Draw.io Skill

Create and edit draw.io diagrams through the configured drawio MCP server, including flowcharts, architecture diagrams, ML model diagrams, Chinese labels, animated connectors, and svg export.

Use this skill for all draw.io and diagrams.net work. This skill wraps the configured drawio MCP server; it does not replace the server.

Required workflow

1. Start the draw.io session first.

• Call start_session before creating a new diagram or before inspecting or editing a diagram in a fresh session.

2. Create new diagrams from complete XML.

• Use create_new_diagram with a full mxGraphModel.
• Keep the diagram within a single viewport when practical.

3. Read before editing.

• Always call get_diagram before edit_diagram.
• Do not guess cell IDs.
• Preserve user changes already present in the live session.

4. Export deliverables.

• Export .drawio for editable source.
• Export .svg when the user needs a shareable artifact or when the diagram uses animated connectors.

5. Report outputs clearly.

• Tell the user which files were exported and where they were written.

Export naming convention

• Write exports to the current workspace unless the user specifies a path.
• Derive a short kebab-case basename from the main topic when possible, such as user-login-flow, payment-architecture, or event-pipeline.
• If the topic is unclear, use diagram.
• For Chinese-language outputs, prefer an ASCII basename with a -zh suffix, such as order-flow-zh.
• For architecture diagrams, prefer -architecture, -topology, or -flow suffixes when they improve clarity.
• For machine-learning diagrams, prefer model-aware basenames such as lstm-architecture, transformer-blocks, or cnn-pipeline.
• When exporting both editable and shareable artifacts, keep the same basename for both, such as diagram.drawio and diagram.svg.
• Avoid spaces and non-ASCII characters in filenames unless the user explicitly requests them.

Language and labeling rules

• If the request is primarily in Simplified Chinese, reply in Simplified Chinese.
• If the user wants Chinese labels, legends, or summaries, keep the diagram wording in Simplified Chinese.
• Keep standard abbreviations and proper nouns in their common form, such as API, Kafka, Redis, Kubernetes, LSTM, CNN, and Transformer.
• Keep node text short enough to fit inside shapes.

General diagram rules

• Prefer clear left-to-right or top-to-bottom flow.
• Use explicit edge routing and waypoints when edges would otherwise overlap.
• Use titles, legends, and note boxes sparingly.
• Use color intentionally to separate data flow, control flow, or state.

Architecture-specific rules

• Identify the major layers first, such as clients, edge, services, data, and external systems.
• Draw boundaries for environments or trust zones when relevant, such as browser, VPC, cluster, region, or third-party systems.
• Keep arrows directional and semantically consistent.
• Label protocols, topics, or data contracts only when they matter to the reader.
• Use containers for service groups, domains, or infrastructure groups instead of loose boxes.

ML-diagram rules

• Show the main flow clearly from input to output.
• Use repeated blocks, grouped containers, and stage labels for model structure.
• Label tensor shape, sequence length, channel count, or embedding size only when it helps understanding.
• Use consistent color semantics for inputs, hidden states, attention paths, residual paths, and outputs.
• For recurrent or temporal models, make state flow visually distinct from data flow.
• For LSTM and RNN diagrams, separate cell state and hidden state.
• For Transformer diagrams, distinguish embeddings, attention, feed-forward blocks, residual paths, and normalization.
• For CNN diagrams, emphasize feature-map progression, pooling, skip paths, and classifier head.

Animated connectors

When the user asks for animated connectors, flowing lines, or moving dashed lines:

• Add edge styling such as dashed=1;dashPattern=8 4;flowAnimation=1;.
• Keep arrowheads explicit with endArrow=classic unless the requested style suggests otherwise.
• Export to .svg because the animation is preserved there.

Setup and recovery

This skill expects the drawio MCP server to already be configured and available.

• If the server is unavailable, tell the user that the drawio MCP connection needs to be configured or reconnected before continuing.
• After the connection is restored, restart the Codex session or reload the IDE window if the tools still do not appear.

Good triggers

• "Create a system diagram in draw.io"
• "Create a Chinese-labeled draw.io diagram"
• "Edit this flowchart"
• "Export the current diagram as draw.io and svg"
• "Create a diagram with animated connectors"
• "Turn this process into a draw.io diagram"
• "Create a cloud architecture diagram"
• "Map a deployment topology"
• "Draw a business process flowchart"
• "Create an animated LSTM diagram"
• "Draw a Transformer architecture"
• "Create a CNN block diagram"
• "Update the existing draw.io layout and keep the same structure"
• "Generate a box-and-arrow diagram for this workflow"

Limitations

• This skill depends on a working drawio MCP server.
• The editing workflow operates on the live draw.io session state exposed by the MCP tools.
• This skill does not bundle or install the MCP server by itself.