Vellum
vellum.blueprintr.io- Category
- Developer Tools
- Rank
- No. 2613Tools index
Previous survey · No. 2425 ·
- Type
- TOOL
- Use case
- Design & Media
- Date
About
Vellum is a diagram editor that stores diagrams as YAML and combines whiteboard-style drawing speed with the polish needed for formal architecture documentation. It includes a diagram-as-code 'graph' mode similar to Mermaid, but without Mermaid's layout restrictions, allowing full manual authoring of layout alongside code-defined structure.
At a glance
Vellum is Blueprintr’s architecture diagram editor. It is worth trying when a system diagram needs to stay readable at a glance while giving readers a way to open details about an individual component.
Good fit
People documenting systems or processes with several levels of explanation.
Consider something else when
Use your existing diagram tool if a static picture already conveys everything readers need.
Start here
Draw two services and a database with fictional names. Attach one explanation to a shape, then check how the detail reads from the diagram and what survives in an exported view.
Cost and requirements
The publisher describes a standalone browser editor and a self-hostable bundle, with SVG, PNG and embeddable HTML exports.
Limits to know
Check what each export retains. A static image cannot provide the same interactive drill-down as the editor.
Sources checked 2026-11-05. Source-based assessment.
Why it made the leaderboard
Closes the redraw gap between quick whiteboard sketches and polished architecture diagrams by keeping one YAML source that supports both freeform layout and diagram-as-code.
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Editorially curated, with community endorsements as a secondary signal. Corrections welcome.