AwesomeDataviz

Penrose

Creates diagrams from mathematical notation in plain text, from Carnegie Mellon University.

Website GitHubnpm
GitHub stars
8K#80 in the directory
npm downloads / week
949
Commits, last 12 months
48
Contributors
40
Last commit
Latest release
v3.3.1Aug 30, 2026

Overview

Penrose is an open-source diagram-as-code tool released under the MIT license. Its GitHub repository has 7,985 stars, 365 forks, and 40 contributors. It is actively developed with 48 commits in the last 12 months. The latest release, v3.3.1, was published on Aug 30, 2026. On npm it is downloaded about 949 times per week.

Its GitHub description: Create beautiful diagrams just by typing notation in plain text.

GitHub topics: visualizationdomain-specific-languagemathematicsdiagramsprogramming-language

Install

npm
npm install @penrose/core
v3.3.1

Development activity

Commits per month to the default branch over the last 12 complete months.

02040 Oct 2025 Nov Dec Jan 2026 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
02040 Oct 2025 Jan 2026 Apr Jul
48 commits from Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.
Show data as a table
MonthCommits
Oct 20250
Nov 20252
Dec 20251
Jan 20260
Feb 20260
Mar 20264
Apr 20260
May 20260
Jun 20260
Jul 202636
Aug 20265
Sep 20260

Popularity among Diagrams as code

Mermaid 90.5K Diagrams 42.7K D2 25.6K PlantUML 13.4K Markmap 13.1K flowchart.js 8.7K Penrose 8K
Mermaid 90.5K Diagrams 42.7K D2 25.6K PlantUML 13.4K Markmap 13.1K flowchart.js 8.7K Penrose 8K
GitHub stars for Penrose and the most-starred alternatives.
Show data as a table
ToolStars
Mermaid90,531
Diagrams42,673
D225,564
PlantUML13,352
Markmap13,147
flowchart.js8,700
Penrose7,985

Alternatives to Penrose

  • Mermaid

    Generate diagrams and flowcharts from markdown-like text definitions, with a live editor.

    90.5K starsTypeScriptMIT

  • Diagrams

    Diagram as code in Python for prototyping cloud system architectures.

    42.7K starsPythonMIT

  • D2

    Declarative diagram scripting language that turns text into diagrams.

    25.6K starsGoMPL-2.0

  • PlantUML

    Generates UML, Gantt, mind map and other diagrams from plain text.

    13.4K starsJavaLGPL-3.0

  • Markmap

    Builds interactive mind maps from Markdown.

    13.1K starsTypeScriptMIT

  • flowchart.js

    Draws SVG flowcharts from a textual description.

    8.7K starsJavaScriptMIT

Penrose FAQ

Is Penrose open source?

Yes. Penrose is released under the MIT license, and its source code is on GitHub.

Is Penrose still maintained?

Yes. Penrose is actively developed, with 48 commits in the last 12 months and the latest commit 1 month ago.

How do I install Penrose?

From npm: npm install @penrose/core.

What are the best alternatives to Penrose?

The most popular alternatives listed in Diagrams as code are Mermaid, Diagrams, and D2. See the full ranking.

What language is Penrose written in?

Penrose is primarily written in TypeScript, according to GitHub.

Data: GitHub API, npm. Updated Oct 4, 2026.