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before discovering d2, I wrote / vibe coded my own diagram generator: https://azriel.im/disposition

then after discovering it, I was too invested in my own project to switch -- the complexity in positioning nodes, routing edges to not draw over labels, taking into account nesting and rank dir gave me an appreciation for how hard these can be, and I kinda wanted my own version (plus other features)

azriel91on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)

A graphviz dot substitute in pure rust:

https://azriel.im/disposition/

Things I missed in original graphviz dot:

1. predictable / stable layout

2. dark and light mode css (tailwind)

3. interactive through pure css

4. markdown descriptions

Took ages understanding how to route edges to not overlap labels.

azriel91on Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)

A side-side(-side?) project:

- Imagined job I want to do: Teach software from the ground up, with good illustrations.

- Side: https://peace.mk/ - Create my own automation framework, because I want to make it clear what infrastructure-as-code is going to do before/during/after you run it

- side-side: https://azriel.im/disposition - a diagram generator like graphviz, but supports markdown, to visualise what infrastructure exists / will exist / will be deleted / is in progress when automation is running

- side-side-side: https://azriel.im/dioxus_codemirror - needed a code editor that supports LSP so manually creating diagrams is learnable

I'm back up the stack to the diagram generator, and hopefully soon back to the automation framework

azriel91on Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI?

"Hi everyone, today we're going to read the book of Acts."

opens terminal

(made me smile)

azriel91on Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI?

A graphviz substitute in rust:

https://azriel.im/disposition/

The text editor has an LSP built in to guide you to what can be entered, but see the examples.

I wanted a way to have visual documentation that can show/hide detail, and be pure svg so that it can be pasted into sites without becoming pixelated.

Also supports animations to show interactions between hosts, which always gets messy when drawing a static diagram.

azriel91on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)

Working on a GraphViz replacement (again):

Site: https://azriel.im/disposition

Repo: https://github.com/azriel91/disposition

It's written in Rust, has stable node positions, is stylable (and has default styling, dark mode styles), among other things.

The hardest part is calculating coordinates for edges:

- ranking nodes / positioning them when edges connect nodes of different nesting levels

- ensure edges don't overlap with nodes to not obscure content

- ensure edges don't overlap with each other

It's about 60% of what my version of "complete" looks like. Remaining parts:

- edge labels (might need a rewrite of how edge paths are calculated.

- images in nodes

- generating diagrams for different screen sizes

- LSP support (?)

azriel91on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)

An SVG diagram generator to substitute GraphViz in pure Rust:

https://azriel.im/disposition

Solves some problems that were hard to work around with GraphViz, e.g. default and customisable styling, light and dark mode, stable / predictable layout.

azriel91on My Life in Ambigrammia

I used to make these quite often: https://cards.azriel.im/

Now I still make them occasionally, though I haven't updated the blog for a while.

I find that tangible art could sometimes say "thank you" more than the utterance of the words themselves.

Also makes for a great wedding gift:

https://cards.azriel.im/2018/09/kevin-fiona.html

azriel91on You Have to Feel It

Does my side project provide any hope?

https://peace.mk/blog/checkpoint/

(old blog post, but I'm slow in making progress)

azriel91on Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2025)

Working on "wanting to live". It's hard to create desire within oneself when one has experienced intense sorrow.

Been trying the "do the thing, and desire comes after" for many things (baking, piano, skating, ..), but that hasn't really worked. What has seemed to work is connecting with people (crucial that they know how to connect back).

Made a little web app that helped me communicate: https://azriel.im/tears/

(I could just point to the number when I couldn't talk/listen)

azriel91on I'll think twice before using GitHub Actions again

there's:

https://github.com/Pernosco/gha-runner

but I'm not sure how complete it is, and probably doesn't satisfy the author's use cases

azriel91on Today I learned that bash has hashmaps (2024)

https://www.nushell.sh/

I use this as my main shell on Windows, and as a supplementary on Mac and Linux.

azriel91on Stupid Slow: The Perceived Speed of Computers

What I'd like is a future where software is "stupidly fast":

1. RIIR -- for native code execution performance, and correctness

2. async rust preferably -- green threads for efficient cpu usage

3. the constraint efficiency of game developers: 16 ms window to do all your processing

4. data structures sized to fit cache lines

5. vulkan/metal rendering pipeline

oh my

(edit: formatting)

azriel91on Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

1. A dove soft toy, that can tuck its wings:

- stencil: https://github.com/azriel91/dove_stencil/

- wings tucked: https://github.com/azriel91/dove_stencil/blob/main/photos/20...

Made this because one of my friends said she liked things with character, and I knew that a handmade soft toy wasn't "enough", and so letting it tuck its wings was that character.

2. Many ambigrams (words that when rotated upside down, read as the word). These ones are names for friends / acquaintances

- blog: https://cards.azriel.im/

- different names: https://cards.azriel.im/2018/09/kevin-fiona.html

- colour inversion: https://cards.azriel.im/2018/01/carlo.html

I still make them occasionally, just haven't updated the blog

edit: ah it's not markdown, links were codified

azriel91on Dot_ix: Interactive GraphViz Dot Graphs

Ah, I hadn't heard of SWIG until now, which means it's probably best for others who do use them to comment how useful they are.

I think, future me could find them useful, e.g. to ship a single binary (whether native or WASM), but I can't say how soon that would be.

azriel91on Dot_ix: Interactive GraphViz Dot Graphs

Heya, I made a toy web app that adds interactivity to GraphViz generated graphs.

My plan is to make my automation framework generate those graphs on a web page to visualize automation execution, e.g. by styling nodes and adding CSS animations.

GitHub repo: https://github.com/azriel91/dot_ix

enjoy

azriel91on A Social, Social Network

Ah, made me realize, if the network is meant to promote connection, it shouldn't strongly delete them, but perhaps move them to a "stale" / "inactive" list. Thanks!