How to make a flowchart in Confluence Cloud

Does Confluence Cloud have a flowchart macro?

No. The Flowchart macro in Atlassian’s documentation belongs to old Confluence Server versions and was never part of Confluence Cloud. The Cloud editor can draw a table, a layout with columns and a few status lozenges, but no boxes with arrows between them. For that you use a whiteboard, an app, or a diagram written as text.

Option 1: a Confluence whiteboard

Whiteboards are part of Confluence Cloud on every plan (Atlassian: Understand Confluence whiteboards plans and features). A whiteboard is its own item in the space, next to pages. Create one, choose Shape or open More shapes for the flowchart shapes (process, decision, terminator and so on), and drag a connector from one shape to the next (Atlassian: Use shapes to visualize ideas). To show it on a page, paste the whiteboard’s link into the page: Confluence turns it into a Smart Link that embeds the board (Atlassian: Integrate whiteboards into your Atlassian workflow). You can also export the board or a selected area as PNG, JPG or PDF and upload that image to the page (Atlassian: Export or import your whiteboard).

• What you get. A real drawing tool, nothing to install, and shapes that can be turned into Jira work items.
• Limits. On the Free plan each user has three active whiteboards, on Standard ten; boards beyond that become read-only. Smart connectors and smart sections are Premium and Enterprise features; plain connectors work everywhere. A whiteboard lives outside the page, so the flowchart and the page can drift apart, and an exported image is a picture that nobody can edit.

Option 2: a diagram app from the Marketplace

Apps such as draw.io, Gliffy and Lucidchart add a diagram macro to the Confluence editor: you draw in a full diagram editor and the result sits in the page, editable later. They have the richest shape libraries (BPMN, swimlanes, UML, network diagrams) and templates. Points worth comparing: where the diagram data is stored (as a page attachment inside Confluence, or on the vendor’s servers), how PDF export of the page looks, and the price, which Marketplace apps charge per Confluence user, not per person who draws. This is the right choice when the drawing itself is the work: detailed process maps, architecture, anything that needs to look exactly so.

Option 3: write the flowchart as text with Mermaid

Mermaid is an open source notation for diagrams. A flowchart is a few lines of text:

flowchart TD
  A[Request received] --> B{Complete?}
  B -- Yes --> C[Assign to team]
  B -- No --> D[Ask for details]
  D --> A
  C --> E[Done]

TD means top to bottom (LR is left to right), square brackets make a box, curly braces a decision diamond, and --> an arrow with an optional label. Confluence Cloud does not draw Mermaid on its own: pasted into a page, the text stays text. You need a Mermaid macro from the Marketplace, or you draw the diagram elsewhere and upload the image. How to add Mermaid diagrams to Confluence Cloud compares those routes, and Mermaid diagram examples for Confluence has twelve diagrams to copy, starting with a flowchart.

• What you get. A flowchart that changes when you change a line, lives in the page, and can be written by ChatGPT or Claude from a description of the process. Diffs and copy-paste work, because it is text.
• Limits. Mermaid decides the layout; you can nudge it with direction and subgraphs, but you cannot drag a box two centimetres to the left. Very large flowcharts get hard to read. Styling is limited compared to a drawing tool.

Full disclosure: Dortus makes Mermaid Editor for Confluence, a macro on the Atlassian Marketplace. Insert the macro, type Mermaid on the left, and the preview on the right redraws as you type; a mistake shows the line and what Mermaid expected. The editor has 12 examples, flowchart first. On the page the diagram fits the width, can be zoomed or opened large, and can be downloaded as SVG or PNG. The diagram source is saved in the macro on the page, and the last 20 saves are kept. It runs on Atlassian Forge, draws in the reader’s browser, and sends nothing to Dortus. Other Mermaid apps exist on the Marketplace; this guide only describes the one we make.

Which option fits

A quick sketch for a workshop, or a flowchart that also needs sticky notes and votes: a whiteboard. A detailed process map that has to look exactly right, with swimlanes and company shapes: a diagram app. A flowchart that belongs in a runbook or a process page and will change every few months: Mermaid, so the next person edits six lines instead of redrawing a picture.

FAQ

Questions

Spotted something wrong on this page, or a way we missed? Email support@dortus.com.

See also: How to add Mermaid diagrams to Confluence Cloud and Mermaid diagram examples for Confluence