Mermaid Islands

Renders Mermaid diagrams and SVG graphics as visual overlays directly within your code comments.

Usage

Mermaid Diagrams

Wrap your Mermaid diagram code in comments:

// mermaid
// graph LR
//     A[Start] --> B{x > y}
//     B -->|Yes| C[x]
//     B -->|No| D[y]
// end-mermaid
int max(int x, int y) {
  return (x > y) ? x : y;
}

SVG Graphics

Wrap your SVG code in comments:

// svg
// <svg width="200" height="100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
//   <rect x="10" y="10" width="180" height="80" fill="#4CAF50" stroke="#2E7D32" stroke-width="2"/>
//   <text x="100" y="55" text-anchor="middle" font-family="Arial" font-size="16" fill="white">
//     Hello SVG!
//   </text>
// </svg>
// end-svg
console.log("Custom graphics in comments!");

The diagram or graphic will appear as a visual overlay above the comment block.

Features

• Real-time rendering - Diagrams update as you type
• Smart editing - Diagrams hide when editing the comment
• Dynamic sizing - Automatically scales with your editor settings
• All diagram types - Supports flowcharts, sequence diagrams, class diagrams, etc.
• SVG support - Render custom SVG graphics alongside Mermaid diagrams
• Theme awareness - Adapts to VS Code's Light, Dark, and High Contrast themes
• Multi-language comments - Works with // /* */ # -- comment styles

Requirements

• VS Code 1.102.0+
• Web browser - One of the following:
  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Chromium
  • Or run npx puppeteer browsers install chrome to download Chromium
• Internet connection (loads Mermaid library from CDN)

Browser Setup

This extension requires a web browser for diagram rendering. It will automatically detect browsers in this order:

1. User-configured path (see Configuration section)
2. Auto-detected system browsers (Chrome, Edge, Chromium)
3. Bundled Chromium (if downloaded separately)

If No Browser is Found

If you see "No browser found" errors:

1. Install a supported browser:

   • Google Chrome
   • Microsoft Edge (Windows/macOS)
   • Chromium (Linux: sudo apt install chromium-browser)

2. Or download Chromium for this extension:

   npx puppeteer browsers install chrome

3. Or configure a custom browser path (see Configuration)

Configuration

You can specify a custom browser path in VS Code settings:

1. Open Settings (Ctrl/Cmd + ,)
2. Search for "Mermaid Islands"
3. Set Browser Path to your browser executable

Common paths:

• Windows: C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
• macOS: /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome
• Linux: /usr/bin/google-chrome

Or add to your settings.json:

{
  "mermaid-islands.browserPath": "/path/to/your/browser"
}

Installation

Install from VS Code Marketplace or build from source:

npm install
npm run compile

Then press F5 to test in Extension Development Host.