Cloud Architecture Diagrams

Nodes

A node is the most basic building block in a cloud architecture diagram.

Node definitions consist of a name followed by an optional set of properties. For example, compute is the name of below node and it has an icon property which is set to aws-ec2.

compute [icon: aws-ec2]

Node names are required to be unique.

Nodes support icon and color properties.

Groups

A group is a container that can encapsulate nodes and groups.

Group definitions consist of a name followed by { }. For example, Main Server is the name of the below group and it contains Server and Data nodes.

  Main Server {
    Server [icon: aws-ec2]
    Data [icon: aws-rds]
  }

Group names are required to be unique.

Groups can be nested. In the below example, VPC Subnet group contains Main Server group.

VPC Subnet {
  Main Server {
    Server [icon: aws-ec2]
    Data [icon: aws-rds]
  }
}

Groups support icon and color properties.

Properties

Properties are key-value pairs enclosed in [ ] brackets that can be appended to definitions of nodes and groups. Properties are optional.

It is possible to set multiple properties like shown below:

  Main Server [icon: aws-ec2, color: blue] {
    Server [icon: aws-ec2]
    Data [icon: aws-rds]
  }

Here are the properties that are allowed:

Property	Description	Value
`Icon`	Attached icons	Icon names (e.g. `aws-ec2`). See Icons page for full list.
`Color`	Stroke and fill color, when possible	Color name (e.g. `blue`) or hex code (e.g. `#000000`)

Here are the lists of icon names:

Connections

Connections represent relationships between nodes and groups. They can be created between nodes, between groups, and between nodes and groups.

Here is an example of a connection between two nodes:

Compute [icon: aws-ec2] > Storage [icon: aws-s3]

Here are the types of connectors:

Connector	Syntax	Description
	`>`	Left-to-right arrow
	`<`	Right-to-left arrow
	`<>`	Bi-directional arrow
	`-`	Line
	`--`	Dotted line
	`-->`	Dotted arrow

It is possible to create it is possible to create one-to-many connections in a single statement. This is instead of creating separate one-to-one connections. Here is an example:

Server > Worker1, Worker2, Worker3

If a connection statement contains a name that has not been previously defined as a node or a group, a blank node with that name will be created.

Icons

Here's a list of all the icons you can use with diagram-as-code.