You're right, neither Mermaid nor D2 really nail AWS architecture diagrams out of the box. Mermaid lacks icons entirely, and D2's AWS pack is more 'icons exist' than 'architecture patterns are easy.'
Honestly, this is a gap in the ecosystem. For now, most people either:
- Use draw.io/Excalidraw despite the pain
- Build diagrams programmatically (Diagrams-as-code Python library has good AWS support)
- Just accept text-based flowcharts without icons
If I add custom icon/shape support to Ferrite's Mermaid renderer (v0.3.0+), AWS icons could be a good test case. No promises, but I hear the frustration.
Honestly, this is a gap in the ecosystem. For now, most people either:
- Use draw.io/Excalidraw despite the pain
- Build diagrams programmatically (Diagrams-as-code Python library has good AWS support)
- Just accept text-based flowcharts without icons
If I add custom icon/shape support to Ferrite's Mermaid renderer (v0.3.0+), AWS icons could be a good test case. No promises, but I hear the frustration.