Introduction

hiearch is a CLI utility that generates multiple diagrams (views) from a common textual description. hiearch supports node hierarchies that are automatically expanded, collapsed, or hidden, depending on configuration of a particular view. In this sense the utility is more similar to visualization tools like https://structurizr.com than to classic generators such as graphviz. Currently, hiearch uses graphviz to generate diagrams, but other backends may be added in the future.

The main purpose of hiearch is graphical representation of complex systems, but it is meant to be generic and may find other applications.

Why would anyone need another diagram generator when there are many other tools supporting UML, C4, etc? I believe that the most important aspects of the system are its decomposition into components and connections between them, hiearch provides just that, nothing more, so that you can focus on documenting your system rather than fitting it into a specific design framework.

Features

hiearch does not use a DSL, but rather parses a set of input yaml files in arbitrary order. The file contents get composed into a single description, which, in turn, gets decomposed into views.
hiearch also accepts input files in graphviz format with dot or gv extension. graphviz files are internally converted to hiearch representation. This way hiearch views can be applied to graphviz files generated by other tools.
Description files have flat structure without nesting or inclusion and contain lists of the following objects: nodes, edges, and views. Hierarchical relations between nodes are specified using node parameters.
Unlike graphviz, hiearch does not have a concept of subgraphs: each node may automatically become a subgraph depending on a view.
hiearch is also somewhat stricter than graphviz: for example, all nodes must be defined explicitly and cannot be deduced from edge definitions.
View is not the same thing as graphviz layer https://graphviz.org/docs/attrs/layer/: graphviz places all nodes on each layer and simply makes some of them invisible, which results in awkward spacing.
hiearch allows nodes to have multiple parent nodes, which is referenced here as ‘multiscoping’. The idea is, of course, to show parents in different views, for example, to outline system from logical or hardware point of view. However, it is possible to visualize all parents in the same diagram, which may be a bit kinky.
hiearch supports label templates, which facilitates automatic generation of URLs, tables, icon inclusions, etc.
There are a few predefined styles distributed with the utility, e.g., for generation of state machine graphs.

Installation

pipx install hiearch

Examples

Command line options

usage: hiearch [-h] [-o OUTPUT] [-f FORMAT] [-t TEMP_DIR] <filename> [<filename> ...]

Generates diagrams

positional arguments:
  <filename>            Input files

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output directory [./]
  -f FORMAT, --format FORMAT
                        Output format [SVG]
  -t TEMP_DIR, --temp-dir TEMP_DIR
                        Temporary files output directory (defaults to output directory)

Trivial

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]  # [label, unique id]
edges:
    - link: [test1, test1]   # [from node id, to node id]
views:
    - id: view1              # unique id / output filename
      nodes: [test1]         # nodes to include

Node relations

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
      graphviz:  # set graphviz attributes directly
        fillcolor: grey
        style: filled
    - id: ["Test 2", test2]
      graphviz:  # set graphviz attributes directly
        fillcolor: aqua
        style: filled
    - id: ["Test 3", test3]
      scope: test1  # test3 is contained in test1
      style: test2  # test3 inherits all test2 attributes
edges:
    - link: [test3, test3]
views:
    - id: view1
      nodes: [test2, test3]
    - id: view2  # test1 is shown as subgraph
      nodes: [test1, test3]
    - id: view3
      nodes: [test1, test2]

Node selection using tags

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
      # tags: ["default"] if not specified
    - id: ["Test 2", test2]
      tags: ["test2_tag"]
edges:
    - link: [test1, test1]
    - link: [test2, test2]
views:
    - id: view1
      tags: ["test2_tag"]
    - id: view2
      tags: ["default"]

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
# if no views are specified explicitly, a default one is
# added with 'tags: ["default"]'

default

Style inheritance without tags

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Node A", node_a]
      tags: ["custom_tag"]
      graphviz:
        fillcolor: grey
        style: filled
    - id: ["Node B", node_b]
      style: node_a
    - id: ["Node C", node_c]
      # no need to explicitly override inherited tags,
      # which is useful for dealing with pure style nodes.
      style_notag: node_a
views:
    - id: view_default          # includes node C
    - id: view_custom           # includes nodes A and B
      tags: ["custom_tag"]

view_default

view_custom

Neighbour node selection

There are several types on automated node selection:

explicit -- only explicitly specified nodes are selected;
direct -- explicitly specified and their direct connections;
parent -- similar to direct, but instead of directly connected nodes their top-most parents (scopes) are selected;
recursive_in, recursive_out, recursive_all -- recursively expand connections of explicitly selected nodes.

----------------------------------------------------------- nodes: - id: ["Node A", node_a] - id: ["Node B", node_b] - id: ["Node C", node_c] scope: [node_b] - id: ["Node D", node_d] edges: - link: [node_a, node_c] - link: [node_c, node_d] views: - id: explicit nodes: [node_a] # only node_a #neighbours: explicit - id: direct nodes: [node_a] # node_a and node_c (directly connected) neighbours: direct - id: parent nodes: [node_a] # node_a and node_b (parent of connected node C) neighbours: parent - id: recursive_out nodes: [node_a] # node_a, node_c, node_d (all connected) # + node_b -- parent of c neighbours: recursive_out - id: recursive_in nodes: [node_d] # node_a, node_c, node_d (all connected) # + node_b -- parent of c neighbours: recursive_in - id: recursive_in_c nodes: [node_c] # node_a, node_c neighbours: recursive_in	explicit
	direct
	parent
	recursive_in
	recursive_out
	recursive_in_c

View expansion

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Node A", node_a]
      tags: [group1]
    - id: ["Node B", node_b]
      tags: [group1]
    - id: ["Node C", node_c]
      scope: [node_b]
    - id: ["Node D", node_d]
    - id: ["Node E", node_e]
    - id: ["Node F", node_f]
    - id: ["Node H", node_h]
edges:
    - link: [node_a, node_c]
    - link: [node_c, node_d]
    - link: [node_d, node_e]
    - link: [node_e, node_f]
    - link: [node_f, node_h]
    - link: [node_a, node_b]
views:
- id: tag_based_recursive_out
tags: [group1]
# create additional views based on the current one:
#  - for each node selected in the current view
#    add a view, where this node is present as well
#    as its relations specified in expand array;
#  - note that only nodes present in the original
#    view are shown in new views;
#  - original view is preserved;
#  - expanded views inherit properties of the
#    original.
expand: [recursive_out]

original

tag_based_recursive_out_node_a_recursive_out

node A expansion

tag_based_recursive_out_node_b_recursive_out

node B expansion

View styles

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
edges:
    - link: [test1, test1]
views:
    - id: style
      nodes: []  # explicitly empty view is not rendered
      # defaults, overriden by node/edge attributes
      graphviz:
          graph:
              style: filled
              bgcolor: coral
          node:
              fontsize: "24"
              fontname: times
          edge:
              dir: both
    - id: styled
      nodes: [test1]
      style: style  # inherit style from another view
    - id: plain
      nodes: [test1]

styled

plain

Edge labels

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
    - id: ["Test 2", test2]
edges:
    - link: [test1, test1]
      label: 'test1_edge'
    - link: [test2, test2]
      label: ['tail', 'middle', 'head']
views:
    - id: view1
      nodes: [test1]
    - id: view2
      nodes: [test2]

Edge styles

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
    - id: ["Test 2", test2]
    - id: ["Test 3", test3]
    # helper node to define "invisible" edges used purely
    # as style templates
    - id: ["StyleNode", stylenode]
      # invisible unless this tag is requested in a view
      # note that tags are inherited too
      tags: ["mystyle"]
edges:
    # "pure" style link
    - link: [stylenode, stylenode, stylelink]
      graphviz:
        color: red
    - link: [test1, test1]
      label: 'test1'
      style: stylelink
    # optional third link parameter introduces an explicit
    # id, which must be unique
    - link: [test2, test2, edge2]
      # style can be referenced by link attribute
      style: [test1, test1]
      graphviz:
        dir: both
    - link: [test3, test3]
      # style can also be an explicit id
      style: edge2
      graphviz:
        color: blue
views:
    - id: view1
      nodes: [test1]
    - id: view2
      nodes: [test2]
    - id: view3
      nodes: [test3]

Formatted labels

nodes:
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
      # https://www.svgrepo.com/svg/479843/duck-toy-illustration-3
      # https://www.svgrepo.com/svg/479405/casa-pictogram-5
      graphviz:
        node_label_format: '<<table><tr><td><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asherikov/hiearch/master/icon_{id}.svg"/></td><td>{label}</td></tr></table>>'
        scope_label_format: '<<table><tr><td><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asherikov/hiearch/master/icon_{id}.svg"/></td><td>Scope: {label}</td></tr></table>>'
    - id: ["Test 2", test2]
      scope: test1
    - id: ["Test 3", test3]
      tags: []
      substitutions:
        suffix: '!'
      graphviz:
        node_label_format: '<<table><tr><td><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asherikov/hiearch/master/icon_{style}.svg"/></td><td>{label}{suffix}</td></tr></table>>'
    - id: ["Test 4", test4]
      style: test3
views:
    - id: view1
      nodes: [test1]
    - id: view2
      nodes: [test1, test2]
    - id: view3
      nodes: [test4]

Note that SVG with other embedded SVG is not always rendered properly, and embedded pictures may get lost during conversion to other formats. The PNG files below were generated with rsvg-convert view1.svg --format=png --output=view1.png, exporting directly to PNG using graphviz won’t work. Also, the included images must be present in the output directory.

Multiscoping

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    # root nodes
    - id: ["Test 1", test1]
    - id: ["Test 2", test2]
    # child nodes
    - id: ["Test 3", test3]
      # a child of both root nodes: if both scopes are
      # present in a view they are automatically ranked
      # to form a hierarchy
      scope: [test1, test2]
    # Both root nodes also include non-shared nodes.
    # Since is not possible to visualize overlaping
    # subgraphs with graphviz, one of them is going to be
    # divided into two parts.
    - id: ["Test 4", test4]
      scope: test2
    - id: ["Test 5", test5]
      scope: [test1]
views:
    - id: default
      tags: ["default"]
    - id: autoranking
      nodes: [test1, test2, test3]

autoranking

default

Predefined styles

All predefined styles are automatically added to input files on invocation of hiearch.
Generally it is necessary to override tags inherited from style nodes.

State machine

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["", choice1]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_choice
    - id: [state1, state1]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_regular
    - id: [state2, state2]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_regular
    - id: ["", fork1]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_junction
    - id: ["", join2]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_junction
    - id: ["", start]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_initial
    - id: ["", end1]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_final
    - id: ["", end2]
      style_notag: hh_state_machine_final
edges:
    - link: [start, choice1]
      label: "from start\nto choice"
    - link: [choice1, fork1]
      label: "from choice\nto fork"
    - link: [choice1, join2]
      label: "from choice\nto join"
    - link: [choice1, end2]
      label: "from choice\nto end"
    - link: [fork1, state1]
      label: "from fork\nto state"
    - link: [fork1, state2]
      label: "from fork\nto state"
    - link: [state2, join2]
      label: "from state\nto join"
    - link: [state1, end1]
      label: "from state\nto end"
    - link: [join2, end1]
      label: "from join\nto end"
views:
    # Example
    - id: state_machine_example
      style: hh_state_machine_view
      # override empty selection inherited from style view
      tags: ["default"]

state machine example

Use Case

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["User", user]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_actor
    - id: ["Admin", admin]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_actor
    - id: ["Login System", system_boundary]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_system_boundary
    - id: ["Login", login]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_case
      scope: system_boundary
    - id: ["Logout", logout]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_case
      scope: system_boundary
    - id: ["Reset Password", reset_password]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_case
      scope: system_boundary
    - id: ["Register", register]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_case
      scope: system_boundary
    - id: ["Validate Credentials", validate_credentials]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_case
      scope: system_boundary
    - id: ["2FA Authentication", two_factor_auth]
      style_notag: hh_use_case_case
      scope: system_boundary
edges:
    - link: [user, login]
      style: hh_use_case_association
    - link: [user, logout]
      style: hh_use_case_association
    - link: [user, reset_password]
      style: hh_use_case_association
    - link: [user, register]
      style: hh_use_case_association
    - link: [admin, reset_password]
      style: hh_use_case_association
    - link: [login, validate_credentials]
      style: hh_use_case_include
    - link: [two_factor_auth, login]
      style: hh_use_case_extend
views:
    - id: use_case_example
      style: hh_use_case_view
      # override empty selection inherited from style view
      tags: ["default"]

use case example

Dinit service graph

-----------------------------------------------------------
nodes:
    - id: ["cdinit_log", cdinit_log]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["cdinit_sessionsync", cdinit_sessionsync]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["cdinit_ros2_bag", cdinit_ros2_bag]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4_offboard_demo_py_node",
            px4_offboard_demo_py_node]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_dds_agent", px4sitl_dds_agent]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_gz_clock", px4sitl_gz_clock]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_gz_headless", px4sitl_gz_headless]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_gz_gui", px4sitl_gz_gui]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_gz_wait", px4sitl_gz_wait]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_scripted
    - id: ["px4sitl_px4", px4sitl_px4]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_qgroundcontrol",
            px4sitl_qgroundcontrol]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_process
    - id: ["px4sitl_ros", px4sitl_ros]
      style_notag: hh_dinit_internal
edges:
    - link: [px4_offboard_demo_py_node, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4_offboard_demo_py_node, cdinit_ros2_bag]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4_offboard_demo_py_node, px4sitl_px4]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [cdinit_ros2_bag, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [cdinit_ros2_bag, cdinit_sessionsync]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_dds_agent, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_clock, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_clock, px4sitl_gz_headless]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_gui, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_gui, px4sitl_gz_wait]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_gui, px4sitl_ros]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_headless, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_wait, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_gz_wait, px4sitl_gz_headless]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_px4, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_px4, px4sitl_gz_wait]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_qgroundcontrol, cdinit_log]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms
    - link: [px4sitl_qgroundcontrol, px4sitl_px4]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_ros, px4sitl_dds_agent]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_ros, px4sitl_gz_clock]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [px4sitl_ros, px4sitl_gz_headless]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_on
    - link: [cdinit_log, cdinit_sessionsync]
      style: hh_dinit_depends_ms

views:
    - id: dinit_service_example
      nodes: [px4sitl_gz_gui, px4sitl_qgroundcontrol,
              px4_offboard_demo_py_node]
      neighbours: recursive_out
      style: hh_dinit_service_view

dinit service example

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 39 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
src/hiearch		src/hiearch
test		test
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml

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Introduction

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Examples

Command line options

Trivial

Node relations

Node selection using tags

Style inheritance without tags

Neighbour node selection

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View styles

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Edge styles

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Multiscoping

Predefined styles

State machine

Use Case

Dinit service graph

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Edge styles

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Predefined styles

State machine

Use Case

Dinit service graph

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