---
title: Diagrams as Code
osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2023/program/proposals/942
beginning: '2023-11-04T11:30:00.000-07:00'
end: '2023-11-04T11:50:00.000-07:00'
resources:
  internet_archive_identifier: SeaGL2023-Diagrams_as_Code
presenters:
- name: Cameron Bielstein
  affiliation: Allen Institute for Brain Science
  osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/users/1057
  gravatar_id: 887d4b9a81eece116fbfca540d5503cf
  biography: Cameron Bielstein is a software engineering manager at the Allen Institute
    for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington. He is avid software and computer science
    mentor, an amateur radio operator, and a developer of some very niche open source
    projects. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from The University
    of Texas at Austin and is a proud community college graduate. When not writing
    code, Cameron can be found playing with his dog, eating tacos, or sailing.
---

Clear documentation is an important step to encouraging contributions to your open source project. For the visual learners, a diagram can be worth a thousand words. Mermaid is an open source library for generating diagrams from human-readable markdown-style text that can be easily maintained and updated.

In this hands-on demonstration, I will discuss potential benefits of diagrams in your documentation, introduce Mermaid, and code a few example diagrams. Attendees of this demonstration should expect to learn basic Mermaid syntax and usage to add visual diagrams to their markdown documentation and how to find resources for further learning.
