Creates professional TikZ flowcharts with a standardized style (Google Material-like colors, node shapes, and layout).
Scanned 5/31/2026
Install via CLI
openskills install tools-only/X-Skills---
name: tikz-flowchart
description: "Creates professional TikZ flowcharts with a standardized style (Google Material-like colors, node shapes, and layout)."
---
# TikZ Flowchart Skill
This skill provides a standardized template/style for establishing professional technical diagrams using LaTeX TikZ. It is designed for creating flowcharts, architecture diagrams, and process flows.
## Usage
When asked to "create a flowchart" or "draw a diagram" in this project, use the template below as a starting point. Adjust styles (`dataNode`, `opNode`, etc.) as needed for the specific content.
## Style Guide
### Colors
The template uses a Google Material-like palette:
- **Green (`greenFill`/`greenStroke`)**: Data, Inputs, Outputs, Tensors.
- **Orange/Memory (`memFill`/`memStroke`)**: Memory, Weights, Checkpoints.
- **Blue/Core (`coreFill`/`coreStroke`)**: Operations, Compute Kernels, Processes.
- **Pink/Optimization (`optFill`/`optStroke`)**: Optimizations, Special Steps.
- **Yellow/Process (`procFill`/`procStroke`)**: General Processing Steps.
### Standard Nodes
- `dataNode`: Rectangles for data flow (green).
- `memNode`: Cylinders for storage/weights (orange).
- `opNode`: Rectangles for operations (blue).
- `kernelBox`: Dashed containers for grouping internal kernel logic.
- `group`: Dashed background containers for logical grouping of phases/stages.
## Template
Use this template as your base:
```latex
\documentclass[tikz,border=10pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric, arrows.meta, positioning, fit, backgrounds, calc, shadows.blur, decorations.pathreplacing}
% --- Color Definitions ---
\definecolor{greenFill}{HTML}{E8F5E9}
\definecolor{greenStroke}{HTML}{43A047}
\definecolor{memFill}{HTML}{FFF3E0}
\definecolor{memStroke}{HTML}{FFB74D}
\definecolor{coreFill}{HTML}{E1F5FE}
\definecolor{coreStroke}{HTML}{0277BD}
\definecolor{optFill}{HTML}{FCE4EC}
\definecolor{optStroke}{HTML}{E91E63}
\definecolor{procFill}{HTML}{FFF9C4}
\definecolor{procStroke}{HTML}{FBC02D}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
node distance=1.2cm and 1.8cm, % Vertical and Horizontal spacing
font=\sffamily\footnotesize,
>=Stealth,
% --- Styles ---
dataNode/.style={
rectangle, rounded corners=3pt,
draw=greenStroke, thick,
fill=greenFill,
minimum width=2.4cm, minimum height=1.2cm,
align=center,
drop shadow
},
memNode/.style={
cylinder, cylinder uses custom fill,
cylinder body fill=memFill, cylinder end fill=memFill!90!gray,
shape border rotate=90,
aspect=0.25,
draw=memStroke, thick,
minimum width=1.8cm, minimum height=1.3cm,
align=center
},
opNode/.style={
rectangle, rounded corners=3pt,
draw=coreStroke, thick,
fill=coreFill,
minimum width=2.6cm, minimum height=1.2cm,
align=center,
drop shadow
},
kernelBox/.style={
rectangle, rounded corners=8pt,
draw=coreStroke, thick, dashed,
fill=coreFill!20,
inner sep=12pt,
align=center
},
group/.style={
draw=gray!30, dashed, rounded corners=8pt, inner sep=12pt, fill=gray!5
},
edgeLabel/.style={
font=\scriptsize,
text=black!80,
align=center,
inner sep=1pt
}
]
% --- Nodes ---
% Example:
% \node[dataNode] (Input) {Input Data};
% \node[opNode, right=of Input] (Process) {Process};
% --- Layout Containers (Optional) ---
% \begin{scope}[on background layer]
% \node[group, fit=(Input)(Process)] (MainGroup) {};
% \end{scope}
% --- Connections ---
% \draw[->, thick, color=gray!80] (Input) -- (Process);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
```
## Best Practices
1. **Relative Positioning**: Use `right=of Node`, `below=of Node` for layout stability. Adjust distances via `node distance` in the `tikzpicture` options.
2. **Grouping**: Use the `fit` library and `group` style to draw background boxes around related nodes. Always place these in a `\begin{scope}[on background layer]` block.
3. **Orthogonal Edges**: Use `-|` and `|-` path operations for clean, orthogonal lines (e.g., `(A) -| (B)`).
4. **Conciseness**: Keep node text short. Use `\\` for line breaks and `\scriptsize` for secondary details.
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