D2 Diagramming Language Transitions to Non-Profit Under Hack Club Sponsorship

D2 Becomes Non-Profit and Open Source

The D2 diagramming language project has announced its transition to a non-profit entity, operating under the fiscal sponsorship of Hack Club. This move follows the closure of the for-profit company that previously developed D2 as an open-core project. The open-source D2 was initially funded by its closed-source IDE, D2 Studio, and a proprietary layout algorithm called TALA.

Future Development to Embrace AI

The project's maintainer stated that future development of D2 will be driven by AI. All personal code contributions will use AI, and AI will also be used to review other AI-generated contributions. This approach is expected to accelerate D2's evolution significantly, enabling performance optimizations and the implementation of features previously limited by engineering bandwidth, such as an isometric renderer and transpilers for other diagramming languages.

Maintainer Role and Call for Contributors

The original maintainer will continue to support D2 but with a limited time commitment. The project is actively seeking new maintainers and contributors. High-quality contributions may lead to paid contracts, funded by donations to the non-profit, targeting early-career individuals with open-source experience.

Goals for D2's Next Phase

Key goals for D2 include achieving rendering support from popular platforms, native integration with services like GitHub, Notion, and Linear, and releasing a stable 1.0 version with a formalized grammar and feature set. The project also aims to become a powerful harness for agents, addressing current limitations in determinism and customizability for diagram generation.