wardley-maps.sgit.ai / Resources / OnlineWardleyMaps (OWM)
OnlineWardleyMaps (OWM)
Tool Active tool
#4 of the ten to read first. You do not understand mapping until you have drawn one. Also the format standard the whole ecosystem targets, so learning its DSL is not tool lock-in.
What it is
The reference implementation of maps-as-code, and the de facto standard text format for the entire ecosystem. You type a small DSL in the left pane and a map renders live on the right. The DSL uses [visibility, maturity] coordinates on 0–1 scales, where visibility is the Y-axis (0 invisible → 1 visible) and maturity is the X-axis (0 genesis → 1 commodity). Keywords: component, anchor, pipeline, evolve, inertia, submap, note, annotation, accelerator, deaccelerator, title, style, size, url, label; links are -> (dependency) and +> (flow). A minimal example:
title Payment System Map component Customer [0.95, 0.2] pipeline Processing [0.5, 0.9] evolve Gateway 0.9 Customer->Website annotation 1 [[0.6, 0.8]] Modernisation needed note Legacy system [0.4, 0.7]The same engine ships as a VS Code extension and an Obsidian plugin, so one syntax covers browser, editor and notes. Architecture is a React front end plus a Node/TypeScript API for save/fetch, with Docker and docker-compose for local running.
Limitations
Positioning is manual numeric coordinates — there is no layout engine, so you nudge decimals until it looks right, and large maps become tedious. No real-time multi-user collaboration yet (it is on the roadmap, and MapKeep's death removed the only tool that had it). Being an SPA, maps are not server-side rendered, which hurts sharing and archiving. Single-maintainer bus factor, mitigated only by MIT licensing.
The details
| Maintainer | Damon Skelhorn (@damonsk). Community handle @MapsAsCode on X/Twitter. Funded via Patreon. |
|---|---|
| Started | Repo has 1,445 commits; project predates 2020. |
| Status, August 2026 | Actively maintained — the healthiest tool in the ecosystem. 308 stars, 75 forks. Major modernisation released 15 June 2025: full JavaScript→TypeScript migration, resizable split-pane editor with persisted layout, DSL modernisation replacing legacy market and ecosystem keywords with unified decorator syntax, memoised React rendering. Stated roadmap: plugin architecture, map analytics, real-time collaborative editing, mobile optimisation. |
| Licence | MIT (the code). The mapping technique itself is credited CC BY-SA 4.0 to Simon Wardley. |
| Home | https://onlinewardleymaps.com/ |
| Best single link | https://docs.onlinewardleymaps.com/docs/dsl-reference/ |
Verified 2026-08-23 — status, licence and links checked against the source on that date. The site re-checks every URL it publishes on a schedule and publishes the run, successes and failures alike.
Attribution. "OnlineWardleyMaps by Damon Skelhorn, MIT licensed. Wardley Mapping provided courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC BY-SA 4.0." MIT permits code reuse with the licence notice; screenshots of the UI are fine with credit.