The people shaping Mermaid Chart’s 2026 diagram-as-code platform

Knut Sveidqvist and Andrew Firestone lead Mermaid Chart after Open Core Ventures built a company around the open-source Mermaid.js project. The company secured $7.5 million in seed funding from investors including Microsoft M12, Sequoia Scout Fund, and Streamlined Ventures. Sveidqvist handles technical development. This professional partnership aims to serve the 8 million users who already rely on the Mermaid library for version-controlled documentation. You might find the transition from a free tool to a paid platform useful if your team already uses Mermaid in GitHub or Notion. This platform supports the 85,000 GitHub stars the project earned over twelve years. Sveidqvist brings twenty-five years of experience in the software development industry to his role as CTO. He previously worked at Telia and GE Lifesciences after studying at Umea University and the University of Edinburgh. The project name came from the children of Sveidqvist watching The Little Mermaid. Open Core Ventures handles the administrative hurdles and accounting, which allowed Sveidqvist to move the project from a weekend hobby to a full-time business. Sveidqvist founded the library in 2014 after losing a Microsoft Visio file.

The platform provides tools to manage diagrams through code. The Visual Editor, which launched in 2024, allows users to manipulate flowcharts and sequence diagrams using a graphical interface that updates the underlying code in real time as you edit. This editor supports a growing collection of 30+ sample diagrams to help users get started. Pro users access an AI Chatbot to create, edit, or fix diagram code. The chatbot can build a diagram from a prompt, update the layout or colors, or repair broken code. A ChatGPT integration also allows users to generate starting points for diagrams via prompts. While these tools help, Notion users still struggle with Mermaid diagrams because they function as static images that lack scaling or zooming capabilities.

Engineers use the Visual Studio Code plugin and the JetBrains IDEA extension to view, edit, and update diagrams within their IDE. This functionality reduces the distance between code and diagrams. The Visual Editor’s GUI provides a click-and-drag experience that works with the signature text-to-diagramming workflow. Users type code on the left side of the editor and see the diagram render on the canvas.

Mermaid Chart supports over 15 diagram types, including class, entity relationship, and Gantt charts. The library includes support for flowchart, sequence, state, and XY charts. This variety exceeds the capabilities of basic implementations. Users also work with mindmaps, quadrant charts, Ishikawa, and nested treemaps. Developers use the Mermaid Chart extension within GitHub Copilot to generate diagrams from GitHub Actions, SQL, or other files. This integration allows for natural language queries to produce visualizations without leaving the IDE. Lucidchart costs $10 per user per month on the Team plan, whereas Mermaid Chart targets teams needing code-integrated workflows. This makes Mermaid Chart a distinct choice for engineers who avoid heavy GUI tools. Can a text-based tool ever replace the full flexibility of a drag-and-drop GUI for every enterprise user?