> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://globalfeed.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Eraser opens its diagram format under MIT: models can now say where each box goes
- URL: https://globalfeed.ai/en/eraser-opens-its-diagram-format-under-mit-models-can-now-say-where-each-box-goes/
- Published: 2026-09-08T20:29:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T20:29:00.000Z
- Description: Mermaid, D2 and Graphviz hand layout to an engine; the language cannot say where a box belongs. The format Eraser has opened lets the model emit coordinates directly. The reason: models learned coordinate layout in late 2025.
- Author: GlobalFeed Editor
- Tags: Eraser, diagrams, open source, MIT license, developer tools, x-eraserlabs, dil-en, elle, video, x-gitti

**Eraser** has open-sourced its diagram format under the **MIT licence**. This is not a new drawing tool. It is a **format**, and its point is that an AI describing a diagram should also be able to say where the boxes go.

## The problem

Until now AI diagram tools, Eraser's own included, let the model say only **what connects to what** and handed layout to an engine. In Eraser's words: **"Mermaid is a relationship language. It has no way to say where anything goes, layout is delegated to an engine by design."** The same holds for D2 and Graphviz.

That was a choice, not a flaw, because models were poor at translating design intent into coordinates. The output was overlapping nodes and spaghetti lines. According to Eraser this **changed in late 2025 and early 2026**: frontier models became genuinely fluent at coordinate-based layout. The new capability then had nowhere to land, because no format could carry it.

## Why not an existing format

Eraser rules out the alternatives one by one. **SVG and HTML** are too low-level, with no semantic notion of nodes and edges. **Draw.io XML** is too verbose and token-expensive. **Mermaid, D2 and Graphviz** cannot express coordinates. The opened format fills the gap between them: semantic nodes and edges, plus explicit coordinates, plus strong defaults, in a syntax a model can emit cheaply.

## Why open it

The company's reasoning: if human comprehension is the bottleneck in human-agent collaboration, the fix has to have maximum reach. Everywhere an agent needs to show a human its work, or help someone grasp a complex system.

The licence is MIT, so commercial use is free, though the repository is kept closed to outside contribution. The announcement gives no adoption or performance figures.

Sources: [Eraser blog post](https://eraser.io/blog/open-sourcing-eraser-diagrams?ref=globalfeed.ai), [github.com/eraserlabs/eraser-diagrams](https://github.com/eraserlabs/eraser-diagrams?ref=globalfeed.ai).