Plantuml Diagrams

PlantUML Diagrams

Use PlantUML when a formal UML or C4-style representation is useful.

Workflow

1. Select the diagram family before writing source.
2. Gather entities, relationships, lifecycle states, actors, or deployment nodes from real artifacts.
3. Write .puml as the source of truth.
4. Render locally if PlantUML is available; otherwise use Kroki only if network access is acceptable.
5. Keep generated images next to the .puml file and report both paths.

Diagram Selection

• Sequence: API calls, protocol flow, review/approval workflows.
• Activity: pipelines, decision logic, manuscript or experiment process.
• Class/component: codebase architecture and interfaces.
• Deployment: infrastructure, runtime topology, services.
• C4: context/container/component documentation.

Boundaries

• Do not force PlantUML for informal ideation; use Mermaid or Excalidraw instead.
• Do not send private architecture to remote Kroki without permission.
• Do not invent classes or services that are not present in source artifacts.