Cascii
Dev tools
ascii diagram editor
SHOW HN2025
238points
53comments
#257of 3,837 in 2025
Top 7%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
LovedMost comments that take a side are positive
21 positive, 7 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 2 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score +0.61.
Design: 5 for, 1 againstExecution: 4 for, 1 againstIdea: 2 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Easy to use and polished
From 3 comments
Nice job, its really easy to use
sdotdev on HNomg this is beautiful, great job!
breadchris on HNBest tool I've seen for diagrams in a long time, Congratulations! I'll use this anywhere.
Rucadi on HN
Single portable HTML file is a strength
From 3 comments
One file is great!
um1 on HN> if having 1 HTML file is somehow very important, but it's not It is.
wiseowise on HNThis is amazing, thank you for sharing it. Aside from being a very useful documentation tool, I hope it inspires more people to distribute simple standalone software utilities in…
primitivesuave on HN
Drag and diagonal line drawing stands out
From 1 comment
This looks awesome. The way you are dragging things around and the diagonal lines is amazing. Don't think asciiflow or the other one or two tools do this. Since you are providing…
smusamashah on HN
Objections
Single 4000+ line file is hard to maintain and contribute to
From 2 comments
It's a single 4992 line HTML file, which is the source code, making a lot harder to contribute to or maintain. I'd like it a bit more (and I might even contribute) if it had at…
leptons on HN>"Contributions are very welcomed. Please feel free to submit proposals directly in the form of a PR or Issue." Good luck getting contributions. I don't have the time to read and…
leptons on HN
Not practical on phones
From 1 comment
Bit of a nightmare getting this elegant enough on a phone, and doubt anyone wants to draw ASCII digrams on their phone anyway, so not really a priority!
ftr1200 on HN
Requests
Import diagrams or clipboard import
From 3 comments
Hi, great app. I'd love to understand how you are maintaining state behind that short url and see if there are ways (sans server) to at least partially recreate state from the…
ssriram on HNNice job. Thanks! Also very interesting to have it "distributed" in one html file. Sometimes people forget simple ways to do stuff :) Is is possible to import and edit diagrams…
theanonymousone on HNExactly. Make it importable and i am sold. Maybe base64 encoded metadata under the diagram? Maybe encode in non-printable characters? Maybe just use non-printable characters to…
harvie on HN
Obsidian plugin
From 1 comment
obsidian plugin please
Cypher on HN
Export existing image diagrams or an API
From 1 comment
Wow. This is absolutely fantastic! Great work! Congrats! Do you know if there would be a way (in the future) to export existing image diagrams to this format / will there be an…
bambax on HN
Better dark mode link colors
From 1 comment
I love this so much. Thanks for using vanilla JS! Please consider changing the link colors in the scrolling intro to yellow when in dark mode. They were really hard to make out.
kentbrew on HN
Questions
How to edit diagrams after pasting or creating them
From 2 comments
This is fantastic. I've always used JavE before but this being a single HTML file is a big+ and packs quite a punch. Kudos to the author! One question though, how do edit the…
dimenoz on HNNice job. Thanks! Also very interesting to have it "distributed" in one html file. Sometimes people forget simple ways to do stuff :) Is is possible to import and edit diagrams…
theanonymousone on HN
Alternatives named
Monodraw
From 1 comment
Looks super cool, congrats! Monodraw[1] is a similar product delivered as a standalone macOS app. It’s a classic pay once-type license and very polished software. Cannot…
ccakes on HN
Excalidraw
From 1 comment
Very cool, thanks. One of the saddest days at my current job: when the company I’m contracted to stopped offering Excalidraw in favor of Lucid. I mostly understand the rationale,…
macintux on HN
asciiflow
From 1 comment
This looks awesome. The way you are dragging things around and the diagonal lines is amazing. Don't think asciiflow or the other one or two tools do this. Since you are providing…
smusamashah on HN
Emacs artist mode
From 1 comment
interesting, i generally use artist mode in emacs but this seems to have more options.
newusertoday on HN