Semantic model
Draw your element types with typed properties (text, number, boolean, date, plus your own enums and datatypes), relationships with ownership/navigability, inheritance, and association classes — the concepts your diagrams are made of.
Everything in the box
What metaforge
can do
From a single declarative language definition you get a complete authoring toolchain and a real, installable diagram editor. Here's the full picture — grouped by what you actually want to do.
Author a language
Four visual editors, zero code
A language is four pieces of declarative data — each with its own editor in VS Code. You design it; metaforge brings it to life.
Node shapes
Author each shape as a tagged SVG — draw it in Inkscape or import one. metaforge compiles it into an outline, a content box, and named anchor points for edges and content.
Edge styles
Lines, dashes, arrowheads, diamonds and triangles, routing, and edge labels — describe exactly how each relationship is drawn.
View binding
The glue: map each concept to how it looks — element to shape, property to a label or a value-driven colour, relation to an edge style, containment to a content box. Reusable data, so one shape can serve many elements.
Generate an editor
One command, a shippable editor
Generate
Turn your language definition into a complete, self-contained VS Code extension — it bakes in everything it needs, with no runtime dependency on metaforge.
Package a .vsix
Build an installable .vsix in one step. Hand it to a colleague and it just
runs in any VS Code.
Regenerate
Change the language, regenerate with your saved settings — no re-typing, no editor code to maintain.
Edit models
A full editor your users expect
The generated editor is a complete diagram tool — and every rule comes straight from your model, so it behaves correctly without a line of hand-written logic.
Create & connect
Drop nodes from a palette built out of your element types; draw relationships as edges where your model allows them.
Nest & contain
Drag a node into another where containment is legal; children render inside the parent's content box, empty containers show a compact drop band.
Edit properties
A property panel with the right control for each type — dropdowns for enums, toggles for booleans — plus move, delete, and re-parent, with layout preserved.
Interaction demo (GIF) — drag from palette, nest, edit a property
assets/screenshots/edit-demo.gif
Graphical or textual
Two views of one model
The same model, as text
Export any diagram to a readable text form, edit by hand, and load it straight back — lossless and id-stable.
shelf "Sci-Fi" { book "Dune" author: "Herbert" genre: SCIFI book "Neuromancer" author: "Gibson" genre: SCIFI } shelf "Reference" { book "SICP" author: "Abelson" genre: TECH }
Readable text, round-trip
Export any model to a human-readable text form and edit it by hand — then load it straight back into the diagram, lossless and id-stable. The grammar is generated from your language, and it works even in a packaged editor.
Make the syntax your own
Seed an editable grammar from your language and change the keywords and structure freely. It's validated live against your model, and your edited grammar drives text-to-diagram.
One source, many outputs
Define it once, use it everywhere
Your language definition
model · shapes · binding
▸ A live, interactive editor
▸ Clean SVG export (server-less)
▸ A readable, editable text form
▸ A typed API for code & artifact generation
Proven on real domains
One engine, many languages
Every example below runs on the same generic engine with zero language-specific code — the real proof that a language is just data.
dependsOn.…and your language
Each one is a few authored files on the same runtime. Yours is the next.
Turn your notation into a tool.
metaforge is in active development. Explore the project, try the authoring editors, and generate your first language.