Parse QMK & ZMK keymaps and draw them in vector graphics (SVG) format, with support for visualizing hold-taps and combos that are commonly used with smaller keyboards.

Available as a command-line tool or a web application.

• Draw keymap representations consisting of multiple layers, hold-tap keys and combos
  • Uses a human-editable YAML format for specifying the keymap
  • Non-adjacent or 3+ key combos can be visualized by specifying its positioning relative to the keys, with automatically drawn dendrons to keys
  • Alternatively, output a separate diagram per combo if you have tricky key position combinations
• Bootstrap the YAML representation by automatically parsing QMK or ZMK keymap files
• Arbitrary physical keyboard layouts (with rotated keys!) supported, along with parametrized ortho layouts
• Both parsing and drawing are customizable with a config file, see "Customization" section
• Custom glyph support: render custom svg icons and not just unicode text

See examples in the live web demo for example inputs and outputs.

Compared to to visual editors like KLE, keymap-drawer takes a more programmatic approach. It also decouples the physical keyboard layout from the keymap (i.e., layer and combo definitions) and provides the tooling to bootstrap it quickly from existing firmware configuration.

You can try the keymap parsing and drawing functionalities with a Streamlit web application available at https://caksoylar.github.io/keymap-drawer. Below instructions mostly apply for the web interface, where subcommands and option flags are mapped to different widgets in the UX.

The recommended way to install keymap-drawer is through pipx, which sets up an isolated environment and installs the application with a single command:

pipx install keymap-drawer

This will make the keymap command available in your PATH to use:

keymap --help

Alternatively, you can pip install keymap-drawer in a virtual environment or install into your user install directory with pip install --user keymap-drawer. See the development section for instructions to install from source.

keymap parse command helps to parse an existing QMK or ZMK keymap file into the keymap YAML representation the draw command uses to generate SVGs. -c/--columns is an optional parameter that specifies the total number of columns in the keymap to better reorganize output layers.

• QMK: Only json-format keymaps are supported, which can be exported from QMK Configurator, converted from keymap.c via qmk c2json, or from a VIA backup json via qmk via2json:

  # from keymap.c
  qmk c2json ~/qmk_firmware/keyboards/ferris/keymaps/username/keymap.c | keymap parse -c 10 -q - >sweep_keymap.yaml
  
  # from VIA backup
  qmk via2json -kb ferris/sweep sweep_via_backup.json | keymap parse -c 10 -q - >sweep_keymap.yaml

  Due to current limitations of the keymap.json format, combos and #define'd layer names will not be present in the parsing output. However you can manually specify layer names using the layer names parameter, e.g. keymap parse --layer-names Base Sym Nav ....

• ZMK: .keymap files are used for parsing. These will be preprocessed similar to the ZMK build system, so #define's and #includes will be expanded.

  keymap parse -c 10 -z ~/zmk-config/config/cradio.keymap >sweep_keymap.yaml

  Currently combos, hold-taps, mod-morphs, sticky keys and layer names can be determined via parsing. For layer names, the value of the label property will take precedence over the layer's node name if provided.

As an alternative to parsing, you can also check out the examples to find a layout similar to yours to use as a starting point.

While the parsing step aims to create a decent starting point, you will likely want to make certain tweaks to the produced keymap representation. Please refer to the keymap schema specification while making changes:

0. (If starting from a QMK keymap) Add combo definitions using key position indices.
1. Tweak the display form of parsed keys, e.g., replacing &bootloader with BOOT. (See the customization section to modify parser's behavior.)
2. If you have combos between non-adjacent keys or 3+ key positions, add align and/or offset properties in order to position them better
3. Add or modify type specifiers for certain keys, like "ghost" for keys optional to the layout

It might be beneficial to start by draw'ing the current representation and iterate over these changes, especially for tweaking combo positioning.

ℹ️ Preserving manual modifications

If you need to re-parse a firmware file after it was changed, you can provide the previous parse output that you tweaked to the parse command via keymap parse -b old_keymap.yaml ... >new_keymap.yaml and the tool will try to preserve your manual tweaks.

Final step is to produce the SVG representation using the keymap draw command. However to do that, we need to specify the physical layout of the keyboard, i.e., how many keys there are, where each key is positioned etc.

If you produced your keymap YAML through keymap parse, it will have tried to guess the proper layout in the layout field of your keymap. If you like you can tweak the field value according to the spec, then finally call the draw command:

keymap draw sweep_keymap.yaml >sweep_keymap.ortho.svg

And you are done! You can render the SVG on your browser or use a tool like CairoSVG or Inkscape to export to a different format.

ℹ️ Specifying layouts in the CLI

If you like you can override the layout specification on the command line. For instance you can provide a QMK keyboard name with -q/--qmk-keyboard and layout with -l/--qmk-layout, or an ortho layout with -o/--ortho-layout (using YAML syntax for the value). See keymap draw --help for details.

Both parsing and drawing can be customized using a configuration file passed to the keymap executable. This allows you to, for instance, change the default keycode-to-symbol mappings while parsing, or change font sizes, colors etc. while drawing the SVG.

Start by dumping the default configuration settings to a file:

keymap dump-config >my_config.yaml

Then, edit the file to change the settings, referring to CONFIGURATION.md. You can then pass this file to either draw and parse subcommands with the -c/--config argument (note the location before the subcommand):

keymap -c my_config.yaml parse [...] >my_keymap.yaml
keymap -c my_config.yaml draw [...] my_keymap.yaml >my_keymap.svg

Since configuration classes are Pydantic settings they can also be overridden by environment variables with a KEYMAP_ prefix:

KEYMAP_raw_binding_map='{"&bootloader": "BOOT"}' keymap parse -z zmk-config/config/cradio.keymap >cradio.yaml

Drawing parameters that are specified in the draw_config field can also be overridden in the keymap YAML.

Custom glyphs can be defined in the draw_config block of the keymap config. After a glyph is defined it can be used in key fields via the glyph name surrounded by $$, e.g. $$vol_up$$. The provided svg must specify a viewBox, positional or dimensional properties will be calculated by keymap-drawer. The height of the svg is bound by the config properties glyph_{tap,hold,shifted}_size and width will maintain the aspect ratio. To allow for customization, glyphs are assigned CSS classes glyph and <glyph_name>.

Example:

draw_config:
  # specify the size to bound the vertical dimension of your glyph, below are defaults
  glyph_tap_size: 14
  glyph_hold_size: 12
  glyph_shifted_size: 10
  glyphs: # mapping of glyph name to be used to svg definition
    vol_up: |
      <svg viewBox="2 3 34 33">
        <path style="stroke: black; fill: black;" d="M23.41,25.25a1,1,0,0,1-.54-1.85,6.21,6.21,0,0,0-.19-10.65,1,1,0,1,1,1-1.73,8.21,8.21,0,0,1,.24,14.06A1,1,0,0,1,23.41,25.25Z"/>
        <path style="stroke: black; fill: black;" d="M25.62,31.18a1,1,0,0,1-.45-1.89A12.44,12.44,0,0,0,25,6.89a1,1,0,1,1,.87-1.8,14.44,14.44,0,0,1,.24,26A1,1,0,0,1,25.62,31.18Z"/>
        <path style="stroke: black; fill: black;" d="M18.33,4,9.07,12h-6a1,1,0,0,0-1,1v9.92a1,1,0,0,0,1,1H8.88l9.46,8.24A1,1,0,0,0,20,31.43V4.72A1,1,0,0,0,18.33,4Z"/>
      </svg>
layers:
  Media:
    - ["", "$$vol_up$$", "", "", ""]

You can also use the $$source:id$$ notation for certain sources to automatically fetch the SVGs without having to define them manually in the glyphs field, e.g. $$tabler:volume$$. The following source values are currently supported:

• tabler: Tabler Icons (icon name as id)
• mdi: Pictogrammers Material Design Icons (icon name as id)
• mdil: Pictogrammers Material Design Icons Light (icon name as id)
• material: Google Material Symbols (use value in "Android" tab as id)

Fetched SVGs will be cached by default to speed up future runs.

If you use a ZMK config repo, you can set up an automated workflow that parses and draws your keymaps, then commits the YAML parse outputs and produced SVGs to your repo. To do that you can add a new workflow to your repo at .github/workflows/draw-keymaps.yml that refers to the reusable keymap-drawer workflow:

# Example for using the keymap-drawer ZMK user config workflow
name: Draw ZMK keymaps
on:
  workflow_dispatch:  # can be triggered manually
  push:               # automatically run on changes to following paths
    paths:
      - "config/*.keymap"
      - "config/*.dtsi"
      - "keymap_drawer.config.yaml"
      # - 'config/boards/*/*/*.keymap'

jobs:
  draw:
    uses: caksoylar/keymap-drawer/.github/workflows/draw-zmk.yml@main
    permissions:
      contents: write  # allow workflow to commit to the repo
    with:
      keymap_patterns: "config/*.keymap"        # path to the keymaps to parse
      config_path: "keymap_drawer.config.yaml"  # config file, ignored if not exists
      output_folder: "keymap-drawer"            # path to save produced SVG and keymap YAML files
      parse_args: ""  # map of extra args to pass to `keymap parse`, e.g. "corne:'-l Def Lwr Rse' cradio:''"
      draw_args: ""   # map of extra args to pass to `keymap draw`, e.g. "corne:'-k corne_rotated' cradio:'-k paroxysm'"

The workflow will add the generated SVG and keymap representation YAML files to the output_folder, and generate a new commit with commit message "keymap-drawer render" by default. You can modify this commit message with the commit_message input param, e.g.:

jobs:
  draw:
    uses: caksoylar/keymap-drawer/.github/workflows/draw-zmk.yml@main
    with:
      # Use the triggering commit's message, prepending the "[Draw]" tag
      commit_message: "[Draw] ${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}"
      # …other inputs

Alternatively, you can choose to amend the triggering commit instead of generating a new one by using the amend_commit: true option. In this case the triggering commit's message will be used by default, and the commit_message input will be ignored. E.g.:

jobs:
  draw:
    uses: caksoylar/keymap-drawer/.github/workflows/draw-zmk.yml@main
    with:
      amend_commit: true
      # …other inputs

⚠️ Rewriting history

You should understand the implications of rewriting history if you amend a commit that has already been published. See remarks in git-rebase documentation.

Below are a few example usages from the community that might be inspirational, whether they are doing unique things with styling, configuration or legends used, or integrate keymap-drawer into other workflows.

• minusfive's ZMK config: Uses an extensive config file for great results out of the automated drawing workflow, with plenty of SVG glyphs
• SethMilliken's Swept Corne config: Another config using the automated workflow with a nice configuration and SVG glyphs
• jbarr21's keymap-display: Uses a converter script to convert QMK keymap.c to a keymap YAML
• casuanoob's keymap: Many useful unicode and SVG glyphs in the keymap YAML
• possumvibes's keymap: Separate layer and combo diagrams
• infused-kim's ZMK config: Uses the --base-keymap feature to pre-assign held keys and combo positions
• crides's Fissure write-up: Custom physical layout with non-square keys and unique SVG styling

If you use keymap-drawer, tag your Github repo with the keymap-drawer topic and it will show up for anyone else searching for it!

This project requires Python 3.10+ and uses Poetry for packaging.

To get started, install Poetry, clone this repo, then install dependencies with the poetry command:

git clone https://github.com/caksoylar/keymap-drawer.git
cd keymap-drawer
poetry install  # --with dev,lsp optional dependencies

poetry shell will activate a virtual environment with the keymap_drawer module in Python path and keymap executable available. Changes you make in the source code will be reflected when using the module or the command.

If you prefer not to use Poetry, you can get an editable install with pip install --editable . inside the keymap-drawer folder.

The source code for the Streamlit app lives in the keymap-drawer-web repo.

• @nickcoutsos's ZMK keymap editor
• The original keymap
• @jbarr21's keymap parser
• @leiserfg's ZMK parser
• Keymapviz