plantuml-ascii

To convert PlantUML to ASCII diagrams, run plantuml against your .puml file using the -txt flag. This generates plain-text sequence, class, activity, and deployment diagrams suitable for terminal documentation and README files.

Yes, you can render sequence and class diagrams as text without images by generating ASCII text representations from PlantUML definitions. This allows you to share diagrams in environments like CI logs and terminals where images are not supported.

The -txt format produces standard ASCII text diagrams, while the -utxt format produces Unicode-enhanced ASCII representations. The Unicode output provides clearer visual rendering for text-based diagrams in terminal environments.

PlantUML works for generating text diagrams in CI logs by rendering diagram definitions into ASCII text. When an image is not usable in logs or CI reports, you can embed these text-based outputs directly into your documentation.

The best way to share UML diagrams in a terminal environment is converting PlantUML definitions to plain-text ASCII. This approach supports sequence, class, activity, and deployment diagrams, ensuring visuals render correctly without requiring image rendering capabilities.

You should not use ASCII diagrams for PlantUML rendering when your environment supports image files and you need complex visual layouts. ASCII text representations are designed for lightweight README diagrams, terminals, and CI logs where images fail to load.