Zigraph: Modular graph layout engine for DAG visualization

Showcase
1

I’ve been working on zigraph, a modular DAG layout engine. It started as a port of my rust library ascii-dag, but has evolved into something more ambitious i.e. graph layout layout infrastructure where each component can be used independently

  • Currently supports: Sugiyama layout (Median Heuristic, Barycenter) with Brandes-Kopf positioning
  • output supported are internal IR, terminal, SVG, JSON
  • BYOA (Bring your own Algorithm) - trying to be modular as much as I can

Examples:

Left SVG - direct line + debug ON, Right SVG - colored splines debug off, middle Terminal - colored debug off
Left SVG - direct line + debug ON, Right SVG - colored splines debug off, middle Terminal - colored debug off1920×714 266 KB

usage:

const std = @import("std");
const zigraph = @import("zigraph");

pub fn main() !void {
    var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
    defer _ = gpa.deinit();
    const allocator = gpa.allocator();

    // 1. Build the graph
    var graph = zigraph.Graph.init(allocator);
    defer graph.deinit();

    try graph.addNode(1, "Root");
    try graph.addNode(2, "Task A");
    try graph.addNode(3, "Task B");
    try graph.addNode(4, "Output");

    try graph.addEdge(1, 2);
    try graph.addEdge(1, 3);
    try graph.addEdge(2, 4);
    try graph.addEdge(3, 4);

    // 2. Render to Terminal (with colored edges!)
    const TUI = try zigraph.render(&graph, allocator, .{
        .edge_palette = &zigraph.colors.ansi_dark,
    });
    defer allocator.free(TUI);
    
    std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{TUI});

    // 3. Or export directly to SVG
    // const SVG = try zigraph.svg.render(&graph, allocator, .{ ... });
}

repo: GitHub - AshutoshMahala/zigraph: Zero-dependency graph layout engine for Zig. Visualize DAGs in the terminal (Unicode/ANSI), SVG, or JSON.

This is a v0.1 release, so things might be a bit rough. I’m open to all feedback and PRs to help smooth it out

11 Likes