Mermaid AI agents in Confluence: RVS, Gliffy, Mermaid Plus
Three Marketplace apps now put an AI agent behind Mermaid in Confluence: RVS Mermaid Diagrams & Charts, Gliffy Diagrams, and Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent for Confluence. All three can turn a sentence into a diagram. They differ in three things that decide long-term value: what the Mermaid source becomes (page text that diffs, or shapes where the code dies), how much the agent can do (generate once, or create-read-update-convert), and which Mermaid engine is behind it (Gliffy lists 9 formats, RVS 12 types, Mermaid Plus runs all 30 Mermaid v12 types on the 12.3 engine — including the 12.x additions no other agent can draw: Wardley maps, event modeling, BPMN shapes, step animation and agent flows).
- Which three apps ship a Mermaid AI agent for Confluence in 2026, and what each actually does
- What's new in Mermaid 12.x — and why engine freshness is part of the agent comparison
- What happens to the Mermaid source in each app after the AI is done
- How this plays out for architecture diagrams specifically
- A decision framework — and the pricing picture
For years, "should we use Mermaid in Confluence?" was a question about editors. In 2026 it became a question about agents: every serious diagramming app on the Marketplace now promises that you can ask for a diagram in plain language and get one. Three of them promise it around Mermaid specifically, and they take visibly different approaches.
This guide compares Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent for Confluence, RVS Softek's Mermaid Diagrams & Charts for Confluence, and Gliffy Diagrams for Confluence — on what their agents are documented to do, what happens to your diagram source afterwards, and which Mermaid engine each one runs. Every competitor claim here comes from the vendor's own listing or documentation.
Meet the three Mermaid AI agents
RVS Mermaid Diagrams & Charts for Confluence (RVS Softek) is a Forge app, free for teams of any size. It is diagram-as-code with a live-preview editor, 12 Mermaid diagram types (flowchart, sequence, class, state, ER, Gantt, XY chart, Sankey, timeline, user journey, mindmap, requirement), 15+ templates and a visual Playground mode. Its listing says Rovo AI generates diagrams from plain-language prompts, and it can import diagrams from GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket. RVS also sells a migration path from the Stratus and weweave Data Center Mermaid apps, which makes it interesting for teams moving from Confluence DC.
Gliffy Diagrams for Confluence is the long-standing incumbent — the canvas editor thousands of teams already use for org charts, BPMN and AWS diagrams. Its 2026 additions are the AI layer: Create with AI in the editor generates an editable Mermaid diagram from a description, and the Gliffy Diagram agent runs in Rovo, so you can prompt for a diagram from Atlassian's AI chat. Gliffy's Mermaid integration (Create from code) documents nine supported formats: sequence, class, state, ER, flowcharts, Gantt, user journey, mindmaps and pie charts. After generating, you either stay in Mermaid mode or select Finish Editing, which converts the diagram to native Gliffy shapes.
Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent for Confluence (NGPILOT) is a Forge app built around the Mermaid text itself: a code editor with live preview, one-click templates, and a Rovo agent that works on the page — ask for a diagram and it renders in place, ask for the source and it hands it back, say "make this better" and it revises the existing macro, point it at code blocks on the page and it converts them into diagrams. It runs all 30 Mermaid v12 diagram types on the Mermaid 12.3 engine, and the same agent pattern ships in a Jira sibling app whose tools are also exposed as MCP.
The agent experience, side by side
| RVS Mermaid Diagrams & Charts | Gliffy Diagrams | Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you ask | Plain-language prompt, Rovo AI generation | Prompt in the editor (Create with AI), or the Gliffy Diagram agent in Rovo chat | Chat with the Rovo agent on the page or blogpost |
| What the agent is documented to do | Generate diagrams from prompts | Generate diagrams; Mermaid stays editable until you convert | Create, read (source + version back), update (revise in place, settings preserved), convert code blocks on the page |
| Where the diagram lands | Rendered Mermaid in the macro | Gliffy macro on the page — as Mermaid, or converted to Gliffy shapes | Rendered Mermaid stored as native page content |
| Mermaid engine coverage | 12 diagram types | 9 documented formats | All 30 Mermaid v12 types |
| Platform | Forge, runs on Atlassian infra | Established Connect-era vendor, Cloud + AI on Rovo | Forge, runs on Atlassian infra |
| Pricing | Free for any team size | Commercial per-user, free trial | Free up to 10 users, per-user tiers beyond |
All three are credible. The differences that matter show up after the first week — when someone edits the diagram, when page history matters, and when someone asks for a diagram type the engine doesn't have.
What's new in Mermaid 12.x — and why the engine matters to the agent
An AI agent can only draw what its Mermaid engine can render. Ask for "a Wardley map of our data platform" from an app whose engine predates wardley-beta, and the best case is a fallback flowchart; the worst is a parse error the user blames on the agent. Mermaid's 12.x line is exactly where this bites:
| Mermaid version | What it added | What it unlocks for an agent |
|---|---|---|
| 12.0 | agentflow-beta — agent workflow diagrams | "Document our support agent as a diagram": typed steps per agent, connector blocks for the systems it calls |
| 12.2 | mindmap.colorBy: depth, swimlane collision fix | Two diagrams on one page no longer interfere; mind maps can encode hierarchy in colour |
| 12.3 | Wardley maps, event modeling, BPMN node shapes, step-by-step edge animation, new edge markers | Strategy maps, event-storming flows and process notation become prompt-able; edges can play in order for runbooks |
Mermaid Plus ships the 12.3 engine with all five 12.3-era templates (Wardley, event modeling, BPMN, animated flows, agent flows) — see the Mermaid 12.3 walkthrough. RVS documents 12 diagram types — a solid everyday set, but without C4, ZenUML, Wardley, event modeling or agent flows. Gliffy documents 9 Mermaid formats in its code editor — no C4, no Wardley, no agent flows. If a 12.x diagram type is part of your documentation practice, engine coverage is the comparison that decides it.
What happens to the source: the difference that compounds
This is the axis that decides what your Confluence looks like a year from now. Our Mermaid vs draw.io comparison made this argument against shape conversion, and it applies here too:
- Mermaid Plus keeps the Mermaid text as the diagram. The source is native page content: searchable in Confluence, covered by page permissions, and visible in page history as a text diff. When the agent revises a diagram, the page history shows what changed. The next person edits one line, not a canvas.
- RVS keeps it Mermaid too — paste existing Mermaid from a GitHub README or another app and it renders as-is, which is the right behaviour. The diagram stays code in the macro.
- Gliffy treats Mermaid as a scaffold. The generated Mermaid is editable until you select Finish Editing; then it converts to Gliffy shapes and, per Gliffy's own documentation, "you cannot modify the code anymore." If you never convert, the code lives inside the Gliffy editor rather than as page text — so either way, Confluence page history never shows you a Mermaid diff.
None of this makes Gliffy wrong. If the artefact you want is a styled drawing, conversion is the feature — the agent drafts, you polish shapes. But if the artefact you want is reviewable documentation, the text is the value, and killing it during conversion trades that away.
Architecture diagrams: where the agent earns its keep
Architecture diagrams are the hardest Confluence content to keep alive: drawn once in a workshop, screenshotted into the page, stale by the next planning cycle. An agent changes the workflow — and the three apps change it differently:
- Ask. In Mermaid Plus, describe the system: "architecture diagram of our checkout flow — API gateway, services, queues, Postgres." The agent renders a C4-style or flowchart diagram in place. RVS generates from prompts; Gliffy does the same from its editor or Rovo chat.
- Review. This is where text wins. The reviewer sees the Mermaid source on the page, comments on it like any other content, and page history records the change when the agent revises it.
- Revise. "Split the payment service out of checkout" is a one-line change to text — and a natural agent instruction in Mermaid Plus. In Gliffy, the same intent means regenerated Mermaid (or shape surgery), and the conversion boundary looms.
- Document the agents themselves. When the architecture includes AI agents, Mermaid's
agentflow-beta(12.0) types each step and its external calls — the diagram security and compliance can actually read. A Mermaid Plus for Jira panel keeps the same diagrams attached to the tickets that implement the system.
One practical habit that only works on text-native diagrams: paste the existing source you already have. Mermaid from a README, a sequence diagram from a design doc — RVS and Mermaid Plus both render it as-is; Mermaid Plus can also convert code blocks already sitting on the page into rendered diagrams without retyping anything.
Pricing and scale
- RVS: free for teams of any size. For a team that wants plain Mermaid rendering plus prompt-to-diagram, that is a genuinely strong offer.
- Gliffy: commercial per-user pricing with a free trial — the incumbent enterprise line, now with the AI layer included.
- Mermaid Plus: free up to 10 users, standard Marketplace tiers beyond — and the agent plus the 12.3 engine are on every tier.
Which one should your team pick?
- Pick RVS if you want Mermaid rendering and prompt-to-diagram at zero cost, and the 12 supported types cover what your team draws. Its GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket import and DC migration path are real extras.
- Pick Gliffy if the end state is a styled drawing — org charts, BPMN with corporate polish — and you want the AI to draft it and a canvas to finish it. The Mermaid-to-shapes conversion is exactly the point.
- Pick Mermaid Plus if the end state is documentation: all 30 Mermaid v12 types on the 12.3 engine, a Rovo agent that creates, reads, updates and converts on the page, and diagrams that stay diffable text forever.
Many teams land on two of them — an agent-first text app for architecture and flow documentation, and a canvas tool for polished artefacts. If you are evaluating the agent-first path, our AI agents hub lists every NGPILOT app that ships a Rovo agent, and the Mermaid agent deep-dive covers the Confluence agent workflow in detail.
Try Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent for Confluence
All 30 Mermaid diagram types plus a Rovo AI agent, with live preview and one-click templates — free for up to 10 users.
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