, on top of the company's earlier mxGraph JavaScript library. The Electron desktop app came later, for users who could not or would not run a diagram editor in a browser tab connected to someone else's cloud.The naming has been circular. The product was renamed diagrams.net in 2020, partly because the `.io` top-level domain's association with the British Indian Ocean Territory had become awkward, and it has since drifted back to drawio.com, with the app still called draw.io by nearly everyone who uses it.

inkscape(1), plantuml(1), dot(1), dia(1), mermaid(1)

Source code · Homepage