Sequence diagrams

A Sequence diagram is an interaction diagram that shows how processes operate with one another and in what order.

Mermaid can render sequence diagrams. The code snippet below:

%% Example of sequence diagram
sequenceDiagram
    Alice->>John: Hello John, how are you?
    John-->>Alice: Great!

Renders the following diagram:

Syntax

Participants

The participants can be defined implicitly as in the first example on this page. The participants or actors are
rendered in order of appearance in the diagram source text. Sometimes you might want to show the participants in a
different order than how they appear in the first message. It is possible to specify the actor's order of
appearance by doing the following:

%% Example of sequence diagram
sequenceDiagram
    participant John
    participant Alice
    Alice->>John: Hello John, how are you?
    John-->>Alice: Great!

Renders to the diagram below:

Messages

Messages can be of two displayed either solid or with a dotted line.

[Actor][Arrow][Actor]:Message text

There are six types of arrows currently supported:

-> which will render a solid line without arrow

--> which will render a dotted line without arrow

->> which will render a solid line with arrowhead

-->> which will render a dotted line with arrowhead

-x which will render a solid line with a cross at the end (async)

--x which will render a dotted line with a cross at the end (async)

Activations

It is possible to activate and deactivate an actor. (de)activation can be dedicated declarations:

sequenceDiagram
    Alice->>John: Hello John, how are you?
    activate John
    John-->>Alice: Great!
    deactivate John

Renders to the diagram below:

There is also a shortcut notation by appending +/- suffix to the message arrow:

sequenceDiagram
    Alice->>+John: Hello John, how are you?
    John-->>-Alice: Great!

Activations can be stacked for same actor:

sequenceDiagram
    Alice->>+John: Hello John, how are you?
    Alice->>+John: John, can yoy hear me?
    John-->>-Alice: Hi Alice, I can hear you!
    John-->>-Alice: I feel great!

Stacked activations look like this:

Notes

It is possible to add notes to a sequence diagram. This is done by the notation
Note [ right of | left of | over ] [Actor]: Text in note content

See the example below:

%% Example of sequence diagram
sequenceDiagram
    participant John
    Note right of John: Text in note

Renders to the diagram below:

It is also possible to create notes spanning two participants:

sequenceDiagram
    Alice->John: Hello John, how are you?
    Note over Alice,John: A typical interaction

Loops

It is possible to express loops in a sequence diagram. This is done by the notation

loop Loop text
... statements ...
end

See the example below

%% Example of sequence diagram
sequenceDiagram
    Alice->John: Hello John, how are you?
    loop Reply every minute
        John-->Alice: Great!
    end

Alt

It is possible to express alternative paths in a sequence diagram. This is done by the notation

alt Describing text
... statements ...
else
... statements ...
end

or if there is sequence that is optional (if without else).

opt Describing text
... statements ...
end

See the example below

%% Example of sequence diagram
    sequenceDiagram
        Alice->>Bob: Hello Bob, how are you?
        alt is sick
            Bob->>Alice: Not so good :(
        else is well
            Bob->>Alice: Feeling fresh like a daisy
        end
        opt Extra response
            Bob->>Alice: Thanks for asking
        end

Styling

Styling of the a sequence diagram is done by defining a number of css classes. During rendering these classes are extracted from the

Classes used

Sample stylesheet

body {
    background: white;
}

.actor {
    stroke: #CCCCFF;
    fill: #ECECFF;
}
text.actor {
    fill:black;
    stroke:none;
    font-family: Helvetica;
}

.actor-line {
    stroke:grey;
}

.messageLine0 {
    stroke-width:1.5;
    stroke-dasharray: "2 2";
    marker-end:"url(#arrowhead)";
    stroke:black;
}

.messageLine1 {
    stroke-width:1.5;
    stroke-dasharray: "2 2";
    stroke:black;
}

#arrowhead {
    fill:black;

}

.messageText {
    fill:black;
    stroke:none;
    font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial;
    font-size:14px;
}

.labelBox {
    stroke: #CCCCFF;
    fill: #ECECFF;
}

.labelText {
    fill:black;
    stroke:none;
    font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial;
}

.loopText {
    fill:black;
    stroke:none;
    font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial;
}

.loopLine {
    stroke-width:2;
    stroke-dasharray: "2 2";
    marker-end:"url(#arrowhead)";
    stroke: #CCCCFF;
}

.note {
    stroke: #decc93;
    stroke: #CCCCFF;
    fill: #fff5ad;
}

.noteText {
    fill:black;
    stroke:none;
    font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial;
    font-size:14px;
}

Configuration

Is it possible to adjust the margins for rendering the sequence diagram.

This is done by defining mermaid.sequenceConfig or by the CLI to use a json file with the configuration. How to use
the CLI is described in the mermaidCLI page.
mermaid.sequenceConfig can be set to a JSON string with config parameters or the corresponding object.

mermaid.sequenceConfig = {
    diagramMarginX:50,
    diagramMarginY:10,
    boxTextMargin:5,
    noteMargin:10,
    messageMargin:35,
    mirrorActors:true
    };

Possible configration params: