Eraser?

KINDAYou can build the valuable core, but the established product has meaningful operational complexity. Pick one narrow promise for v1.

BUILD FIRST

One specific customer type and one primary use case
A vertical slice that completes the main job without manual workarounds
Visible limits, review steps, and a fallback when an external dependency fails

LEAVE FOR LATER

Broad third-party integrations
High-scale collaboration, syncing, and permissions
Automation that can cause harm without human review

RESEARCH NOTES

What this tool actually does.

Checked 2026-09-06

Eraser (eraser.io) is an AI-powered diagramming and technical documentation tool aimed at software engineers. It generates editable diagrams — architecture, sequence, flow, ERD, and BPMN — from natural-language prompts, pasted code, uploaded images, or files such as Terraform configs and database schemas, then auto-arranges layout. Its differentiator is diagram-as-code: every diagram is stored as human-readable, markdown-style text that can be read, diffed, reviewed, and edited via a visual editor or a VS Code extension. AI output is fully editable and refinable by chat. Templates, style rules, and references keep diagrams consistent and on-brand. It integrates with GitHub (Eraserbot monitors a connected repository and updates diagrams/docs as code changes), Notion, Confluence, Slack, and exposes an MCP server for coding agents. Design docs get a markdown editor and can sync to Confluenc

SOURCES

RESEARCHED BUILD PROMPT

Give this to your coding agent.

Build 'DiagramScribe', an open-source web app replacing Eraser's core diagram-as-code workflow: engineers author technical diagrams as text in a split-pane editor and see a clean, auto-laid-out diagram (architecture, sequence, flow, ERD) rendered on an infinite canvas. Requirements: (1) a small documented custom syntax for entities, relations, sequence actors/messages, and style hints, with auto-layout and SVG/PNG/Mermaid export; (2) a local-first file-based store where each diagram/doc is a Markdown file, so teams can version and diff diagrams in Git with a tiny CLI (e.g., `diagramscribe render`, `diagramscribe watch`) — a watcher mode regenerates diagrams when source files change; (3) optional AI generation via any OpenAI-compatible API: pasting a code snippet or describing a system yields diagram code that stays fully editable; LLM features must be off by default with no vendor lock-in; (4) a minimal Markdown editor for design docs that embeds diagrams; (5) rendering in the browser, not server-side images. Use TypeScript + React, an SVG/canvas renderer, and a declarative layout engine (Dagre or ELK); persist as Markdown + a lockfile. Do NOT copy Eraser's brand, logo, UI styling, or proprietary syntax; invent your own syntax and visual design. Out of scope: real-time multiplayer collaboration, hosted SaaS, native GitHub/Notion/Confluence integrations, or any SOC 2/compliance claims. Deliver a README covering setup, full syntax reference, and known limitations (layout edge cases, LLM output quality, degraded performance on very large diagrams).

Visit the official product page