Merlay 0.4.0 — Mindmaps, 4 Diagram Types, and Universal Themes
Mermaid, your way. A native visual overlay editor for Mermaid diagrams in Obsidian.
Merlay 0.4.0 is a major milestone expanding visual interactive editing to 4 diagram types, introducing native Mindmap editing, and bringing universal diagram themes with 100% portability.
🚀 What's New in 0.4.0
🧠 1. Mindmap Diagram Support
- Interactive Tree Editing: Full visual editing for hierarchical Mermaid mindmaps (
mindmap). - Subtopic Sprouting: Select any topic and click
+ Subtopicto sprout a child branch instantly. - Drag-to-Reparent: Drag any topic and release onto another topic to move branches across the tree.
- Node Shapes & Icons: Customize mindmap shapes (
circle,rounded,rectangle,cloud,bang/burst,hexagon) and preserve FontAwesome icons (::icon(...)) verbatim. - Sequential DOM Resolution: Resolves Mermaid's runtime SVG sequential IDs (
node_0,node_1) cleanly back to authored topics.
🎨 2. Universal Global Diagram Themes (Zero Lock-In)
- Official Themes Across All Diagrams: Easily switch between
Auto (System),Default,Neutral,Forest,Dark, andBasedirectly from the top bar. - 100% Standard YAML Frontmatter: Emits standard Mermaid v10+ configuration (
--- config: { theme: ... } ---). - Zero Lock-In: Pure native syntax that renders identically in GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and Mermaid Live Editor without proprietary metadata.
- Obsidian Auto Theme: Selecting
Auto (System)removes the theme override, automatically adapting to your active Obsidian dark/light mode.
📊 3. Four Fully Supported Diagram Types
Merlay now supports visual interactive editing across 4 diagram families:
- Flowcharts (
flowchart,graph): nodes, shapes, arrows, labels, subgraphs, direction. - State Diagrams (
stateDiagram-v2): states, choices, forks, joins, composites, start/end anchors. - Sequence Diagrams (
sequenceDiagram): participants, actors, messages, boxes, autonumber. - Mindmaps (
mindmap): central root, subtopics, branching hierarchy, shapes, icons.
(Other diagram kinds open in high-performance view-only mode with pan, zoom, and SVG element inspection).
⚡ 4. Unified Frontmatter Architecture & Reliability
- 100% Centralized Frontmatter: Fully unified frontmatter splitting and serialization across all diagram engines with zero duplicated parsing code.
- Preserve User Code: Unknown statements, comments, classes, and directives survive all visual edits verbatim.
- On-The-Fly Style Inheritance: Newly sprouted steps automatically inherit diagram default styles.
📦 Installation
BRAT (Beta): Add https://github.com/dev-hashemi/merlay in BRAT → Add Beta plugin.
Manual: Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the assets below into your vault under .obsidian/plugins/merlay/, then enable Merlay under Settings → Community plugins.
Requires Obsidian 1.4.0 or newer. Desktop and mobile supported.
Full Changelog: 0.3.2...0.4.0