Three ways to draw, one plain-text format

Every diagram below is live — try editing the text and watch it redraw. Same tool, same file format, no separate app to learn for each one.

Freeform & flowcharts

Type a name on each line and Roughout chains them together automatically — no arrows to draw by hand. Want more control? Use box/diamond and -> connectors directly, drag shapes around, or add colour with status:.

Sequence diagrams

Message-by-message — A->B: message — and Roughout works out participant order and timing for you. Positions are always computed here, never dragged, so the diagram can't accidentally misrepresent who did what, when.

Gantt charts

A task list with dates becomes a timeline. Deliberately spreadsheet-simple — no dependency arrows or critical-path calculations to configure, just tasks, dates, and colour.

Why it stays out of your way

Complexity is opt-in, never forced

A two-minute doodle never has to touch the machinery that exists to serve the two-hour diagram. No modes to configure up front, no settings to learn before you can start — the simple path stays simple no matter how powerful the tool gets underneath it.

Your file, not our database

Every diagram is a plain .rout text file — human-readable, editable in any text editor, safe to keep in a folder, a note, or version control if you're that way inclined. The web version doesn't store or log anything server-side; closing the tab really does leave nothing behind.

Two platforms, one format

The Mac app and the web editor aren't the same code, but they read and write the exact same .rout file — start a diagram on the web, keep going in the native app later, or the other way round. Nothing gets converted or lost moving between them.

Built to be used by AI agents, too

A self-hosted Roughout server has a small HTTP API built for AI coding agents, not just people — GET /api/help returns the full text-format grammar for an agent to learn, POST /api/diagrams turns raw .rout text into a shareable link, and /llms.txt points any agent that lands on the domain cold at both. If you use an agent like Claude Code, it can draw and hand you a diagram directly, no copy-pasting required.