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Markdown Preview Mermaid Support

Markdown Preview Mermaid Support

Matt Bierner

|
3,920,504 installs
| (55) | Free
Adds Mermaid diagram and flowchart support to VS Code's builtin markdown preview
Installation
Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl+P), paste the following command, and press enter.
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Markdown Preview Mermaid Support

Adds Mermaid diagram and flowchart support to VS Code's builtin Markdown preview and to Markdown cells in notebooks.

A mermaid diagram in VS Code's built-in markdown preview

Currently supports Mermaid version 11.12.0.

Usage

Create diagrams in markdown using mermaid fenced code blocks:

```mermaid
graph TD;
    A-->B;
    A-->C;
    B-->D;
    C-->D;
```

You can also use ::: blocks:

::: mermaid
graph TD;
    A-->B;
    A-->C;
    B-->D;
    C-->D;
:::

Supports MDI and logos icons from Iconify:

```mermaid
architecture-beta
    service user(mdi:account)
    service lambda(logos:aws-lambda)

    user:R --> L:lambda
```

Navigating Diagrams

Mermaid diagrams support panning and zooming to help explore large or complex diagrams. By default, navigation controls appear when you hover over or focus on a diagram. You can also navigate diagrams using the mouse:

Zooming

To zoom in and out of diagrams:

  • Zoom controls — Use the + and - buttons that appear in the navigation controls
  • Scroll wheel — Hold alt (option on Mac) and scroll to zoom
  • Pinch-to-zoom — Use a trackpad pinch gesture
  • Click zoom — Alt+click to zoom in, Alt+Shift+click to zoom out

To reset the zoom level and position, click the reset button in the controls.

Panning

To pan around a diagram:

  • Click and drag — Hold alt (option on Mac) and click and drag to pan
  • Pan mode — Click the pan mode button in the navigation controls to enable click-and-drag panning without holding alt. Click it again to turn off pan mode.

By default, click-and-drag panning requires holding the alt key to prevent accidental panning. Use markdown-mermaid.mouseNavigation.enabled to change this:

  • always — Click and drag always pans (no modifier key needed)
  • alt — Click and drag only pans when holding alt (default)
  • never — Disable mouse-based panning (controls and pinch-to-zoom still work)

Configuration

  • markdown-mermaid.lightModeTheme — Configures the Mermaid theme used when VS Code is using a light color theme.

    Supported values:

    • base
    • forest
    • dark
    • default
    • neutral

    Currently not supported in notebooks.

  • markdown-mermaid.darkModeTheme — Configures the Mermaid theme used when VS Code is using a dark color theme.

    Supported values:

    • base
    • forest
    • dark
    • default
    • neutral

    Currently not supported in notebooks.

  • markdown-mermaid.languages — Configures language ids used to identify Mermaid code blocks in markdown. The default is ["mermaid"].

  • markdown-mermaid.mouseNavigation.enabled — Controls when mouse-based navigation (panning and zooming) is enabled. The default is alt.

    Supported values:

    • always — Always enable mouse navigation on mermaid diagrams
    • alt — Only enable mouse navigation when holding down alt (option on Mac)
    • never — Disable mouse navigation
  • markdown-mermaid.controls.show — When to show navigation control buttons. The default is onHoverOrFocus.

    Supported values:

    • never — Never show navigation controls
    • onHoverOrFocus — Show navigation controls when hovering over or focusing on a diagram
    • always — Always show navigation controls
  • markdown-mermaid.maxTextSize — Maximum allowed size of diagram text. The default is 50000.

Using custom CSS in the Markdown Preview

You can use the built-in functionality to add custom CSS. More info can be found in the markdown.styles documentation

For example, add Font Awesome like this:

"markdown.styles": [
    "https://use.fontawesome.com/releases/v5.7.1/css/all.css"
]

Use it like this:

```mermaid
graph LR
    fa:fa-check-->fa:fa-coffee
```
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