# D2 vs Kroki (slim)

> D2 scores 65.3 (B) to Kroki's 59.2 (C) for diagrams as code. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-kroki.md (~2,300 tokens) · this version ~530 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-kroki.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-kroki
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

D2 scores 65.3 (B) on agent readiness against Kroki's 59.2 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Kroki leads on reliability, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do diagrams as code.

- D2: B 65.3, rank #322 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/d2.min.md
- Kroki: C 59.2, rank #558 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kroki.min.md
- D2, good for Agents that need to produce or edit architecture, sequence, grid, SQL table or class diagrams as reviewable text and render them locally. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 65 against 48; Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70; Transparency & trust, 69 against 62. Also No incidents deducted, where Kroki loses 5 points for them.
- Kroki, good for Agents that write diagrams in several text formats and want one render endpoint, on a private network or through the public instance for non-sensitive diagrams. Ahead on Reliability, 74 against 68; Security & auth, 56 against 48; Maintenance & community, 86 against 74.

| Category | D2 | Kroki |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 68 | 74 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 65 | 48 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 78 | 70 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 48 | 56 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 74 | 86 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 69 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | D2 | Kroki |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | D2 project (The Hack Foundation) | Yuzu tech |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Licence | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-09-07 | 2026-10-05 |
| Popularity | 26k stars, 22k npm/wk | 4.4k stars |