Question 1

What is Saola Sketch?

Accepted Answer

Saola Sketch is a prompt-to-architecture-diagram tool for software engineers. You sketch the boxes on a retro Excalidraw-style canvas and the AI handler fills in the rest. Real AWS, Kubernetes, and generic icons. Exports to Mermaid, draw.io XML, SVG, PNG, and native JSON.

Question 2

How is Saola different from Excalidraw, Eraser, or DiagramGPT?

Accepted Answer

Output quality and surgical iteration. Most prompt-to-diagram tools regenerate the whole diagram on every edit — Saola patches the existing one. The icon library uses real AWS and Kubernetes service icons, not generic boxes. Exports are clean enough to paste into a design doc or commit to a README.

Question 3

Is Saola free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Saola runs entirely in your browser. Diagrams are saved to your local browser storage, not uploaded to a server.

Question 4

What formats can I export to?

Accepted Answer

PNG (2x retina), SVG (with icons inlined), Mermaid flowchart syntax, draw.io XML for diagrams.net, and the native .saola.json format for lossless round-trips.

Question 5

Can I import an existing diagram?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The File menu accepts Saola JSON files for full round-trip and Mermaid flowchart-TD files for best-effort import. Mermaid imports are laid out in a grid because Mermaid carries no coordinates.

Question 6

Does Saola work offline?

Accepted Answer

The canvas works offline once the page is loaded. The AI prompt feature requires an internet connection.

Question 7

Which clouds and platforms does Saola support icons for?

Accepted Answer

AWS (over 700 service and resource icons), Kubernetes (39 resource and control-plane icons), and a generic Tabler-based pack with people, compute, data, network, app, and security icons. Search across all three packs from the icon picker.