Your file
Reads and writes local files.
Mernyx vs Mermaid Live Editor: where your file lives
Same Mermaid syntax, different job. Mermaid Live Editor renders a snippet in a browser tab; Mernyx opens the .mmd on your disk, lets you drag the nodes, and writes your edits back into it.
Why Mernyx
What Mernyx does on the three rows where the two tools part ways.
Changing it on the canvas
Supported
Working offline
Compiling, layout and export happen on your Mac, so it works the same with no network.
When Mermaid Live Editor is the right choice
It is a good tool, and for a lot of work it is the better one.
Reaching for mermaid.live when you want to see what a snippet draws is the right call: it opens instantly, it needs nothing installed, and the diagram is on screen before you have finished typing. If your work stays a snippet, that is all you will ever need. Mernyx earns its place when the .mmd is a file you keep — when the change has to survive a save, a commit and a review. Nothing here says one is better than the other. They are on different sides of the same line: a snippet you are trying, and a file you are editing.
Mechanism by mechanism
One row per feature. The left column is Mernyx; the right one is the tool this page is about.
| Feature | Mernyx | Mermaid Live Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Drawn natively | SupportedEvery node is a real CoreGraphics view, laid out by a local engine. No WebView, no JavaScript bridge, no Electron. | Partly supportedMermaid.js in a browser tab: the diagram is SVG laid out by the page. |
| Your file | SupportedReads and writes local files. | Partly supportedThe source lives in a text box on the page, and you copy the result back yourself. |
| Finder preview | SupportedSupported | Not supportedNot supported |
| Finder thumbnail | SupportedSupported | Not supportedNot supported |
| Changing it on the canvas | SupportedSupported | SupportedSupported |
| Working offline | SupportedCompiling, layout and export happen on your Mac, so it works the same with no network. | Not supportedIt is a web app, so it needs the network. |
| No account needed | SupportedNo account needed | SupportedNo account needed |
| AI | SupportedBring your own key: you supply the endpoint and the key, completely free of restrictions. | Partly supportedAI spends credits. There is no bring-your-own-key option. |
| Sharing | SupportedShare the file | SupportedShare the file |
| Icons | SupportedSupported | SupportedSupported |
Questions
Do Mernyx and Mermaid Live Editor draw the same thing?
They read the same Mermaid syntax — the diagram itself is not where the difference is. The difference is where the source lives: in a text box on a web page, or in the .mmd file on your disk.
Does Mernyx write a different file format?
No. What Mernyx writes is ordinary Mermaid — a style rule for a colour, standard syntax for a node. The file stays valid for every other Mermaid renderer, including mermaid.live and GitHub.
Try it free.
Download it, open a file you already have, and see whether the canvas earns its $19 when you need to change something.