d2 - Man Page

• Compile and render a D2 source file into an output file: d2 path/to/input_file.d2 path/to/output_file.ext

• Watch live changes made to a D2 source file in the default web browser: d2 [-w|--watch] path/to/input_file.d2 path/to/output_file.ext

• Format a D2 source file: d2 fmt path/to/input_file.d2

• List available themes: d2 themes

• Use a different theme for the output file (list available themes first to get the desired theme_id): d2 [-t|--theme] theme_id path/to/input_file.d2 path/to/output_file.ext

• Make rendered diagrams look like hand sketches: d2 [-s|--sketch] true path/to/input_file.d2 path/to/output_file.ext

tldr.sh

d2 compiles and renders file.d2 to file.svg | file.png.

It defaults to file.svg if no output path is passed.

Pass - to have d2 read from stdin or write to stdout.

Never use the presence of the output file to check for success. Always use the exit status of d2. This is because sometimes when errors occur while rendering, d2 still write out a partial render anyway to enable iteration on a broken diagram.

See more docs, the source code and license at https://oss.terrastruct.com/d2.

Hosted icons at https://icons.terrastruct.com.

Playground runner at https://play.d2lang.com.

-w, --watch false

Watch for changes to input and live reload. Use $PORT and $HOST to specify the listening address.

-h, --host localhost

Host listening address when used with watch.

-p, --port 0

Port listening address when used with watch.

-t, --theme 0

Set the diagram theme ID.

--dark-theme -1

The theme to use when the viewer's browser is in dark mode. When left unset --theme is used for both light and dark mode. Be aware that explicit styles set in D2 code will still be applied and this may produce unexpected results. We plan on resolving this by making style maps in D2 light/dark mode specific. See https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/issues/831.

-s, --sketch false

Renders the diagram to look like it was sketched by hand.

--center flag

Center the SVG in the containing viewbox, such as your browser screen.

--scale -1

Scale the output. E.g., 0.5 to halve the default size. Default -1 means that SVG's will fit to screen and all others will use their default render size. Setting to 1 turns off SVG fitting to screen.

--font-regular

Path to .ttf file to use for the regular font. If none provided, Source Sans Pro Regular is used.

--font-italic

Path to .ttf file to use for the italic font. If none provided, Source Sans Pro Regular-Italic is used.

--font-bold

Path to .ttf file to use for the bold font. If none provided, Source Sans Pro Bold is used.

--pad 100

Pixels padded around the rendered diagram.

--animate-interval 0

If given, multiple boards are packaged as 1 SVG which transitions through each board at the interval (in milliseconds). Can only be used with SVG and GIF exports.

--browser true

Browser executable that watch opens. Setting to 0 opens no browser.

-l, --layout dagre

Set the diagram layout engine to the passed string. For a list of available options, run layout.

-b, --bundle true

Bundle all assets and layers into the output svg.

--force-appendix false

An appendix for tooltips and links is added to PNG exports since they are not interactive. Setting this to true adds an appendix to SVG exports as well.

--target

Target board to render. Pass an empty string to target root board. If target ends with '*', it will be rendered with all of its scenarios, steps, and layers. Otherwise, only the target board will be rendered. E.g. --target='' to render root board only or --target='layers.x.*' to render layer 'x' with all of its children.

-d, --debug

Print debug logs.

--img-cache true

In watch mode, images used in icons are cached for subsequent compilations. This should be disabled if images might change.

--timeout 120

The maximum number of seconds that D2 runs for before timing out and exiting. When rendering a large diagram, it is recommended to increase this value.

--check false

Check that the specified files are formatted correctly.

--salt string

Add a salt value to ensure the output uses unique IDs. This is useful when generating multiple identical diagrams to be included in the same HTML doc, so that duplicate id's do not cause invalid HTML. The salt value is a string that will be appended to IDs in the output..

-h, --help

Print usage information and exit.

-v, --version

Print version information and exit.

--stdout-format string

Set the output format when writing to stdout. Supported formats are: png, svg. Only used when output is set to stdout (-).

--no-xml-tag false

Omit XML tag (<?xml ...?>) from output SVG files. Useful when generating SVGs for direct HTML embedding.

layout

Lists available layout engine options with short help.

layout [name]

Display long help for a particular layout engine, including its configuration options.

themes

Lists available themes.

fmt file.d2 ...

Format all passed files

play file.d2

Opens the file in playground, an online web viewer (https://play.d2lang.com)

Many flags can also be set with environment variables.

D2_WATCH

See -w[atch] flag.

D2_LAYOUT

See -l[ayout] flag.

D2_THEME

See -t[heme] flag.

D2_DARK_THEME

See --dark-theme flag.

D2_PAD

See --pad flag.

D2_CENTER

See --center flag.

D2_SKETCH

See -s[ketch] flag.

D2_BUNDLE

See -b[undle] flag.

D2_FORCE_APPENDIX

See --force-appendix flag.

D2_FONT_REGULAR

See --font-regular flag.

D2_FONT_ITALIC

See --font-italic flag.

D2_FONT_BOLD

See --font-bold flag.

D2_FONT_SEMIBOLD

See --font-semibold flag.

D2_ANIMATE_INTERVAL

See --animate-interval flag.

D2_TIMEOUT

See --timeout flag.

D2_CHECK

See --check flag.

DEBUG

See -d[ebug] flag.

IMG_CACHE

See --img-cache flag.

HOST

See -h[ost] flag.

PORT

See -p[ort] flag.

BROWSER

See --browser flag.

D2_STDOUT_FORMAT

See --stdout-format flag.

D2_NO_XML_TAG

See --no-xml-tag flag.

d2plugin-tala(1)

Terrastruct Inc.