But I'm disappointed to find out that it's just based on mermaid-ascii (and AI agents), rather than being something brand new.

Diagrams are essential for AI-assisted programming. When you're working with an AI coding assistant, being able to visualize data flows, state machines, and system architecture—directly in your terminal or chat interface—makes complex concepts instantly graspable.

The ASCII rendering engine is based on mermaid-ascii by Alexander Grooff. We ported it from Go to TypeScript and extended it. Thank you Alexander for the excellent foundation! (And inspiration that this was possible.)