Graphviz & DBML

Graphviz (Gansner and North 2000) has been the reference system for automatic graph layout for over two decades, and its dot language is correspondingly the best-known graph notation in existence — which makes it a natural fit for agent-authored figures. Quarto supports dot in executable code cells; livefigures adds what that leaves out: file-referenced .dot/.gv figures with caching and full figure semantics (Figure 1). DBML (Figure 2) brings the same treatment to database schemas: tables, types, and relationships in a compact DSL that renders to an entity-relationship diagram. Both render locally — no network involved. Click to zoom.

Figure 1: A dependency graph, inline dot

Figure 2: A schema, inline DBML

References

Gansner, Emden R., and Stephen C. North. 2000. “An Open Graph Visualization System and Its Applications to Software Engineering.” Software: Practice and Experience 30 (11): 1203–33.