Diagram tool
Sequence diagrams from text, verified
A sequence diagram answers the question every incident review and API discussion comes back to: what calls what, in what order? Chiltepin generates them from text — yours or your AI agent's — as typed blocks that chiltepin check can validate and CI can gate.
The block and its render
This is the sequence starter template. The shorthand message syntax (Client -> Server: request) keeps simple flows terse; the typed form adds message kinds, activations, and an endpoint header when you need them:
```sequence
id: seq-example
actors:
- { id: Client, name: Client }
- { id: Server, name: Server }
messages:
- Client -> +Server: request
- alt: cache hit
- Server --> -Client: 200 cached
- else: miss
- Server --> -Client: 200 fresh
- end
```Describe the flow, review the diff
The fastest sequence diagram is one you don't draw. Your agent can read the actual request path in the code, so "document the checkout flow as a sequence diagram" yields a block whose actors and messages match reality — and because the block has a schema, chiltepin check catches the message that references an actor that doesn't exist. The diagram is text in git: it diffs three lines when the flow changes, instead of becoming a stale PNG.
Part of the document, not a separate artifact
Sequence diagrams earn their keep inside API docs, design docs, and postmortems. Chiltepin renders the whole document — prose, tables, ERDs, architecture diagrams, and 20+ other diagram types — from one Markdown source to a static website, slides, or PDF. Try it in the playground right now: paste Markdown, watch the real pipeline render it.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the sequence diagram generator work?
- A sequence diagram in Chiltepin is a typed YAML block inside Markdown: actors, then messages between them, each with a kind (sync, async, response). Write it by hand in Studio or any editor, or describe the flow to your AI agent and let it write the block. The renderer turns it into a clean SVG at build time, and chiltepin check validates every actor and message reference.
- Can I generate a sequence diagram from text with AI?
- Yes — that is the intended workflow. After npx skills add jdiejim/chiltepin -g (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot and 70+ agents), your agent knows the block grammar; a prompt like "add a sequence diagram of the password-reset flow to docs/auth.md" produces a validated block. Because the agent can read your actual handlers, the diagram reflects the real flow, and the result arrives as a reviewable diff.
- Is this a UML sequence diagram?
- It follows UML sequence-diagram conventions — vertical lifelines per actor, horizontal arrows per message, solid for calls and dashed for responses — with a schema that supports sync, async, and response message kinds, plus an optional endpoint header for API flows.
- What does it cost?
- Nothing. Chiltepin is MIT-licensed open source; the browser Studio and playground are free with no signup, and rendering happens locally or at build time — there is no hosted service metering your diagrams.