Writing on diagrams as code.
Practical posts on cloud architecture diagrams, validating them against AWS, Azure, and GCP best practices, and drawing real production systems as text.
How do you diagram a serverless AWS architecture (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB) in Mermaid?
Diagram a serverless AWS stack in Mermaid architecture-beta: why Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, and Cognito sit at the Region level with no VPC, the request path to draw, and the one VPC-attached Lambda exception.
How do you diagram an AWS VPC (subnets, NAT, and gateways) in Mermaid?
Diagram an AWS VPC in Mermaid architecture-beta: where public vs private subnets, the NAT gateway, Internet Gateway, and S3 gateway endpoints belong.
How do you turn Terraform into an AWS architecture diagram with Mermaid?
Terraform provisions AWS but gives you no readable architecture diagram — terraform graph only emits a low-level dependency graph. Here is how to turn your Terraform, or its plan JSON, into a validated Mermaid architecture-beta diagram: the diagramming options compared, an LLM grounding workflow, and a worked multi-tier example checked at zero rule violations in LatixEngine.
Mermaid vs AWS Application Composer: which should you use for AWS architecture diagrams?
AWS Application Composer (now Infrastructure Composer) builds and deploys infrastructure; Mermaid architecture-beta diagrams document and communicate it. A side-by-side comparison of what each is for, where each wins, and the workflow that uses both together — with a validated Mermaid example.
What are the most common AWS architecture patterns in Mermaid (with copy-paste examples)?
A gallery of five ready-to-paste AWS reference architectures in Mermaid architecture-beta: three-tier web app, serverless API, static site, container microservices, and an event-driven pipeline — each a complete diagram built from real AWS icon slugs and validated at zero rule violations.
How does Mermaid architecture-beta syntax work? A complete reference
A complete reference for Mermaid's architecture-beta syntax: the four building blocks (groups, services, edges, junctions), port-based edges, the L/R/T/B directions, the {group} edge modifier, junctions, deterministic layout, and how AWS icon slugs plug in.
What are the most common AWS architecture mistakes (and how do you catch them)?
The most common AWS architecture mistakes — public databases, single-AZ deployments, API Gateway wired to RDS, misplaced NAT gateways, managed services inside a VPC — why each is wrong, and how to catch them in the diagram before they ship.
How do you render and embed Mermaid AWS architecture diagrams in GitHub, Notion, and Confluence?
GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and Obsidian render plain Mermaid natively, but architecture-beta diagrams with AWS icon packs are not reliably supported on any platform yet. Here is the export-and-commit workflow that renders identically everywhere, platform by platform.
How do you get ChatGPT or Claude to generate valid Mermaid AWS architecture diagrams?
ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini all produce Mermaid architecture-beta source on demand — and all three hallucinate AWS icon slugs. Here is the prompting pattern that fixes it, the slugs they get wrong most often, and a side-by-side comparison of grounded vs ungrounded output.
How do you draw AWS architecture diagrams in Mermaid?
A practical walkthrough of drawing AWS architecture diagrams in Mermaid: the architecture-beta syntax, native AWS icons, VPC and subnet examples, exports, and how it compares to draw.io and Lucidchart.