Pele, the Mermaid renderer from Obsidian

Pele vs Mermaid.js, on paper

Every number below comes from pele.run and is the project's own claim. Independent benchmarks do not exist yet. The project is days old. Use the test above to check the speed claim on your hardware.

Add Pele to your app

Install from npm:

npm install pele

Render a string to SVG:

import { render } from 'pele';

const { svg } = render(`flowchart LR
  A[Mermaid text] --> B[SVG]`);
document.querySelector('#diagram').innerHTML = svg;

In a plain HTML page, no build step:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pele@1/dist/pele.global.js"></script>
<script>
  for (const el of document.querySelectorAll('pre.mermaid'))
    pele.mount(el, el.textContent);
</script>

Ship less code by loading only the diagram types you use:

import { register, render } from 'pele/core';
import flowchart from 'pele/diagrams/flowchart';
register(flowchart);

Or render lazily:

import { renderAsync } from 'pele/lazy';
const { svg } = await renderAsync(text);

Theming without re-rendering

Pele reads colors and fonts from CSS variables, so a theme change is a stylesheet change. The SVG stays as-is. Set these on the diagram or any parent element:

.pele {
  --pele-bg: #fffcf0;
  --pele-fg: #100f0f;
  --pele-muted: #6f6e69;
  --pele-line: #100f0f;
  --pele-surface: #f2f0e5;
  --pele-surface-alt: #e6e4d9;
  --pele-border: #cecdc3;
  --pele-accent: #205ea6;
  --pele-font: sans-serif;
  --pele-radius: 4px;
}

Charts get --pele-series-1 through --pele-series-8. Try the Light / Dark / Warm buttons in the test above. Pele's pane recolors instantly, with no second render.

What Pele is, in one minute

Obsidian built Pele for its own diagram needs: render Mermaid fast, and match the app's theme without extra work. The name comes from Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire. The repository (obsidianmd/pele) went public in early October 2026; Obsidian presented it on October 17. It hit Hacker News the same day and collected 558 points with 53 comments in 24 hours. Two weeks in: 190 commits, 13 releases, over 1,800 stars, MIT license.

Technically it is a from-scratch renderer. Same input syntax as Mermaid, but Pele does its own layout and draws its own style. Its parsers are tested against Mermaid's parser specifications and with differential fuzzing (feed both parsers random diagrams and compare). For untrusted input, Pele escapes diagram text, filters links and styles, and caps source and output size.

Worth knowing before you switch

• Output looks different. Same syntax, Pele's own visual style. Pixel parity with Mermaid.js is not the goal.
• Mermaid.js plugins don't carry over. Custom themes, ELK layouts, and third-party extensions stay behind.
• Not in the Obsidian app yet. Pele is the open-source library; Obsidian has not said when it ships inside the app itself.
• The speed numbers are vendor claims. 0.05-0.3 ms vs 6-82 ms comes from pele.run with no published test setup. Measure your own diagrams. Start with the test at the top of this page.

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