wallacedobbs428/cli-anything-drawio

cli-anything-drawio

A CLI harness for Draw.io — create, edit, and export diagrams from the command line.

Installation

This CLI is installed as part of the cli-anything-drawio package:

pip install cli-anything-drawio

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.10+
• drawio must be installed on your system

Usage

Basic Commands

# Show help
cli-anything-drawio --help

# Start interactive REPL mode
cli-anything-drawio

# Create a new project
cli-anything-drawio project new -o project.json

# Run with JSON output (for agent consumption)
cli-anything-drawio --json project info -p project.json

REPL Mode

When invoked without a subcommand, the CLI enters an interactive REPL session:

cli-anything-drawio
# Enter commands interactively with tab-completion and history

Command Groups

Project

Project management: new, open, save, info.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | new | Create a new blank diagram | | open | Open an existing .drawio project file | | save | Save the current project | | info | Show detailed project information | | xml | Print the raw XML of the current project | | presets | List available page size presets |

Shape

Shape operations: add, remove, move, resize, style.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | add | Add a shape to the diagram | | remove | Remove a shape by ID | | list | List all shapes on a page | | label | Update a shape's label text | | move | Move a shape to new coordinates | | resize | Resize a shape | | style | Set a style property on a shape | | info | Show detailed info about a shape | | types | List all available shape types |

Connect

Connector operations: add, remove, style.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | add | Add a connector between two shapes | | remove | Remove a connector by ID | | label | Update a connector's label | | style | Set a style property on a connector | | list | List all connectors on a page | | styles | List available edge styles |

Page

Page operations: add, remove, rename, list.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | add | Add a new page | | remove | Remove a page by index | | rename | Rename a page | | list | List all pages |

Export

Export operations: render to PNG, PDF, SVG.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | render | Export the diagram to a file | | formats | List available export formats |

Session

Session management: status, undo, redo.

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | status | Show current session status | | undo | Undo the last operation | | redo | Redo the last undone operation | | save-state | Save session state to disk | | list | List all saved sessions |

Examples

Create a New Project

Create a new drawio project file.

cli-anything-drawio project new -o myproject.json
# Or with JSON output for programmatic use
cli-anything-drawio --json project new -o myproject.json

Interactive REPL Session

Start an interactive session with undo/redo support.

cli-anything-drawio
# Enter commands interactively
# Use 'help' to see available commands
# Use 'undo' and 'redo' for history navigation

Export Project

Export the project to a final output format.

cli-anything-drawio --project myproject.json export render output.pdf --overwrite

State Management

The CLI maintains session state with:

• Undo/Redo: Up to 50 levels of history
• Project persistence: Save/load project state as JSON
• Session tracking: Track modifications and changes

Output Formats

All commands support dual output modes:

• Human-readable (default): Tables, colors, formatted text
• Machine-readable (--json flag): Structured JSON for agent consumption

# Human output
cli-anything-drawio project info -p project.json

# JSON output for agents
cli-anything-drawio --json project info -p project.json

For AI Agents

When using this CLI programmatically:

1. Always use --json flag for parseable output
2. Check return codes - 0 for success, non-zero for errors
3. Parse stderr for error messages on failure
4. Use absolute paths for all file operations
5. Verify outputs exist after export operations

More Information

• Full documentation: See README.md in the package
• Test coverage: See TEST.md in the package
• Methodology: See HARNESS.md in the cli-anything-plugin

Version

1.0.0