Creating diagrams

Create your first diagram

1. 1Sign in and open your workspace. Every account starts with a personal workspace that holds all of your diagrams.
2. 2Press Create diagram. Give it a short, recognizable title — for example “Checkout request path”. The description is optional.
3. 3Press Create diagram in the dialog. Your new diagram appears at the top of the list.
4. 4Press Open editor on the diagram card to start drawing.

Design mode and Simulate mode

The editor has two modes, shown as tabs at the top: Design is where you build and edit — add components, connect them, change their settings. Simulate is read-only: it plays back a run without letting you change anything by mistake. Everything on this page happens in Design mode.

The workbench is split into a tool panel, canvas, inspector, and bottom docks. Use Components or Outline on the left, the canvas in the middle, andInspect, Connect, or Contracts on the right or in the dock. The Journey, Run, Timeline, Transcript, Contracts, and Problems docks keep setup, execution, and diagnostics close to the graph.

Add components

The Components panel on the left lists every building block you can use — services, databases, queues, and more. Click a component to add it to the canvas, then drag it wherever you like. You can also press / to search the list by name, and press Enter to insert the highlighted component.

Name, arrange, and edit

Select a component and the Inspector panel opens on the right. On its Overview tab you can change the Label (the name shown on the canvas, like “Auth Service”) and add a description. The same tab has Duplicate and Delete buttons.

Select Auto-arrange when you want Mockflow to suggest a tidy layout. Review the preview, then apply it or cancel it. Your labels, connections, and behavior do not change.

To keep bigger diagrams tidy, use the two visual-only helpers from the palette: Group / boundary draws a labeled box around related components (a team, a region, a trust zone), and Note / legend adds free-text notes. Neither affects how the system behaves.

Inspect ports and behavior

Select a component and use the inspector tabs to move from the picture to the executable details:

Edit and remove connections

Select an edge to edit its label in the connection inspector. An empty label is replaced by a concise typed route, and labels can be up to 200 characters. Existing edges are not reconnectable: to change an endpoint, delete the edge and create a new typed connection.

Paired request/response and intrinsic data-return edges share an interaction. Deleting either member through the canvas selection also deletes the other members of that pair, so recreate the request when you need the complete interaction back.

Link one diagram to another

Add a Diagram link component when you want a typed, executable boundary that points to another diagram in the same workspace. Its target is opaque during a run: the host run uses the link's own mode, outcome, latency, and handlers; it does not execute or inspect the target diagram.

1. 1Select the diagram link in the inspector and choose a target from the same workspace.
2. 2Set Mode to success or failure, give the boundary an Outcome, and set its virtual Latency (ms).
3. 3Use Open diagram or double-click the linked node to drill into the target. Mockflow saves dirty changes before navigating in the current tab.

Drafts and checkpoints

Your draft is the working version of the diagram. Mockflow saves it as you edit, and you can keep changing it.

A checkpoint is a named save point for review. It keeps the diagram exactly as it was at that moment, even after you continue changing the draft. Use a checkpoint before a design review, before a large change, or before allowing an approved agent to edit the draft.

1. 1Select Checkpoint in the editor command bar.
2. 2Add a short message that explains why you are saving this point.
3. 3Choose which ready journey drafts to include. You can also save only the diagram when there are no journeys.
4. 4Create the checkpoint. Your working draft stays open and editable.

The main half of the Checkpoint control creates the next checkpoint. Open its arrow to see checkpoint history, newest first. Each entry shows its number, message, time, and graph size; the version currently loaded in the editor is marked Current.

1. 1Open the checkpoint history and choose the version you want to load.
2. 2If the current draft already matches a checkpoint, Mockflow can switch directly. If it contains uncheckpointed graph changes, Mockflow asks before replacing them.
3. 3Choose Checkpoint current when you need to preserve those changes. Finish creating the checkpoint, reopen checkpoint history, and choose the version you originally wanted to load. Choose Switch and discard instead when you intentionally want to replace the current graph immediately.
4. 4Review the loaded graph. Journey drafts are not switched or removed, so check their compatibility before running them against the selected graph version.

Saving and remote edits

Draft changes are autosaved, and Save now or ⌘/Ctrl + S sends the current graph immediately. If another editor changes the draft first, Mockflow keeps your local changes in memory and shows a conflict banner.

1. 1Choose Keep mine and retry to save your local graph against the newer version.
2. 2Choose Use remote draft to replace the local graph with the newer saved version.

Zoom, pan, and find your way

The canvas toolbar has Zoom in, Zoom out, Fit all (bring the whole diagram into view), Fit selection, and a toggle for the minimap. Drag on empty canvas to pan, and click empty canvas to clear your selection.

Keyboard shortcuts

Mockflow saves draft changes as you work. Press ⌘/Ctrl + S when you want to save immediately. The command palette (⌘/Ctrl + K) can insert components, open panels, switch modes, and create checkpoints.