Pele – Mermaid diagrams as themeable SVG

	Pele – Mermaid diagrams as themeable SVG(pele.run)
	588 points by dchest 8 days ago \| 60 comments
	tl;dr: Pele is a zero-dependency library that renders Mermaid syntax to themeable SVG, claiming to be 6× smaller (230 kB gzipped) and up to 500× faster than Mermaid.js while supporting all diagram types in Mermaid 12.1.0. It uses CSS variables for theming, so color changes apply without re-rendering. Originally built for Obsidian, it's open source and installable via npm.
	HN Discussion: ↑Pele solves real pain points with Mermaid rendering weight and styling ~Mermaid's layout engine is fundamentally poor, bigger issue than styling ↑Pele's specific features like subgraph direction handling are compelling ↓Alternatives like D2Lang are preferable to Mermaid entirely •Questions and clarifications about Pele's capabilities and open source status