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Mermaid Cynefin Diagram Cheat Sheet

Five domains, each with its own way of deciding.

Every picture on this page was drawn byMernyx, the native Mermaid editor for macOS. Not by a browser running Mermaid.js — the same renderer the app uses for its canvas.

The five domains

Each domain is a keyword with items under it: clear, complicated, complex, chaotic and confusion.

cynefin-beta
  clear
    "Known procedure"
  complicated
    "Expert analysis needed"
  complex
    "Pattern found in hindsight"
  chaotic
    "Crisis response"
  confusion
    "Unknown domain"
A Cynefin diagram with the five domains, each holding one item: a known procedure, expert analysis needed, a pattern found in hindsight, a crisis response and an unknown domain.Expand diagram

Transitions

An arrow between two domains says what moved the situation from one to the other.

cynefin-beta
  clear
    "Known procedure"
  complex
    "Probe and sense"
  clear --> complex : "Probe"
A Cynefin diagram with a Clear domain and a Complex domain, joined by an arrow labelled Probe.Expand diagram

Adding a title

The title goes on its own line, under the keyword.

cynefin-beta
  title How we work
  clear
    "Runbook"
  complex
    "Retrospective"
A Cynefin diagram titled How we work, with a Clear domain holding Runbook and a Complex domain holding Retrospective.Expand diagram

Draw it in Mernyx.

Open a .mmd file, move a node on the canvas, and the source comes with it. Native on macOS, no browser involved.

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Diagram preview