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FAQ

Straight answers, including the ones a sales page would skip.

What Draughtsman does not do yet

If you are comparing it with Lucidchart, these are the gaps a buyer will notice, in the order we would rank them. They come from our own testing notes, written as a Lucidchart user would judge the first five minutes. We have not re-checked Lucidchart's current feature list, so read it as "what you will not find in Draughtsman 0.1.0", not as a claim about them.

1. No real-time collaboration and no sharing model. One organisation: every signed-in person can read, overwrite and delete every diagram. There are no per-document permissions, no share links, no view-only embeds, no comments or @mentions, no live cursors. Two open editors do merge each other's changes (the open editor polls for newer versions about once a second), but that is not co-editing.
2. Less "tidy by default". Connectors are good and route around shapes, but there is no hover-to-add-the-next-connected-shape, and imported or AI-generated diagrams often want a Tidy layout click.
3. Smaller content libraries. No template gallery. No AWS, Azure or Google Cloud icon packs; there is a generic technical set of about 40 icons, plus flowchart, UML, ER, BPMN, org chart, state and swimlane shapes. No custom shape libraries. One page per document.
4. Plain document management. A grid of thumbnails or a table, with search, a type filter and sorting. No folders, tags, favourites, owner or last-editor columns, or content search.
5. Narrower interchange. It imports draw.io and Visio files and a Lucidchart export to Visio (see Moving from draw.io, Visio and Lucidchart, including what is lost), plus Mermaid, SQL and the DSL. It does not write Visio, draw.io or Lucidchart files back (what it exports is listed under Import and export), and it has no import of Lucidchart's own file. PDF is made by your browser's print dialog; there is no server-made PDF unless an administrator adds a browser. No integrations with Confluence, Jira, Slack or Teams.

Also not built: single sign-on (OIDC or SAML), multi-factor authentication, workspaces beyond one, a Viewer role, a published container image (the image is supplied with your licence as a file), Mermaid classDiagram import, video or GIF export of a fly-through, server-side PNG, and SQL Server support.

What it does that those tools do not

• It runs on your hardware, licensed by a file checked offline, with no outbound connection of its own.
• Upgrades are proven, not promised: the data folder of seven earlier builds is opened by every build's tests, a failed SQLite upgrade is undone automatically, and config check tells you beforehand. See Upgrading safely.
• Agents are first-class. Eight MCP tools, a lossless text form, and edits that appear live and sit behind automatic checkpoints.
• A real safety net: exact undo, autosave with offline recovery, versions with compare and restore, and a bin.
• Open formats: DSL, JSON, Mermaid and SVG out, so leaving is easy.
• Fly-through presentations exported as one self-contained HTML file.
• Per-organisation pricing, not per seat.

Questions

Does anything phone home?

No. There is no telemetry, update check, crash reporter or licence server. See Security and your data for the list of everything that does leave the machine (nothing, unless an administrator turns on an AI provider) and how to check.

Can it run with no internet at all?

Yes. The archive carries everything and nothing is downloaded at run time. PDF from the editor prints from the person's own browser and needs nothing on the server; only server-side PDF for scripts needs a browser you bring. A local model through Ollama gives you AI with no outbound traffic either.

Do I need to give AI my diagrams?

No. AI is off until an administrator configures a provider, and the panel is hidden until then. If you use it, the AI page says exactly what each feature sends.

Can two people edit the same diagram?

They can open it, but it is not live co-editing. Changes to different things are merged for you; if you both change the same thing, the second to save is asked what to do. See The editor.

Someone forgot their password. What now?

An administrator opens Admin, Users and presses Create reset link; the person chooses their own new password from a one-time link. That needs no email. If you set up outgoing email, they can also use Forgot password? themselves. If the only administrator is locked out, run draughtsman reset-admin on the server. See Password recovery and email.

Will an upgrade lose my data?

It is not supposed to, and on SQLite an upgrade that fails is undone automatically from a verified copy taken first. Back up, run draughtsman config check with the new program, then swap the program. The limits (Postgres has no automatic rollback; installs from before the encryption-name fix may need the old folder named once) are on Upgrading safely.

Can I restrict who sees a diagram?

Not yet. Everyone you add sees everything, and an Editor can change anything. The bin and version history make mistakes recoverable. If you need per-document permissions, they are not built.

What happens to my diagrams if I stop using Draughtsman?

They are yours, in open formats. An administrator can export every diagram as JSON and DSL, plus images, in one zip, and any diagram exports as SVG, PNG, Mermaid or DSL. The licence is perpetual: you keep running the version you have.

Which browsers does it work in?

It is developed and tested in Chrome. Safari and Firefox have not been tested. Pen and touch work for connecting and dragging; the pages fit down to a 390 px wide window and the editor's panel becomes a sheet under 930 px. Drawing on a phone has not been tested.

How big is it, and what does it need?

The macOS arm64 archive is about 130 MB to download and about 370 MB unpacked, and includes its own Node 22. You need no database (SQLite is built in) and no other software. We did not measure memory use for this documentation.

Is it accessible?

The application has a skip link on every page, exactly one main landmark, always-visible focus rings, keyboard access to the panel, shape grids and canvas commands, and contrast checks at theme-compile time. Automated accessibility checks (axe-core) find nothing on any page. It has not been tested with a screen reader.

Can I keep my diagrams in git and review changes in pull requests?

Yes, as text files you commit yourself. draughtsman diff says what changed between two .dsl files in sentences that use labels, and draughtsman check lints one, both reading only the files you give them. Draughtsman never runs git or holds a git credential. See Diagrams in git; the GitHub Actions and GitLab CI recipes there have not been run on a real runner.

Can I bring in a Lucidchart, Visio or draw.io diagram?

draw.io and Visio (.vsdx) files import directly, and a Lucidchart document comes in by exporting it to Visio first. Shapes, text, positions and connectors come across; stencil icons, data links and most styling do not, and the importer lists what it dropped. See Moving from draw.io, Visio and Lucidchart. We have not tried a live Lucidchart export.

What is the line of text on my exported pictures?

An unlicensed copy adds Evaluation copy of Draughtsman: licence required for production use. and the support address under the diagram in every SVG, PNG and PDF it exports. It never touches DSL, JSON or backups. A licence file stops it with no restart. See Import and export.

How do I get Draughtsman?

Downloads are provided to licensed customers. Write to draughtsman@overpass.co.uk. No public container image is published.

How is it licensed, and what does it cost?

A perpetual, per-organisation licence for one instance, with 12 months of updates included: £1,500 for up to 50 people (Team), £3,000 for unlimited, indicatively. An unlicensed copy is a fully working evaluation on the honour system, with a small evaluation notice on exported pictures (SVG, PNG, PDF); your data exports are never marked. Downloads are provided to licensed customers. See Licensing.

Which platforms are supported?

macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Linux (x64 and arm64), Windows (x64 and Arm64) and Docker. Run so far: macOS arm64, Linux arm64 in a container, Windows 11 Arm64 (a virtual machine, including as a service with both Windows archives) and the Docker image on Docker Desktop. Not run: an Intel Windows PC, the SmartScreen and Smart App Control dialogs, IIS, a Linux server running the service under systemd, and the Intel builds. No person has signed any of these off at the screen. See Install.

Where do I get help?

The documentation here is also inside the application (Help, Documentation, which serves the archive's copy at /docs/ behind sign-in, so an air-gapped site has it too). The support address is draughtsman@overpass.co.uk; collect what Troubleshooting lists first.